By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
DAYTON, Ore.– Dayton’s Charly Upmeyer was named 3A Pitcher of the Year last year as the then-sophomore helped the Pirates reach the 3A State Finals for the first time since 2018-2019 season.
It was part of the dream, the now-junior said, as her and the three-headed monster they have at pitching in her, Gabby Chupp and Racehl Baumholtz all return for Dayton.
“”It’s so surreal, it’s something I’ve been working towards for ten-plus years. A lot of dreams came true,” Upmeyer said. “Last year was a great step towards what we can do if we put our mind to it and having that core back.”
The standard and expectations have always been high for the Dayton Softball program thanks to their strong tradition, and entering this year is no different. They’ll have their hands full trying to replace for crucial seniors from that squad last year, but Dayton Head Coach Frank Baumholtz is confident that they have the pieces to fill those gaps as they start the first week of practices this week.
“We got the right pieces, we just got to figure out where to put them now….I feel like we have a lot of pieces, but the girls still have to go out and perform. We’ve built a tough non-league schedule to see where we are at, but I feel like we have a lot of good pieces coming back, we’ll be very competitive,” Baumholtz said.
Baumholtz spoke highly of his returning core entering this season.
“They had really good years last year.,” he said of his pitchers. “Sophie’s (Sweenet) back behind the plate. Lou (Auvil) was a first-team All-State infielder last year. Our infield is returning, we just got to figure out what the best options are and put kids in the right places. We talked about yesterday, we put kids where the team needs them and it may not be their primary position….and that’s what we ask of the girls is be a team player and be a good teammate and do whatever the team needs of you to be successful.”
And they’ll be tested right off the bat with their schedule. A good measuring stick for what they’re hoping is a return trip to The Jane in Eugene for the State Championship game in June.
They open the season with South Umpqua, Banks and Cascade before heading to Palm Springs for Spring Break for a trio of games. Kennedy, Scappoose, Harrisburg and Astoria are also on their non-league slate around their league games as they look to grow and improve as they go.
They live by the motto of ” Make it count”. Every day they’re on the field, they treat it like it’s Game Day and prepare that way. It worked last year when they reached the 3A State Championship Game, finishing Runner-Up to League rival Scio and they’re expecting to do the same this year.
“It’s going to be a good look, a good tester for how well we’ll work together as a team and it’ll be a good opening to see how far we’ve come as a team,” Upmeyer says of their schedule. “We’re going to be level-headed. We’re not going to come in with hot heads, so we’re going to stay level-headed and have as much energy as we can.”
Dayton will host South Umpqua on March 16 before traveling to Banks on March 18.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
