NORWICH — Hanover High softball coach Megan Sobel kisses the game ball before handing it to pitcher Jessie Lobb at the start of each Bears contest. Friday, however, it was Lebanon High hurler Ava Kaercher who best handled the orb, striking out 16 batters to lead the Raiders to a 14-5 defeat of their NHIAA Division II foes.

Lobb, a Hanover junior, struck out 10 batters herself. However, she surrendered 10 hits and eight walks, while Kaercher, a freshman transfer from Tucson, Ariz., allowed five hits and no free passes.

The daughter of former Hartford High basketball player and 1998 graduate Erica (Menduni) Kaercher, the Raiders’ catalyst also had three hits, including a home run, and three RBIs.

Lebanon, now 2-3, has equaled last season’s victory total, when it toiled in NHIAA Division III. The Raiders, who entered the current campaign having won 10 games since 2017, were allowed to petition down for three seasons before being returned this season to Division II. Hanover is 0-4.

Lebanon scored twice during the first inning and four times each during the second and third frames. The visitors struck three more times during the sixth. Hanover managed a combined three runs during its final two at-bats.

The Raiders received two hits, including a double, and two RBIs from Aylah Salls and a triple from Rya Wykes. Emma Allen had two hits and an RBI.

Hanover’s Lily Smith had two hits and an RBI and added a hit and an RBI from Bella Hunt. Lobb was charged with nine wild pitches.

Kaercher’s arrival was an answered prayer for Lebanon, which has lacked an effective pitcher for the last decade. Perhaps more than any other team sport, softball is built around that one, crucial position and now the Raiders have a young, rising star.

“She’s super humble and extremely coachable, and she’s built the confidence of our whole team,” said second-year Lebanon coach Bethany Robinson, who will step down at season’s end to continue her education. “They feel they have someone to keep them competitive. Your fielders aren’t out there slumping and getting cold because of long innings.”

Erica and Matt Kaercher met in Florida when the Air Force Academy graduate was playing for a Boston Red Sox minor league team. However, the military soon revoked a service exemption for professional athletes, and Matt instead finished flight school. He retired last year as a lieutenant colonel, and the family resettled in the Upper Valley to be near Erica’s parents.

Ava Kaercher began playing softball in Alabama at age seven and continued in Arizona, where her father estimated she competed virtually year-round. In New Hampshire, she plays more competitive club ball with the New Hampshire Lightning through the summer and fall and suits up for Lebanon basketball during the winter.

“It’s a lot different, and I miss playing (in Arizona), but I still go all out and it’s still fun,” said Ava Kaercher, who throws a fastball, curve, rise ball and changeup.

Lebanon and Hanover lack strong youth softball programs, so the high school teams often battle low numbers and must use players new to the sport.

Robinson discussed several rules situations in her team’s postgame huddle, and Sobel, Hanover’s athletic director and first-year softball coach, sent her players daily videos on individual rules during the preseason. Both teams are unsure on the bases.

“We need to get aggressive with our leads and not being scared of someone throwing the ball at you or being tagged out,” Robinson said. “Some of that comes with game experience, and we have a lot of green players.”

Said Sobel, who played the sport in college: “We had kids a week or two ago who didn’t know you could catch a foul ball for an out. We’re starting at a low level, but we have some super-competitive kids who hate losing and for whom it’s frustrating.

“It’s hard to stay positive when you haven’t won a game and you’re dealing with social stuff at school involving teams that are winning.”

The Bears’ and Raiders’ few experienced players mean lineup juggling for the coaches. An example is Lebanon senior Ashlee Blashock, who’s a standout field hockey goaltender and overall athlete. She began the season at shortstop before moving to catcher Friday after her team’s yearslong problem stopping pitches from reaching the backstop continued.

The shift meant the Raiders had new starters at shortstop and third base against Hanover, which is breaking in a novice first baseman. Comprehension occurs literally with every pitch for these archrivals.

“We have four games next week, and one of our girls asked how we were going to handle having no practices,” Sobel said. “Well, we’re going to learn during the games, because that’s what we have to do.”

Notes: Several players on the field were children of former Hanover or Lebanon athletes. They include Bella Hunt, whose father, Josh, played soccer and lacrosse at Hanover; Lebanon’s Savannah Therriault, daughter of onetime Raiders softball player Brooke Therriault; and Lebanon’s Olivia Pollard, whose father, Chris, played golf and ice hockey at their shared school. Olivia Pollard’s mother, Cindy Pressey, played softball at Hanover. … Both teams have new batting cages at their home fields this season. … The contest’s final out occurred when a Hanover runner crossed the plate — in the air. She proceeded to the home dugout. After an alert Lebanon reserve objected, the Raiders successfully appealed to the home plate umpire, who had not yet made a call. … Sobel was previously Dartmouth College’s top female athletic administrator. She’s a graduate of Santa Ana High, the oldest and largest high school (enrollment, 3,100) in Orange County, Calif., southeast of Los Angeles. Fellow graduates include Clifford “Gavvy” Cravath, a six-time National League home run champion from the 1910s; Olympic diver Greg Louganis; and Academy Award-winning actress Diane Keaton.

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.

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