Wimmer made the difference at Chichester
UPPER CHICHESTER — When Meghan Wimmer first picked up a softball and fired it to her dad Rich, something had clicked.
She knew that pitching was something she wanted to pursue.
At age 7, Wimmer just needed a little direction. She remembers the day everything changed, the moment she was put on the path to become one of the most accomplished softball pitchers Delaware County has ever known.
“When I was starting out in intramurals, really young, I would throw the ball like in a slingshot. I was pitching one day with my dad and an older gentleman comes over to me ‘ That’s not how you pitch!” Wimmer recalls. “It turned out to be Steve Medvid, who is the dad of Caitlyn Medvid, who played at Garnet Valley. He wanted me to come out and take his pitching lessons, so I went to MapleZone. He was the one who eventually got me into Chaos and the whole tournament softball thing.’
Wimmer worked her way up through intramurals and eventually tournament ball. She’s spent the last several years playing for Chaos, which is one of the top softball program in the Delaware Valley, under coach Joe Spina.
Wimmer has had great pitching coaches, beginning with Medvid all the way through to her current instructor, Christine Kendall, who was a standout at Garnet Valley and Shippensburg University. Wimmer credits Kendall for helping her fine-tune her mechanics.
By the time she got to Chichester as a freshman in 2012, Chichester coach Jamie Blumenthal touted Wimmer as the next big thing.
She wasn’t lying.
Earlier this month, after 70 career wins and 757 career strikeouts, both of which are PIAA Class AAA records, Wimmer reached the end. It felt like yesterday that she was a little kid throwing to her dad, having no real clue what she was doing just yet.
In her senior season, Wimmer won 22 games, the most in Delaware County since two-time Daily Times Player of the Year Nicole Zitarelli of Springfield won 24 in 1997. Zitarelli posted 68 career victories with the Cougars.
In 2015, Wimmer guided the Eagles to the District One championship for the second time in three years, she struck out an insane amount of hitters, and had the key RBI hit in extra innings to lift Chichester to its first state playoff win, a 1-0 decision over Lansdale Catholic.
Wimmer’s record-setting 2015 campaign resulted in Daily Times Player of the Year honors. She is the first softball player from Chichester to earn the newspaper’s top honor.
The rest of the All-Delco softball team, which is selected after consultation with local coaches, includes: Cardinal O’Hara’s Kaela Kane, Episcopal Academy’s Alex Viscusi and Taylor Long, Garnet Valley’s Reva Alderman and Sam Tomasetti, Marple Newtown’s Rylee Power, Ridley’s Leigh Ann Jenkins, Springfield’s Tori DePietro, Courtney Scarpato and Taylor Winkelman, and Upper Darby’s Sam Witmer.
Wimmer, Viscusi, Tomasetti, Power, DePietro, Scarpato and Winkelman are all repeat All-Delco selections.
With Wimmer on the mound, the Eagles captured back-to-back Del Val League titles. This year she posted a 22-3 record with a 0.92 ERA, 260 strikeouts, 11 shutouts and three perfect games.
At the plate, Wimmer batted .528/.611/.826 with 11 doubles, five triples and four homers. She drove in 21 runs and struck out six times in 96 plate appearances. Blumenthal said after the season-ending loss to Nanticoke in the second round of the PIAA Class AAA playoffs that there will never be another Wimmer at Chichester. It’s hard to argue.
When she was a freshman, Wimmer was a wide-eyed kid with visions of putting Chichester softball back on the map. Prior to her arrival, the Eagles had struggled to keep up with Interboro, which had dominated the Del Val for the better part of 15 years.
“I guess everyone knew that we were starting to get good. My seventh-grade year, we went undefeated in middle school,’ Wimmer said. “My freshman year, we came in and win our first six games. We had expectations.’
In her sophomore season, she led Chichester to its first District One title game. As a junior, Wimmer guided the Eagles to their first Del Val crown in 18 years.
“It was a maturity thing. I remember my first time playing Interboro, I didn’t understand how much of a rivalry it is … but I would start to really understand it as I got older,’ Wimmer said. “It took losing two Del Val titles to realize that we’re not going to walk in and win just because we have some good players on the team.’
Wimmer can boast about the individual accolades, but that’s not her style. What takes precedence, above all else, is the relationships she’s made with her teammates through the years, and winning games together. She put it best after the Eagles’ district semifinal win over Radnor, the day she broke the state record for most wins and strikeouts in a career: “It’s not a me thing, it’s a team thing.’
Wimmer’s next journey is college. She’ll head to presigitious Brown University in September and will be an Ivy League rookie next spring.
“We had a great year,’ she said. “We were one of the best teams in Chichester history for all sports, and that’s something we can all remember for a long time.’
