Vicenza senior Rielyn Casper unwinds a pitch in one game of a softball doubleheader against Hohenfels on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Caserma Del Din. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
VICENZA, Italy — It was a bitter-sweet final home game for the four senior Vicenza players Saturday, as Hohenfels dealt the Cougars their first loss of the season, while notching the Tiger’s first win, in the second game of doubleheader at Caserma Del Din.
After clobbering Hohenfels 24-1 in two and a half innings of play the first game, Vicenza celebrated the seniors in a ceremony featuring balloons arches, flowers and gift bags. Meanwhile, the Tigers were shaking off the loss and readying to come back for a 14-2 victory.
It wasn’t just the first loss of the season for the Cougars, bringing them to 7-1, it’s only their second “L” since the start of their championship season last year, said Cougars’ coach Osvaldo Garcia Carrillo.
“We’re the best offensive team in the league, but this week we were not able to adjust and compete,” Carrillo said. “Other teams are going to adjust to us. … We have a big target on our backs.”
In the first game, Vicenza fielded its starters, but Carrillo said he put out a different mix in the later matchup to try to make it more competitive and to give sophomore Megan Becker time on the mound to season her to be the team’s starter next year.
“She has two W’s right now in the season and I told her, this is a good experience for you to come up on the mound and try to learn the craft and perfect the craft,” he said.
Becker struggled to find a groove and seemed shaken by a few plays, but she said she’s confident she’ll get better with more experience this season. She and her teammates are trying not to take the loss too hard.
“We’ve got to move forward, focus on the next game, and just do us,” Becker said.
Vicenza sophomore Megan Becker throws a pitch during a doubleheader against Hohenfels in Department of Defense Education Activity softball action, Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Caserma Del Din. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
Vicenza's Nala Herron, a senior, smiles at her first base coach after a base hit during the Couger's last home game in a doubleheader against Hohenfels at Caserma Del Din, Saturday, April 18, 2026. Herron went four for four in the first game and one for three in the second. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
Hohenfels pitcher Tyleigh Shamoon tags Vicenza’s Isabell Green out in a play at home plate to keep the Cougars to two runs in the second game of a softball doubleheader in which the Tigers dealt the reigning Department of Defense Education Activity Division II Europe champs their first loss of the season Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Caserma Del Din. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
Vicenza senior Hannah Findlay embraces senior Katherine Green during a “Senior Night” ceremony between two games of a softball doubleheader against Hohenfels, Vicenza’s last home games of the season, Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Caserma Del Din. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
Likewise, Hohenfels coach Stephanie Schnabel said she told her players to move on and reset after taking it on the chin, too.
“That’s our motto,” she said. “When things don’t work out the way we want them to, we just reset.”
The young Tigers team, now 1-5 for the season, has few players with more than a season or two on the field, she said, and even those returning from last season have only logged about sixteen weeks of experience.
Leading them to the season’s first win were two of the more seasoned veterans: senior Tyleigh Shamoon on the mound and junior Evie Chernock behind the plate.
The loss “motivated me to work harder,” said Shamoon, who threw nine strikeouts over five innings in the second game. Chernock agreed.
“We were fired up,” she said. “My pitcher was really ready to get on that mound and start pitching, I was really ready to start catching, and we really wanted to hit.”
After going one hit in two at bats at the top of the batting order in the early game, Chernock went four for four in the second, earning a single, a double, and two walks, and touching home each time she got on base.
While Vicenza cycled through the batting order two full times in the first outing, racking up 14 runs in the process, they came out looking flat-footed in at the plate early in the second.
Senior Katherine Green managed to steal her way around the bases after getting hit by a pitch in the second inning. But, other than Kayden Parmelee converting a walk into a run in the third inning, the Cougars struggled to get on base or, when they did, to cross home plate.
In a heads-up play, Shamoon tagged Vicenza’s Isabell Green at the plate in the fifth inning to keep her from scoring.
The pitcher and catcher “was a really good, lethal combination today,” Carillo said.
Nala Herron, one of his team’s leaders on offense, went four for four against Hohenfels pitcher Lana Tatam in the first game, but said it was “just hard to adjust” to a pitcher like Shamoon “with nice rotation, good consistency.”
“She struck me out one good time,” said Herron, who got one base hit in her second at-bat against Shamoon and was caught out on a fly her third. “I was trying my best to adjust.”
Both teams face-off against Division I teams next week, with Vicenza traveling to Kaiserslautern and Hohenfels at Wiesbaden, where Chernock hopes they can keep their winning momentum.
“I’m excited to come out firing, just like we did with the champs of last year,” she said.
