Softball - Strong Pitching, Errorless Fielding Help Wood Advance

Posted: May 28, 2016
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

James Wood’s Lindsey Anderson is mobbed by teammates at home plate after Anderson belted a three-run home run in the second inning of Friday’s 4A West regional softball game at Ridge Field. The blast helped the Colonels score an 8-2 triumph. (Photo by Ginger Perry/The Winchester Star )

James Wood starting pitcher Lani Spielman allowed four hits and struck out eight batters in 52/3 innings of the Colonels’ 8-2 regional triumph against Heritage. (Photo by Ginger Perry/The Winchester Star )

James Wood’s Taylor Woolsey lines a hit during the Colonels’ 8-2 triumph against Heritage on Friday. James Wood next travels to Carroll County in the 4A West quarterfinals on Monday. (Photo by Ginger Perry/The Winchester Star )
WINCHESTER — One of the oldest maxims in sports is that offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.

On Friday, James Wood’s softball team proved that maxim with an 8-2 rout of Heritage in the opening round of the Region 4A West tournament.

The Colonels (17-7) got clutch pitching from Lani Spielman and Lauren King while Wood’s defense recorded its second straight errorless game. With the win, the Colonels will travel to Carroll County at 6 p.m. Monday for the quarterfinals.

Wood didn’t take long Friday to establish its dominance.

After Spielman silenced the Pride bats in the top of the first inning with two of her eight strikeouts for the game, the Colonels exploded for four runs in the bottom half and never looked back.

With one out, Taylor Woolsey and Lindsey Anderson smashed a pair of singles, then both stole bases to set up Spielman, who also made an impact at the plate. The Wood sophomore sent a low line drive deep into right-center field to score Woolsey and Anderson. Spielman and King scored later in the inning off a single by Camryn Rizzari, one of five hits in the frame for the Colonels.

While the big inning put Wood on top, it wasn’t only the Colonel offense that confounded Heritage throughout the game.

Courtney Shea led off the second inning for the Pride (12-10) with a single to left, then watched helplessly at first base while Spielman sent the next three Pride batters back to their dugout with strikeouts to end the inning.

"I thought I pitched pretty well tonight, but all of those hits and runs early in the game made things a lot easier for me," Spielman said. "Getting the kind of support I’ve been getting from my teammates, both on defense and offense, has really helped me."

"James Wood came ready to play and we didn’t," Pride coach Courtney Aubel said. "We watched film and even watched stills of their pitcher and we still couldn’t do anything against her. We just weren’t ready today. She has great movement on her pitches and to hit her you really need to be focused and we weren’t."

While Heritage was reeling from Spielman’s arm, Anderson expanded Wood’s lead to 7-0 with a towering 3-run homer over the center field fence in the bottom of the second.

The Pride did respond in their half of the third with a two-run homer by Kaly Winslow to narrow the Colonels’ lead to 7-2.

In the fourth, Heritage got a pair of runners on base, but a strikeout by Spielman and a great play by Wood second baseman Sarah Garis on a difficult fly ball to shallow right-center ended the inning.

"We have to play defense to win against the better competition," Garis said. "When our starting shortstop (Alyssa Brown) went down they moved me to second and Courteney Harper to short and that seemed to have worked out well. I feel really good to win our first regional game but we still have work to do."

After Spielman walked two Heritage batters with two outs in the sixth, King relieved the Colonel sophomore and immediately got Wood out of the inning with a strikeout.

"Things really go well for us when we have Lani out there," King said. "She has really good movement on the ball, and she consistently gets ahead of the batters. That’s really important against good hitters like we faced today. I can then come in late and use my speed to finish things."

The Colonels added a run in the sixth when the Pride booted Harper’s grounder, which allowed Olivia Christian, who had walked and been bunted to second, to score.

Spielman got the win, giving up two runs on four hits. King was superb in relief, giving up just one hit while striking out two in 11/3 innings.

Anderson led the Colonels offensively with three RBIs. Spielman and Rizzari both contributed two RBIs.

Melinda Gallagher struggled with the Colonel bats all night and took the loss for the Pride, giving up eight runs on eight hits while striking out one and walking two.

"This was a big win for us," Colonel coach Todd Baker said. "We got great play from our players in every phase of the game. I’m not sure whether James Wood has ever won a regional game in softball so this is a very special win for out girls."

"We are thrilled to be heading to Carroll County," Spielman said.