Senior Haley Wilkerson gives Whiteland a powerful bat in the middle of the lineup.
Daily Journal file photo
A little less than a year ago, Haley Wilkerson was engaged in some weekend four-wheeling with some of her Whiteland softball teammates.
Wilkerson is a catcher; she’s been involved in her share of collisions at home plate. But run-ins with stationary objects tend to be a little less forgiving than those with 130-pound teenage baserunners. Her vehicle ran into someone else’s and …
“I kind of ate a pole,” Wilkerson said. “They don’t taste real well.”
Six teeth gone, replaced with implants. Full recovery is still a work in progress; another surgery is slated for May 31.
If Wilkerson and the Warriors keep playing the way they have been, something might have to get rescheduled — the 31st is also the date of the Class 4A regional, and Whiteland has to like its chances of being there.
The team’s tough-as-nails backstop is one of the primary reasons why.
Wilkerson has been a key figure in the Whiteland lineup since her freshman year, when she batted .398 with 21 runs batted in. She was on track to post similar numbers last spring, and the Warriors were on a seven-game win streak, when the aforementioned accident ended Wilkerson’s season.
Whiteland was 8-3 at the time, with two of those losses to eventual sectional champions Center Grove (by one run) and Columbus North. Without Wilkerson the rest of the way, the Warriors went 7-7.
Needless to say, Whiteland is glad to have its backbone back in the lineup.
“She loves playing ball, so we are happy to have her back,” Warriors coach Katie Mitchell said. “She probably views each game a little bit differently now, and we try to soak it all in together.”
Wilkerson is quickly making up for lost time. She delivered a game-winning two-run double in the Warriors’ season-opening victory over Center Grove, and she added a homer and five RBIs two days later in a rout of Edinburgh.
Just as important as the plate production, though, is Wilkerson’s impact behind the plate. She threw out a pair of would-be base stealers in the win over the Trojans, sending a reminder to future opponents that they run against Whiteland at their own risk.
“She’s fierce back there and quick and has an arm,” Mitchell said, “and so we rely on that a lot when they have speed, when we face a team like (Center Grove) who has multiple runners that can steal bases.”
Wilkerson didn’t particularly enjoy missing more than half of last season, especially after losing her sophomore year to a pandemic. But she notes that the time on the sideline taught her to become more of a team player, and she’s making it a point to put those lessons to use for a squad that had already become quite close-knit.
“We created a bond my freshman year and just have kept growing and growing,” said Wilkerson, who credits 2021 grads Jordan Smith and Macy Cornelius for helping to foster the current environment. “We’re like a family now; we know what everyone’s going through, our struggles, and it portrays on the field. We have each other’s backs, and it’s just going to be a really good season.”
The recovery process has been a little bit easier for Wilkerson because she didn’t have the pressure of trying to impress college coaches. Long ago committed to Southern Illinois — where she’ll eventually team with former county foes Alexis Rudd of Center Grove and Erin Lee of Franklin — Wilkerson was able to focus on getting better at her own pace, knowing that her softball future was secure.
“My coaches were very welcoming, and they knew what was going on,” she said. “If I wasn’t committed yet, it would have been really hard trying to show myself when I wasn’t able to.”
Now that she is able to, Whiteland is firing on all cylinders. The team is 4-0 going into today’s game against New Albany, and Wilkerson is batting .333 with two homers, two doubles and 13 runs batted in — a figure that ranks in the state’s top 10 despite her playing half as many games as many of the other players above her.
If the Warriors keep it up, Wilkerson might have to adjust the date of that next surgery. Chances are she wouldn’t mind.
