James Wood Softball Relies On The Bunt To Beat Sherando 9-5

Posted: May 9, 2014
By GREG BRILL
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — The James Wood softball team found the best ingredient to win on Thursday night was to put pressure on Sherando’s defense with the bunt.

The Colonels had small ball on their minds from the start and the result was a 9-5 Northwestern District win.

“Our seniors were really pumped up and they told us to play it like it was our last game,” said James Wood freshman third baseman Alyssa Brown, who had bunt singles on all three of her hits in the win and scored twice. “I think [bunting] put [the Warriors] on their toes and they couldn’t field it. Little things count, and I think that helped us win [Thursday].”

No matter who it was, most all of the Colonels were on the same page when given the sign to drop a bunt in fair territory.

It started right away when Taylor Woolsey forced a two-base error in the first inning. Brown bunted her way on base to put runners at the corners, then Kierstyn Peacoe lifted a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1.

The game would be tied at 1, 2, and 3 in the early innings, and James Wood’s second and third runs came with doing a good job of moving runners.

In the second inning, Haley Whitacre was thrown out on her bunt attempt by a step leading off, but Kayla Seal blooped a single into shallow left between three Sherando fielders to start a rally. Courtney Harper (3 for 3) moved Seal two bases with her ground single through the right side and a bunt by Hollie Higgins allowed Seal to score when Sherando pitcher Heidi Brown was a bit late getting the throw to the plate.

Trailing 3-2 to begin the bottom of the third, James Wood, which scored at least one run in every inning it batted, scored a run with two outs when Taylor Rizzari doubled to left and came around when Whitacre (2 for 4) blooped a single just over first base to tie the game for a third time.

The fourth inning proved to be the biggest for the Colonels (5-10, 4-5 Northwestern District). With the score tied at 3-3, Harper grounded a sharp single through the left side leading off and moved to second on a wild pitch just before pinch-hitter Caity Higgins drew a walk. One out later, Brown dropped a perfect bunt out a few feet in front of the plate. Brown had the play beat, but forced a high throw from Sherando catcher Jessy Shipman for an error, allowing pinch-runner Sarah Garis to score. Then with Peacoe at bat and the Warriors attempting to intentionally walk her, Hickey came across when Brown unleashed a wild pitch.

When Peacoe drew ball four for a walk, she attempted to run right to second to draw a throw to that bag. The ploy worked, as Brown scored to make it 6-3 just before Peacoe was tagged for the second out.

All game long the Colonels made something happen at the plate. Whitacre reached on a one-out single in the fifth and scored on Harper’s seeing-eye single up the middle. An inning later, Woolsey reached on her bunt when the throw to first was dropped for an error and Brown bunted for her third hit. Two batters later, an infield error allowed two runs to score and all but wrap up the win for James Wood.

“It really looked good tonight,” said James Wood coach Ted McDaniel of the bunt game. “We’ve really worked a lot on our bunting — I mean, we’ve got some fast people so we knew we could get the bunt down to put pressure on the defense, and we did that right off the bat. Speed and the short game made the difference.”

It was a nice game for James Wood to get payback on Sherando (6-6, 4-4), which had scored 31 runs total in the previous two meetings and rallied late in each game to pick up wins.

Pitching with confidence throughout, junior right-hander Taylor Rizzari never allowed the Warriors to have a big inning. Over her seven innings, Rizzari spaced eight hits, allowed just four walks, and pitched to contact to trust her defense could make plays behind her. And they did, as the Colonels made several sparkling plays in the field and went without an error in the win.

“My main focus was just to hit my spots and be confident that my defense was going to make the plays to back me up,” said Rizzari. “We were trying to move inside-outside to change speeds a little bit to keep them off, and it worked.”

As examples of her faith in teammates, Rizzari pointed to extra-effort plays from Hollie Higgins and Whitacre (while colliding with shortstop Harper) in the outfield with “plays that had to be made.”

As far as Brown was concerned, Rizzari pitched the type of game that had her teammates behind her more than ready to step up and make plays.

“She hit every single one of her spots and pitched well,” said Brown. “If she hits her spots and we back her up, that’s going to be a key to win every time out.”

Sherando coach Clarence Smith admitted that James Wood’s short game gave his team fits, but he also was not too happy with his players approach to a matchup against a team it had already defeated twice.

“[James Wood] wanted it more — plain and simple,” said Smith. “We’ve had some problems lately matching the intensity of other teams we’ve played, going back to the last Millbrook game [a loss several weeks ago]. ... The thing is, I think Heidi [Brown] might have given up two hits that were hit hard all evening.

“But, hey, they got nine runs on the board and that’s a testament to them. They were very aggressive on the basepaths, they took the game to our defense. Their offense came at us early on and stumped us and never let up on the pressure. And Taylor, she made big pitches and got pop-ups when we had runners in scoring position. She made big pitches when she had to and that didn’t necessarily happen in the other two games.”

Michaela Carper led the Warriors by going 2 for 2 with a double, RBI, and two runs scored. Brown, who went 2 for 3 and scored a run, went the distance in taking the loss.

“This was the third time we’ve played Sherando, and the first two games we left there feeling kind of empty like we missed opportunities,” said McDaniel. “Then we came out here tonight and did good things.

“We told the seniors that this might be the last time we see Sherando [McDaniel said the teams would likely be in opposite brackets for the Conference 21 tournament]. We’ve been getting better and better as the season has went along. It hasn’t shown up in wins and losses. We took [district leader] Millbrook to the brink before we lost. Coming out here tonight and playing the way we did, I’m really proud of the girls.”