James Wood blanks Clarke County in softball

By JERRY HOLSWORTH | Special to The Winchester Star

BERRYVILLE — James Wood played every phase of Friday’s softball game against Clarke County to near perfection as the unbeaten Colonels handed the Eagles their first loss with an 8-0 victory.

James Wood (3-0) amassed 11 hits while playing errorless ball and starter Lauren King tossed a one-hitter.

“We played really well tonight,” Colonels coach Todd Baker said. “I’m been very pleased with how the girls have played since our first scrimmage. We’ve always had the pitching, but with the way our defense is playing now I think we can win a lot of games this season.”

The Colonels got things started in a hurry scoring three runs in the first two innings. Courtney Harper led off the first and was hit by a pitch from Megan Hicks. After stealing second, Harper scored off a single past first base by King.

Camryn Rizzari led off the second with a single to left-center field. Rizzari then advanced to second on an error after a bunt by Rebecca Boone. A bunt single by Emma Van Horn scored Rizzari and sent Boone to third. Boone scored when Harper reached on an error.

Rizzari had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with an RBI and a double.

“I was really focusing on the first pitch because I haven’t been doing that,” Rizzari said. “Usually the first pitch is the best one to hit. Megan is a very good pitcher, and I had to work hard to get the right pitch to hit.”

While the Wood offense was building a lead, King was completely shutting down the Clarke County offense from the circle. The Colonel junior didn’t allow a hit until Dani Bloomingdale reached on a single in the sixth inning. She struck out five and allowed three walks.

“I knew that I could trust everybody that was behind me, whether it was offense or defense,” King said. “I felt like that if I could get the ball over the plate, good things were going to happen. Clarke County is a very good team and it’s difficult to beat them here. I was really proud of our effort. We really held them down.”

King was backed by strong defense that took care of every routine play.

“We worked hard every day on defense,” Baker said. “We know that if we play defense behind our pitching we’ll be competitive in every game. I really don’t think that we need to score a lot of runs to win games, but we seem to be doing that too.”

Wood added a run in the fifth when Alyssa Brown reached on an error to lead off the inning. Brown then stole second and reached third on a wild pitch. She scored on Lani Spielman’s grounder.

“We are very aggressive on the bases,” Baker said. “We’ll do what we can on the bases to manufacture runs.”

The Colonels took control as Hicks tired in the sixth. Van Horn and Harper led off the inning with singles and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Brown.

Lindsey Anderson followed with a double to deep left to plate both runners. King’s single to right scored Anderson and Rizzari’s single past second scored King.

“We told the team in the post game that James Wood is a very good team,” Eagles coach Susan Grubbs said. “They went far in the playoffs last year and I expect them to do the same this year. I thought we held their hitters down except for the sixth inning. Without that inning it could have been a two- or three-run game and to play like that against a team like James Wood is a good experience for our team.”

Besides Rizzari, King and Van Horn had good days at the plate. King had three hits, while Van Horn went 2-for-3 with an RBI and run.

Things don’t get any easier for Clarke County (1-1). The Eagles will face unbeaten Sherando today in a doubleheader starting at noon. Prior to the games, Clarke County will rededicate its softball field to the memory of former school board member Charles O. Grubbs, the late father of the Eagles coach.