James Wood wins a wild one over Skyline

March 30, 2012
By Mark Sawyer
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER- With three-time defending Northwestern District champion Sherando off to an 0-3 start in district play, the focus for first place falls squarely on the two teams that battled it out for the other Region II berth last year.

Thursday night James Wood and Skyline met for the first of what could very well be three regular season games with first place on the line.

Transportation problems caused the Hawks to arrive late and delayed the start of the game by about 20 minutes, but when the first pitch was finally thrown a wild game, that featured just about everything, broke out and ended the only way a wild game for first place could have - on a wild pitch in the final inning.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh in a 5-5 game, James Wood senior shortstop Morgan Sykes stood on third as Skyline attempted to intentionally walk Wood's sophomore pitcher Kierstyn Peacoe.

However, the first pitch to Peacoe skipped past Skyline catcher Tara Robinson and Sykes raced home with the winning run in the 6-5 victory and sole possession of first place. "This is a big game. It was for first place," James Wood coach Ted McDaniel said. "Skyline's a great team and (Sarah) Beamer is as good a pitcher as we have faced all season. We're not reading too much into this. We've still got nine games to play. We beat them the first game last year and they beat us the last two.

"We've still got a long way to go and we're not taking anybody lightly. We're going to take it one game at a time and one inning at a time. I felt pretty good coming into the bottom of the seventh. If we could just get Sykes on base, she's got good speed."

Sykes did indeed get on. Struggling through an 0-for-3 night, Sykes wiped that all from her mind and lined a shot just inside the left-field line for a one-out single.

Hayley Whitacre then attempted to lay down a sacrifice bunt but instead had a great at bat and worked a walk which allowed Rachael Largent to bunt both runners into scoring position and bring to the plate Peacoe, who was 3 for 3 with two RBIs and two runs scored.

Skyline coach Frank Nelson called timeout to discuss the situation with his team and instruct them to walk Peacoe and pitch to junior Charlotte Viands instead. Much to the dismay of the Hawks the first pitch to Peacoe was in the dirt and headed to the backstop, and Sykes did the rest.

"I told the girls before the game the team that made the fewest mistakes was going to win," McDaniel said. "We won because we were able to take advantage of their mistakes. We did so many small things right tonight and that's why we won. There's no recognition for small things, but they'll kill you if you don't do them."

Early on it was a pitching duel worthy of a first-place contest between Wood's Peacoe and Skyline junior Sarah Beamer as both pitchers were at the top of their games.

Unfortunately for the Hawks they couldn't say the same about their defense.

Four errors in the first four innings led directly to four unearned runs and spotted the Colonels a 4-0 lead.

James Wood (4-5, 3-0 Northwestern District) took advantage of two errors in the first inning to jump out to an early lead. With one out Whitacre reached on an error.

Largent then dropped down a sacrifice bunt but reached safely on a bad throw, allowing Whitaker to move to third. Largent then stole second and both runners scored when Peacoe ripped a double to the fence in right field.

Peacoe (4-4) retired 12 of the first 15 hitters she faced and didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning and only five total in the game. She went all seven innings, allowing five runs, three earned, and walking seven while striking out seven.

The Colonels added to their lead in the third inning, again with help from the Hawks. With one out Largent singled to center and Peacoe followed that with what appeared to be a harmless single to left. However, the ball got past the Skyline outfield, allowing Largent to score all the way from first and Peacoe to move to third. Viands then dropped down a perfect squeeze bunt that easily scored Peacoe for a 4-0 lead.

Just like its transportation issues Skyline (2-3, 2-1) had problems getting its offense started, but once it got it in gear it was tough to get out.

It took the Hawks util the sixth to finally erase the zero off the scoreboard, and it took help from the Colonels to do that.

Skyline first baseman Valerie Hindley reached on an error to start the inning and clean-up hitter Sabrie Neeb followed with a walk. Peacoe then got the next two hitters to fly out and looked as if she may get out of the jam with no damage done.

After a Peacoe wild pitch put two runners in scoring position the Hawks got on the board when Lauren Moore lined a single to right scoring both Hindley and Neeb to cut the lead in half, 4-2.

An insurance run in the sixth inning pushed the lead to 5-2, but just three outs from defeat the Skyline bats finally came to life and it did so in a big way.

Things could not have started any worse for the Colonels in the seventh when Peacoe walked nine-hole hitter Hannah Ritter to start the inning. Beamer then rocketed a shot off the center-field fence for a double, scoring Ritter to trim the lead to two.

Allison Funk followed by hitting a shot just as hard to left for another double, this one scoring Beamer to make it 5-4. Hindley walked and both runners moved into scoring position on a wild pitch with Neeb at the plate.

Neeb then hit what may have been the hardest ball hit in the inning, to the deepest part of center field.

At first glance it looked as if it was going to be a game changing three-run home run, but it drilled the fence for the third double in four hitters.

However, Hindley didn't get a good read on the ball or the outfielders and instead of scoring easily she tagged and was only able to get to third, leaving the game tied 5-5.

Peacoe got the next hitter to pop out to the infield, bringing to the plate Robinson and the defensive play of the game.

Robinson lofted a shallow fly ball to left which Higgins easily caught and fired home to cut down Hindley - who had tagged and was trying to score - for an inning-ending double play.

"Tough way to lose," Nelson said. "It's early on. We get these guys two more times, we get everyone two more times. It's up to the girls to see how they respond to this. We're going to be in the thick of it. I thought James Wood maybe took it a little bit more seriously then we did at the start. I think we wait for that big inning and sometimes you wait to long for it to come and it never shows up.

"It's going to be a good district this year. The girls just have to regroup and go on from there."

Peacoe led the way for the Colonels at the plate, collecting three of their six hits. She doubled, drove in two runs and scored twice. Largent also scored twice.

Beamer had two of Skyline's five hits. She had a double, an RBI, and scored a run. Neeb had a double, RBI, and scored a run and Moore had two RBIs for the Hawks.