Foxes Aim to Turn Momentum Into Title

 

Excitement – and tons of it – surrounds Fox Chapel Area softball in 2026. 

It's an excitement generated when the Foxes upset Franklin Regional, 4-0, in the opening round of the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs in 2025 – a 12th seed beating a No. 5 seed.

It’s an excitement that continues to this day for a team that returns key members from last year’s 14-7 team.

It’s an excitement that gets a jolt from talented freshmen joining the roster for this year’s team, the second helmed by head coach Larry Troutman. 

“There’s definitely a lot of excitement, but we’re still in a tough, tough section,” coach Troutman said.  

There are plenty of other reasons for optimism, as well as any other positive emotion that one might use. 

The Foxes won the Hampton Tournament in the fall and did quite well in the round-robins at a tournament at Deer Lakes. 

“That just continued to build the excitement coming into the spring,” coach Troutman said. “It builds the team and makes continuity. It gets everybody together and builds the team a little bit more. It gives us a step up. We get to see what we have and what we think the positions will be going into the spring. There’s not a lot of guesswork. It’s a lot easier to figure out.”     

Another reason for all this optimism about coach Troutman is the buy-in he's seen from his team.

“We had a really good commitment to conditioning in the offseason,” the coach said. “We probably had 10 girls who participated in over 20 sessions. We were pretty happy about that.” 

There’s still yet another reason for excitement. Coach Troutman may only be in his second year as coach, but he has been around the program in one way or another for the better part of a decade. He is blessed with more depth in the program than any he has seen during that time.  

“We’ve got a lot of depth this year,” coach Troutman said. “This is the most depth I’ve seen from high school all the way down to the middle school in quite some time. We return 10 lettermen and two all-section girls.” 

Those all-section girls would be juniors Jillian Haigh, a first-team Big 56 all-section selection in 2025, and Ella Eisner, a second-team selection.

Jillian is expected to be one of three pitchers for the Foxes this season, along with two talented freshmen, Izzy Zober and Lexi Stabile. Each brings a different and unique set of skills to the pitching circle.

“Lexi throws hard,” coach Troutman said. “I think she’s been clocked at 66 miles an hour. She’s good. We would deem her more of a speed pitcher. She does have some spin and some offspeed pitches, which really causes the batters to guess a lot. Jillian throws hard as well, has a good screwball, works in on the hands really well, and gets soft contact, ground balls, and popups. Izzy is more of a spin girl. She’s got a variety of different pitches and spins the ball really well. We feel like we have the luxury of three really good, and really different, pitchers this year.”       

Jillian also will be counted on to provide offense – something she did quite a bit of in 2025, posting the eighth-best batting average in the WPIAL. She will play shortstop when she is not pitching.

The three seniors on the roster – Bailey Mack, Ava Walmsley, and Summer Burkhart – are expected to be contributors. Bailey will play left field and second base, Ava will catch and play first base, and Summer will play right field. 

Ella will man the cleanup spot and is slotted at third base. 

Sophomore Giuliana Foley returns to the lineup after missing time in 2025 due to an injury. Coach Troutman said Giuliana will bat leadoff and split time between catcher and outfield.

Junior Heidi Stiger was the Foxes’ first baseman in 2025, but she will shift to center field this season. 

Two other talented freshmen are joining the team – Bella Geller and Rian Starz. Bella, who will play second base, joins the Foxes fresh from completing a season on the Fox Chapel Area basketball team.

The Foxes once again will play in the extremely competitive WPIAL Class 5A Section 1, along with defending WPIAL champion Shaler Area, as well as Mars Area, New Castle, Penn Hills, Plum, and North Hills, which defeated the Foxes in the WPIAL playoffs in 2025.

Now, the Foxes must turn all of this excitement into success. 

“I think we have the pitching, and I think we have a very strong batting lineup,” coach Troutman said. “The key factor is we just have to hit the ball and put runs on the board. Our pitching should keep everything close.”