Warriors Avenge Loss To Colonels

Posted: May 9, 2015
By ROBERT STOCKS
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Sherando junior Lexi Schlag admitted that her team might not have been prepared for James Wood in the first meeting between the two rivals back on April 16.

In Friday’s rematch however, Schlag showed she was ready for any pitch that was around the plate.

The Warriors junior went 3 for 5 and belted a solo home run in the second inning and then drove in two more runs in the third, while senior pitcher Hannah Lockhart allowed just two hits and struck out seven in a convincing 13-2 victory over James Wood in a Conference 21 softball game at Ridge Field.

The Warriors’ offense pounded out 11 hits and took advantage of six James Wood errors to avenge a 4-1 loss to the Colonels last month. Sherando broke the game open with three runs in the fifth and then batted around in a six-run sixth inning. The game was halted after six innings because of the 10-run rule.

“They got us in the first game and it wasn’t a fluke that they beat us 4-1,” said Sherando coach Clarence Smith, whose team improved to 11-4, 4-1 conference. “Today was one of those things where we got some momentum and the ball went our way for a change and we were able to ride that wave of momentum and tack a few more [runs] on.”

Schlag provided the initial spark that ignited the Warriors against James Wood freshman starter Lauren King.

After connecting on a solo shot in the second inning off King, Schlag rallied the Warriors from a 2-1 deficit in top of the third.

Katie Manson led off with a walk and then Heidi Brown singled off King. Both Manson and Brown moved up a base after an illegal pitch was called on King, and Schlag ripped a single back up the middle to drive in two runs to put the Warriors on top 3-2.

Schlag advanced to second after an error following her single and scored after a wild pitch by King to give Sherando a 4-2 lead.

“I feel once someone starts hitting we can come back and keep hitting and just makes us all feel good about ourselves and gives us confidence,” said Schlag, a transfer from Strasburg. “I felt like we all contributed as a team. We were up the whole time. We were here to beat them and we realized the first time we were unprepared.”

The hits came in bunches later in the game and the Warriors’ big innings came partly because James Wood (12-5, 3-2 conference) committed at least one error in every inning except the fourth.

Schlag singled to lead off the fifth and then stole second and Sarah Stickman reached on an infield single.

Freshman Korenn Paige followed with a pinch-hit single up the middle to score both Schlag and Stickman, extending the Warriors’ lead to 6-2.

King left the game following Paige’s RBI single, and freshman Lani Spielman took over in the circle (after throwing seven innings in the Colonels 6-5 win over Skyline in 10 innings on Thursday night). A throwing error by Spielman on a grounder back to the circle allowed Paige to score to give Sherando (5-1 Northwestern District) a commanding 7-2 lead.

Colonels coach Todd Baker said the team’s uncharacteristic errors proved costly following a 10-inning victory the night before where his two freshmen pitchers combined for all 10 innings.

“[King] had some asthma issues and lost her breath for a little bit,” Baker said. “We took her out and put her on first for a while. She started to feel better, but I decided to go with Lani for another inning. Lani pitched quite a few innings the night before and she started wearing down and we gave up five outs that [fifth] inning she was in. We’ve got to play a little bit better defense behind our pitchers.”

Sherando tacked on six more runs and sent 10 batters to the plate in the sixth, getting a two-run triple from senior leadoff hitter Carly Nixon, an RBI single from senior Katie Manson and an RBI triple from Brown (2 for 5 with a run).

All that run support proved to be more than enough for Lockhart.

After hitting Taylor Rizzari and then walking Spielman to start the second inning and allowing both to score on a pair of wild pitches, Lockhart settled into a groove in the circle. She retired 11 Colonel batters in a row from the start of the third inning until King’s two-out single in the bottom of the sixth.

“When she’s on, she’s practically unbeatable,” Smith said of Lockhart, who improved her record to 9-4. “Sometimes Hannah’s her own worst enemy when she’s putting free runners on the bases [with walks] and then teams have opportunities to put runs on the board. But when she’s pounding the strike zone, you see the results and she makes the game look easy.”

The Colonels (4-2 district) need to put Friday night’s loss behind them quickly with another key conference and district game at Millbrook today at 11 a.m.

“We definitely made a lot more errors than we’re normally making,” said Rizzari, who was hit by a pitch and scored a run. “We just need to shake off the mistakes we made today because we have a huge game [today] against Millbrook and it’s a conference game that counts in our standings. We’re going to get [Sherando] again and we’re going to see them in the playoffs.”

King (6-2) struck out two through 41/3 innings in the loss.

— Contact Robert Stocks at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1