Pioneer Softball Holds Off Colonels, 11-9

Posted: May 2, 2014
By MARK SAWYER
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — In rolling to the top of the Northwestern District standings, the Millbrook softball team had very little trouble in knocking off three-quarters of the district competition, defeating the likes of Sherando, Skyline, and Handley by the run-rule in four of the six contests.

The one exception to that has been James Wood. In their first meeting the Pioneers had to rally late to defeat the Colonels 5-3.

Things didn’t change much when the Frederick County rivals got together for their second of three meetings Thursday afternoon, and the contest pretty well summed up the entire James Wood season.

The Colonels jumped out to an early lead, played well throughout the game and battled to the very last out. But in the end they came up just short, dropping another heartbreaker 11-9 at Millbrook High School.

For the Pioneers it was business as usual, banging out 14 hits and scoring 11 runs, but it wasn’t anywhere near as easy as many may have thought it was going to be.

“We like to keep it interesting I guess,” Millbrook coach Mandee Madden said. “We had a hard time adjusting to their pitchers and they had some nice little timely hits. We just punched a few runs across when we needed them. We definitely need to step it up.

“I’m not going to make excuses. It’s a district game and they need to be ready to play every single inning. When we got timely hits and we strung hits together we scored runs and we just have to do that more consistently. I think we did adjust and got more patient, but it still can be better.”

With only six outs remaining the Colonels found themselves trailing 8-5, but quitting was the furthest thing from their minds.

James Wood (3-10, 2-5 Northwestern District) loaded the bases in the sixth with no outs thanks to three consecutive singles by Kayla Seal, Hayley Whitacre and Taylor Woolsey.

With one out senior Kierstyn Peacoe lined a single to left, scoring Seal and Whitacre to cut the deficit to 8-7. One out later Taylor Rizzari collected a clutch two-out hit which scored Woolsey to tie the game and put the lead runner in scoring position, but the Colonels were unable to do any more damage.

“This team plays so hard and plays with so much heart it’s hard to find fault in them,” James Wood coach Ted McDaniel said. “I’m just so proud of them as hard as they’re playing. They get down, they don’t give up, and they battle back. We’ve just got to find a way to win these close games. It’s a very thin line between winning and losing and the only person that can move us across that line into the win column is us.

“We’ve got to do everything we need to do to win. We’re playing good ball, just one or two more things in a game and we’ll win a lot of games. I’m just as happy as I can be with this team. Everything except [for the fact] we’re not winning.”

In a game that feathered a combined 25 hits, the go-ahead run scored on a wild pitch in the Pioneers half of the sixth.

Millbrook (11-2, 8-0) nearly batted around in the decisive sixth, but it had plenty of help in coming up with the game-winning runs. Wood walked three hitters in the inning, committed an error and threw two wild pitches.

Junior Hannah Lockhart got the inning started with a solid single and stole second. She then moved to third on the Colonels first wild pitch of the inning. Mackenzi Steele then walked and one out later Natalie Roy walked to load the bases.

With one out, the bases loaded and Kellie Jenkins at the plate, an alert Lockhart watched a fastball to Jenkins go all the way to the backstop. Without hesitation, Lockhart came streaking down the line to score the lead run, making it 9-8.

“I thought I was going to score. I’m pretty confident with my team,” Lockhart said. “Once I saw the ball get by I just took off.

“[James Wood was] really good last year and I think that gets into our head but we’ve got to realize that we’ve gotten better then last year. I think we’ve gained a lot and put in a lot of work. I think we get more excited when we play district games because we play people that we know and I think that motivates us to play better.”

The Pioneers added two more runs in the inning to make it 11-8.

The Colonels jumped out to an early lead with a pair of runs in the first. With one out Brown singled, stole second and moved to third on a throwing error. Peacoe followed by drawing a walk. A wild pitch scored Brown and one out later Rizzari made it 2-0 when she singled to drive in Peacoe.

Millbrook wasted very little time answering. Three consecutive one-out singles by Hannah Cloyle, Emily Ringer and Sarah Clarke made it 2-1.

Lockhart then ripped a double to the fence, scoring Ringer and Clarke to make it 3-2. Later in the inning Lockhart scored on an RBI single off the bat of Marissa Lee.

Millbrook had at least one hit in every inning and all nine starters had at least one hit for the Pioneers.

The two teams exchanged single runs before the Pioneers scored a pair in the third to take their biggest lead of the game at 7-3.

Woolsey’s two-run single in the fourth pulled Wood to within two at 7-5, but Millbrook got one back in the fifth on an RBI fielder’s choice by Miller. That set the stage for the James Wood sixth-inning rally.

“I think the girls were a lot more patient in the box in the last inning,” Madden said. “I’m very pleased so far, five games left and we’re looking to hopefully take as many as we can. Any night it’s anyone’s game unless you shut the door. Our focus right now is just go game-by-game and pitch-by-pitch and see where we end up for conference play.”

Miller, Cloyle, Clarke, Lockhart, and Jenkins all had two hits to lead the way for the Pioneers. Miller, Clarke and Lockhart each drove in two while Roy scored three runs.

Peacoe led the way for the Colonels reaching base in all four of her plate appearences. She was 2-for-2 with two walks, scored twice, drove in two and stole three bases. Woolsey, Rizzari, and Seal also had two hits apiece for Wood. Woolsey and Rizzari drove in two each and Seal scored three times.