Colonels Softball Pulls Off Shocker Over Loudoun County For First Win

Posted: April 4, 2013
By ROBERT STOCKS

WINCHESTER — James Wood softball coach Ted McDaniel scouted Loudoun County’s game at Tuscarora Tuesday night and the Colonels coach came away thinking that his team was going to have an uphill battle when they faced the Raiders Wednesday night.

After all, the Raiders came into the game with an unbeaten 5-0 record and had outscored their opponents 72-8 coming into the game.

Even though the odds might have been stacked against the Colonels, they turned in their best performance of the year against arguably the best team on their schedule to date.

Sophomore relief pitcher Taylor Rizzari got her first victory of her varsity career in relief and starting pitcher Kierstyn Peacoe re-entered in the top of the seventh to notch her first save, closing the door in the Colonels’ 10-8 victory in a back-and-forth game at James Wood High School.

“It means the world to us,” said McDaniel, whose team snapped a three-game losing skid. “This is in my opinion the best team we played yet. I went over and watched them last night and went I left Leesburg last night I said, ‘There’s no way we can beat them.’

“But we came out here and got behind and made some mistakes, but we came back and I think it just shows there’s no quit in us. These girls have so much heart and it’s hard to describe how much heart they have.”

The Colonels (1-3) overcame a 3-0 deficit in the first inning and then needed to rally from an 8-7 deficit in the sixth inning in bitterly-cold conditions with an unrelenting wind blowing out to right-center field.

Loudoun County (5-1) appeared to regain the momentum after junior designated player Courtney Amos (2 for 4 with four RBIs) launched a three-run homer off James Wood reliever Tori Armel over the scoreboard in right to put the Raiders ahead 8-7.

An out later, Kiley Jacobus (3 for 4 with an RBI) singled to chase Armel, and McDaniel turned to Rizzari. With one out, Rizzari struck out Delany Turner and then got Becca Tatara looking at a called third strike to end the inning.

After falling behind for the second time, James Wood rallied by sending eight batters to the plate against Jacobus.

Hayley Whitacre reached on an error, Peacoe walked and then Rizzari reached on another error to load the bases.

Jacobus appeared to unravel a bit after the two errors, allowing both Whitacre and Peacoe to score on back-to-back wild pitches to put the Colonels ahead 9-8. James Wood added another run on an RBI groundout by Charlotte Viands.

In the top of the seventh, Loudoun County’s Abby Lamb (2 for 4) led off with a single, and McDaniel made his fourth pitching change of the night when he called on Peacoe to re-enter in the circle.

Peacoe got Sarah Fadeley to hit a grounder to second and Lamb was forced out and second base.

From there, Peacoe got Raiders No. 9 hitter Saige McGovern (2 for 4) to pop out to short, and then struck out leadoff hitter Sierra Jackson to end the game.

Peacoe, who left with a 7-4 lead after three innings, pitched 32/3 innings,

“To be down in the first inning to be down 3-0 is kind of hard and then to be down by one run in the sixth inning is really tough,” said Peacoe, who struck out four. “But we battled back and we didn’t show any fear and just kept pushing forward. We kept putting pressure on them.”

The Colonels only had five hits off Jacobus (4-1) but the key was putting the ball in play and making Loudoun County make plays. James Wood put the bat on the ball and the Raiders made six costly errors.

Two errors by the Raiders led to a five-run second inning. James Wood sent nine batters to the plate with just two hits, but one — a single by Rizzari — drove in two runs to rally James Wood to a 5-3 lead.

“When [the pitch] came in I knew it was a pitch that I could drive and I knew there was runners on base and we needed to get the runs in” Rizzari said. “I just swung and it made perfect contact.”

It was far from a perfect performance for the Raiders, who gave up more runs against the Colonels than they did against their previous five opponents combined.

“Our defense was terrible tonight, and we’re a much better team than that,” said Loudoun County coach Richard Sullivan. “We usually pitch better than that and we usually play defense. We didn’t play defense tonight and they took advantage of it and got the best of us. I’ve got to take my hat off to them.

“I don’t know if they looked past them because they hadn’t won a game yet and we’ve been on a roll. When you do that — that’s what happens. We’re better than that — but we weren’t tonight.”

Jacobus took the loss but only gave up four earned runs. She struck out five and walked three.

The Colonels can’t celebrate Wednesday night’s big win for too long with a tough Northwestern District game at Skyline today, but they now know they can beat a quality team with a quality pitcher.

“We found out after the game that we had never beaten Loudoun County before,” Rizzari said. “We knew they were undefeated and we knew they were a really good team so we came in really pumped up and that it had to be a good game for us. We never got down and always kept our heads up.”

“It gives us some momentum that I hope will carry over into [today’s game at Skyline],” added Peacoe.

Viands went 1 for 3 with a double and drove in a run, and junior catcher Jessy Shipman went 1 for 3 with a walk and two runs scored.

“We had some many heroes I can’t begin to name them all,” McDaniel said. “We’ve been a little bit down because we’ve been losing but tonight was just super.”

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