Softball vs Sherando

April 27, 2012
By Greg Brill

Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Sherando pitcher Courtney Reid was pretty comfortable in the circle on Thursday night.

For once in a game with Northwestern District rival James Wood, Reid did not have to be perfect on most every pitch.

The fact that the junior gave up three early runs did not bother her one bit. For Reid, it was all about pitching with confidence and finishing the late innings strong.

The Warriors were primed and ready to win the season series against the Colonels and move a game closer to second-place James Wood by hitting up and down the lineup and making it a tough night for Colonel ace Keirstyn Peacoe.

Sherando did just that, scoring in all but one inning and coming away with an 8-3 win at Ridge Field. “There wasn’t a relaxed moment in the game,” Sherando coach Clarence Smith said. “We respect them and know they are a formidable opponent.

“The big thing we’ve talked about is having a little balance [offensively]. If we’re swinging like we did tonight, I think we can play with anybody. Tonight was one of those nights.”

Sherando, which has won seven of its last nine, collected 11 hits, with four going for extra bases. A solo blast by senior infielder Kennedy Rothemich in the sixth keyed an attack that saw seven different starters collect at least one hit apiece.

“We lost the first game to them over here, and we came back and beat them last time, so we knew we could do it again,” said Sherando junior outfielder Katie Seymour, who drove in a pair of runs in the win. “We knew we just had to bring our ‘A’ game.

“I think last time we proved we could hit [Peacoe] and that gave us the confidence to jump out on it tonight.”

The Warriors (10-6, 5-4 in Northwestern) scored the game’s last five runs, including two in the fourth after the Colonels (7-9, 6-3) had scored two in the third to tie the game at 3-3.

James Wood would get nothing over the final four innings, as Reid had the answer this time to shut the Colonels down on their own field.

“We knew that James Wood was going to come out with intensity and we knew we had to match that and be more intense than they were going to be,” said Reid, who has done well to replace two-time district pitcher of the year Amanda Lutz as the Warriors’ ace. “We definitely did that. We came out and did what we had to do, and did it the right way.”

When the teams first played on March 20, a clutch two-run double by Morgan Sykes (who did not play Thursday) in the sixth keyed James Wood’s 5-3 victory.

Reid held the Colonels to one run in a 3-1 Sherando win on April 10 at home and came back out on Thursday to help the Warriors gain the tie-breaker against James Wood by always being around the plate with her pitches.

After giving up six hits and all three James Wood runs in the first three innings, Reid (9-5) gave up just two more hits and kept the Colonels off the board. Reid walked just one and allowed just two earned runs in her win.

“Courtney can be her own worst critic and what was nice to see tonight was even though she didn’t get a couple good swings {she went 1 for 4 at the plate] early on, she stayed up, was encouraging the other girls, and she just threw,” Smith said. “She pitched.”

After the Warriors moved ahead 5-3 in the top of the fourth, Reid had a fielding gem in the bottom half, snagging Taylor Rizzari’s comebacker and doubling Megan Christian off first to end the inning.

To finish up, Reid stranded a runner at third in the fifth, pitched a perfect sixth, and stranded two more runners in the seventh, getting a big strikeout of three-hole hitter Peacoe in the process.

Though her pitch count (121) was a bit high, Reid said she still had some life left in her arm after going the distance to beat Spotswood 4-2 Wednesday on the road.

“We knew — even when we were up 7-3, 8-3 — that it still wasn’t over and that James Wood could come back,” Reid said. “

“I do trust my defense a lot and I knew I just had to throw strikes [in the late innings] and do my best.”

Besides Reid being motivated to pitch well, her teammates did their best to make sure of a win by coming out aggressive at the plate against Peacoe (7-8), who had given up six runs combined in her previous two starts against Sherando.

“They were just on tonight,” James Wood coach Ted McDaniel said. “It wasn’t our night. Maybe we were trying a little too hard.

“Peacoe didn’t have her best stuff. She’s a little arm-tired, and she’s pitched [in] every game but one this year. We’re going to give her some rest next week.”

Carly Nixon (2 for 4, two runs scored) led the game off with a solid single to center field and Reid drove her in with a single to right field. The Warriors got another run on an infield error to move up 2-0, then got a favorable call in the second inning to increase the lead to three.

With two outs, Seymour (1 for 3, two RBIs) singled the opposite way to left and Megan Leake wheeled around third. The relay from left reached home in plenty of time, but Leake was ruled safe at home though it appeared catcher Hayley Whitacre got the tag down while blocking the plate.

James Wood battled back, getting a run in the second and tying the game in the third. A ground out by Rachel Largent scored Whitacre and an RBI single from Charlotte Viands tied the game at 3-3 after three innings.

Sherando wasted no time getting the lead back. Leake (2 for 4, two runs scored) singled with one out in the fourth and Nixon followed with a double. Seymour then hit a sacrifice fly to center to give the Warriors the lead for good, and Rothemich got a kind bounce on her sharp grounder to third for an RBI hit and 5-3 lead.

“It was very important [to rally back quick],” Seymour said. “If we had waited too long, we might have got down on ourselves, and then it would have been harder to get the win.”

The Warriors didn’t stop there, getting single runs in each of the fifth, sixth, and seventh. Rothemich (2 for 3, two runs scored, two RBIs) homered over the left-field fence in the sixth, and Rachel Chewey (2 for 4, two RBIs) knocked in the final run with her triple to deep right in the seventh.