BOONE \u2014 The future is starting to look bright for the Watauga softball team.<\/p>\n
That was evident in its record-setting performance this past spring, which featured 14 victories and a North Carolina High School Athletic Association playoff win for the first time since 2007.<\/p>\n
The recent North Carolina Softball Coaches Association\u2019s All-District team for the 2026 season was also reflective of that as six Lady Pioneers were selected to the 6A team for District 7.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Watauga right fielder Roxie Elrod tracks down a fly ball as center fielder Charlotte Moretz looks on during third inning of Tuesday night\u2019s nonconference contest.<\/p>\n
Photo by Zach Colburn<\/p>\n
And each of them could be slated to return next spring as Watauga did not have a senior on its roster.<\/p>\n
All six players \u2014 Savana Costner, Sierra Costner, Roxie Elrod, Addison Moody, Charlotte Moretz and Presli Wood \u2014 are first-time all-district selections.<\/p>\n
With the selections, 18 Watauga softball players have been named all-district in the program\u2019s history. The six selections also set a new program record, eclipsing the previous best of four, set in 2010 and 2 years ago.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2004, the NCSCA began issuing all-state awards in 2005 while all-district awards began in 2007.<\/p>\n
Since its inception, Watauga has had 21 all-district selections, counting this year\u2019s.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Charlotte Moretz, Watauga\u2019s centerfielder, homered in the fifth inning to give the Lady Pioneers a two-run advantage.<\/p>\n
Photo by Zach Colburn<\/p>\n
All-District 7 comprises schools from all classifications in the following counties \u2014 Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Davie, Iredell, Surry, Watauga, Wilkes and Yadkin.<\/p>\n
The NCSCA announced its All-State teams on Monday afternoon. No Lady Pioneers were selected to the All-State team for 6A.<\/p>\n
Of Watauga\u2019s six selections, three of them \u2014 Moody, Savana Costner and Sierra Costner \u2014 were freshmen.<\/p>\n
Moody, who along with Moretz and Wood were All-Northwestern 6A\/7A Conference selections, batted .308 with a run batted in and four hits in 13 at-bats.<\/p>\n
But the ninth-grader\u2019s best work came inside the pitcher\u2019s circle, where she won 12 games and set the program record for strikeouts in a season with 125.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Watauga\u2019s Sierra Costner reached base twice during Thursday\u2019s semifinal.<\/p>\n
Photo by Zach Colburn<\/p>\n
Moody allowed 64 earned runs (and 26 walks) in 130 1\/3 innings pitched to finish with a 3.44 earned run average.<\/p>\n
Sierra Costner served as the table setter for the Lady Pioneers. Batting leadoff, Costner hit .295 with 26 hits and 11 RBIs. While primarily playing shortstop, she also stole 12 bases and scored 26 times.<\/p>\n
Costner also saw time pitching this spring and went 1-0 in four appearances.<\/p>\n
Starting the season on JV, Savana Costner worked her way into the varsity starting lineup and became a regular at third base.<\/p>\n
In 18 games, Costner batted .364 with 16 hits in 44 at-bats and drove in seven runs. She also made a pair of appearances in the pitcher\u2019s circle.<\/p>\n
Wood, who missed a couple of games early in the season due to the deep playoff run from Watauga\u2019s girls basketball team, made up for that with a .431 batting average.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Savana Costner, Watauga\u2019s third baseman, drives in a run with a single in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n
Photo by Zach Colburn<\/p>\n
The junior second baseman finished with a team-best 28 hits (including eight doubles) and was second on the team in RBIs with 20.<\/p>\n
Moretz, who held down center field for the Lady Pioneers, was one of eight players to bat .300 or better as the junior hit .329 with team-bests in both home runs (five) and RBIs (23).<\/p>\n
She was also third on the team in hits with 24 and scored 25 times.<\/p>\n
Elrod, Moretz\u2019 outfield neighbor at right field, batted .310 and finished with 22 hits and 12 RBIs.<\/p>\n
The junior was also tied with Sierra Costner in runs scored with 26.<\/p>\n
In addition to the Lady Pioneers, five of the six NWC 6A\/7A schools had at least one All-District player, with Freedom, Alexander Central and South Caldwell in All-District 7 for 6A. McDowell was a part of All-District 8 for 7A.<\/p>\n
The conference had 14 all-state selections.<\/p>\n
South Caldwell, which had five all-state 6A selections (Alexander Central had three selections and Freedom had two), also had the 4A-West Co-Player of the Years in Kensley Davis and McCartney Harrington for the Lady Cougars and Lady Spartans, respectively.<\/p>\n
McDowell had four named to the All-State team for 7A.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Watauga\u2019s Presli Wood connects on an RBI single during the Lady Pioneers\u2019 five-run fifth inning.<\/p>\n
Photo by Zach Colburn<\/p>\n
Other All-District Northwestern 6A\/7A Conference Selections for District 7<\/p>\n
Alexander Central (6A)<\/p>\n
Alyssa Chapman, Kensley Davis (All-District 7 6A Co-Player of the Year, All-State, 6A-West Co-Player of the Year), Ava Hamby, Kyla Hamby (All-State), Jenna Mason (All-State), Lyla Mayberry<\/p>\n
Freedom (6A)<\/p>\n
Rhiley Buchanan (All-State), Abigayle Gibson (All-State), Madelyn LeMaster, Kaylee Skinner<\/p>\n
South Caldwell (6A)<\/p>\n
McCartney Harrington (All-District 7 6A Co-Player of the Year, All-State, 6A-West Co-Player of the Year), Casey Justice, Maddy Moore (All-District 7 6A Pitcher of the Year, All-State), Bella Smith, Tempe Trviette, Holland Weisner (All-State), Alexis Whisnant, Mallory Winebarger (All-State), Carlie Yount, McKenna Yount<\/p>\n
Northwestern 6A\/7A Conference All-District Selections for District 8<\/p>\n
McDowell (7A)<\/p>\n
Hannah Aldridge (All-State), Kaelyn Caldwell (All-State), Samantha Davis, Derika Lytle, Layla Presnell (All-State), Addison Ray, Presley Young (All-State)<\/p>\n
Previous All-District softball selections from Watauga<\/p>\n
2025 \u2014 Chloe Wilson (All-State)<\/p>\n
2025 \u2014 Jordin Greene<\/p>\n
2025 \u2014 Julie Matheson<\/p>\n
2024 \u2014 Chloe Wilson (All-State)<\/p>\n
2024 \u2014 Jordin Greene<\/p>\n
2024 \u2014 Katie Matheson<\/p>\n
2024 \u2014 Kara Brooks<\/p>\n
2010 \u2014 Carolina Yates<\/p>\n
2010 \u2014 Kelsey Rominger<\/p>\n
2010 \u2014 Shelby Drummonds (All-State)<\/p>\n
2010 \u2014 Taylor Drummonds<\/p>\n
2009 \u2014 Chandler Butler<\/p>\n
2008 \u2014 Nicole Reilly<\/p>\n
2008 \u2014 Chandler Butler<\/p>\n
2008 \u2014 Beth Wilson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOONE \u2014 The future is starting to look bright for the Watauga softball team. That was evident in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2323,2314,2317,2313,2413,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,2358,1210,92526,1039],"class_list":["post-746318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-events","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-games","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-champion-seasons-in-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-north-carolina","tag-softball","tag-watauga-county","tag-world-series"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116884278056741857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}