Starting pitcher Vance leads the way for the Saints

Cheyenne Vance has loved softball for most of her life, playing it for the past 14 years.

And this spring, the sophomore is helping lead the Mt. Hood softball team. She’s one of two starting pitchers for the Saints, along with fellow sophomore Sammie Byron.

A right-hander, Vance has started nine of Mt. Hood’s 20 games this season and has an overall record of 6 wins, 3 losses, with one save, and a 3.58 ERA overall. She has struck out 27 batters and walked only seven.

Vance grew up in Troutdale and attended Reynolds High School. Her father, Norm, is a big reason she got into softball and still plays today, she said.

“I think I’ve always loved it but he helped me, like, keep playing it and just further that emotion I had for it,” Vance said, describing how her father has been one of the biggest supporters of her playing days.

“He always showed up to every practice, everything, he was always there. I think he’s the only person who hasn’t missed anything for softball,” she said. “He was definitely the biggest factor for my softball career.”

Norm Vance was always trying to do as much to help as he could and be as close to the action as possible, Cheyenne said.

“Even when I had a different head coach for a tournament he was always the assistant, so he was always there,” she said. She knew in high school that she wanted to play college softball and began to work toward that goal. So, she began to hang around the Mt. Hood powerhouse program. “I took, like, two years and I would come to any practices I could on my off-time in high school and stuff.”

Because of Vance’s dedication to the game, former Mt. Hood softball coach Meadow McWhorter gave her a scholarship to play for the Saints.

This year, because Vance knew McWhorter for so long, the Saints’ head coaching change was difficult for Vance, but she is happy about the new coach, Brittany Hendrickson. (McWhorter took the head coach job at Portland State University.)

“She has done super good at transitioning and adapting to it, she has been taking our traditions but putting her own little spin on it,” Vance said about Hendrickson. “I think it’s a good new change.”

The pitcher likes that while she’s playing, all other problems in the world are gone, she explains: “When I’m in the circle or I’m up to bat, I just feel like everything stopped, like it slows down the world, kind of.”

The bond that the Saints created early on between the players and the coaching staff last fall is helpful for all the players in different ways, Vance said. For herself, it has helped her be able to trust her team. “Knowing my team has my back and I can trust them is awesome,” she said.

Out on the field, Vance wants to help all her teammates improve. “If someone needs help I’ll help them, if I have an opinion on something and I feel like someone needs to know about it, then I’ll say it,” she said.

Although she’s a vocal person, she and her coach also describe her as someone who leads by example. Hendrickson said she admires Vance’s game and appreciates what she brings to the team.“She is always working 110 percent, she brings lots of passion for the game,” Hendrickson said.

That passion she has for the game comes out whenever she’s in the circle, teammate Makiah Johnson, shortstop for the Saints, said.

“When she’s pitching you can see the fire she has when she’s playing. There’s never a time when she shows the face of defeat,” Johnson said.

The Saints have gotten off to an 11-9 start overall, and stand 3-6 in the South Region, good for fifth place. They hope to ride their current two-game win streak on Saturday for a home doubleheader against Clark College, starting at noon.