Why Seneca Valley’s Lexie and Marlesse Hames hope softball journey lasts just a little bit longer
With her time starring for Seneca Valley hurdling toward its conclusion, Lexie Hames is taking things step-by-step.
Last summer, her and her mother, Marlesse, took it mile-by-mile.
A whole lot of them.
The two lived a nomadic, softball-centered lifestyle, traversing the country for Lexie’s travel ball engagements. When on the road — they flew to Colorado, California and Texas — they turned the stereo up and sang along. Their driving trips spanned as much as 16 or 17 hours to Florida.
“Last summer, we played for Carolina Elite and we were home maybe 11 or 12 days,” said Marlesse, who’s also the Raiders’ coach.
Lexie, a Clemson commit, didn’t even bother unpacking her suitcase at times. If she did, she’d become such an expert that she’d throw together what she needed in 5-10 minutes, not long before leaving.
On what would’ve been her weekends off, Lexie practiced with the United States’ 18U Women’s National Team in Oklahoma.
“She didn’t get any time off,” Marlesse said. “Usually, they get a weekend here or there, but last summer was a little bit tough because she just really went to one tournament ... to another tournament.”
The Hameses found some down time in Colorado and California. Lexie said she always had an eye out for lookout spots in the Rockies. She detailed days shopping and going to a Mexican cafe in Huntington Beach, as well as visiting the Santa Monica Pier.
Lexie never tired of the constant softball grind.
“The thing is, those girls on my travel team are truly my best friends,” Lexie said. “People may look it as, ‘Oh, you’re only home for 12 or 11 days.’ But I get to go and travel the country with my best friends ... and I get to play softball, the thing I love the most.
“If I didn’t play on these teams and I didn’t travel the way I do, I don’t think I’d ever travel to these places I’m going to or experience Colorado or California. I don’t think we’d just pack up the whole family and head to California on a whim.”
“We listen to Lex. When she says she needs a little break, we try to give her some time off,” Marlesse said. “On those days that she’s home, it’s non-softball-related things. She gets to be a teenager. ... Once she was done traveling in December with USA and her travel team in the fall, she (took) about six weeks off.”
Seneca Valley (14-2, 12-2 in WPIAL Section 1-6A) sits near the top of their section. The Raiders have won six in a row, including a 5-0 win over Canon-McMillan last Wednesday in which Lexie tossed an 18-strikeout no-hitter.
Lexie is 13-1, posting a 0.60 ERA in 82 innings in the circle. She has 203 strikeouts and has allowed seven earned runs. She has her sights set on 1,000 career strikeouts and was approximately 109 away as of Thursday.
“We’ll have to make a pretty deep run, I feel like, in postseason to hit that,” Lexie said. “Big goal, but I have no doubt in my mind that we will make a deep run.”
Lexie also wants to repeat as Pennsylvania’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
An elusive PIAA crown is on the Raiders’ mind as a whole, but with room enough for only one WPIAL Class 6A team to reach the state bracket, they have to remain in the moment.
“We just have to take it day-by-day, game-by-game, practice-by-practice, all that kind of stuff,” Lexie said. “Just working hard, making the most of each rep, each at-bat, each pitch I get to throw, each ground ball hit to us. ... You could have one bad inning and then you’re not really coming back from it in that kind of scenario.”
The Hameses hope their journey — at least in the way they’ve known it — ends in Happy Valley with a state title victory. The mother and daughter have at most a month and a half remaining as a coach-player duo.
“It runs through my mind a lot, then I shed some tears, and then I try to get past that,” Marlesse Hames said. “Just cross that bridge when it happens. Hopefully it’s at the state level. It is going to be really hard. ... I’ve coached her since she’s been about 6.”
