BIG BLAST — Weir High players greet Eliza Utt as she crosses home plate after blasting a three-run homer against North Marion on Wedneday, her second of the game in a 9-0 Red Riders win. - Andrew Grimm

WEIRTON — Sometimes it takes a team a little while to adjust their bats to live pitching when the season starts.

Not Weir High softball. The Red Riders have got their bats — and pretty much every other part of their game — going from the get go this season.

Weir, which is starting its season with seven games in six days, won the first three of which on consecutive days, each by the run rule, by a combined score of 36-6. The third of those victories was against regional foe North Marion, 9-0, Wednesday at Roberta “Birdie” DeFrancis Field.

“Fortunately we’ve been hitting the ball,” Weir High head coach John Leary said. “I’m just real pleased with the kids. Their attitudes have been great and they’ve been working hard and supporting each other.

“Everything so far has been going our way. We had a good winter and the kids worked a lot in the offseason in the cages and stuff. I think that’s an advantage kids have now, 30 years ago you didn’t do that, but now they get work in all year round. They come into the season, not starting from scratch, but ready to go.”

Eliza Utt, who had the day off from pitching, cranked a pair of homers, the second of which was a three-run bomb that put the score pat the threshold needed for an early end to the game. She finished with four RBIs Wednesday.

She is the second Red Rider to homer, as Rayna Hoover crushed one against Charleroi (Pa.) on Tuesday.

Kylie Dean had a double and a triple on Wednesday against the Huskies (2-3), her second multi-hit game in a row. Loganne Barton had two hits again against North Marion, giving her multiple hits in all three games. Five different players had an RBI.

In total, the Red Riders have racked up 37 hits through the first three games.

“All of our kids bought into our offseason program, all of them participated,” Leary said. “Basically, when we started practice, it’s not like it used to be, they came out having worked off the pitching machines and done all the hitting drills and it’s carried over into the start of our season. Everyone is hitting the ball, it’s not just one or two of them.”

Utt was the winning pitcher Monday and Tuesday, striking out a combined 17 batters in those games, and figures to once again be the team’s workhorse in the circle. But, there is depth behind her, as was displayed by Bella Weber tossing a one-hit shutout on Wednesday night.

Dean, one of the team’s catchers, can also pitch.

“It’s nice when we can give Eliza a day off from the circle, we were teasing her that if she’s gonna hit two homers a game when she’s not pitching maybe she won’t pitch,” Leary said with a chuckle. “Bella came in and did a good job. We’ve got three pitchers we can use and all three of them can throw strikes, and we have some catching depth, too. That’s a rare thing in high school softball.

“We’re going to need them with our schedule.”

Weir High 9, North Marion 0

NM 0-0-0 0-0 – 0 1 3

WH 0-4-1 4-x – 9 10 1

NORTH MARION (2-3):Satterfield (LP, 4IP, 9R, 6ER, 10H, 3K, 0BB) and Talkington. Singleton S.

WEIR HIGH (3-0): Weber (WP, CG, 0R, 1H, 3K, 2BB) and Dean. Utt 2HR, 4RBI; Lash T, RBI; Dean T, D; Barton D, S, RBI; Hoover S; Paladina S, RBI; Artman S, RBI.