King fires James Wood to regional softball spot with win over Sherando

By ROBERT STOCKS THE WINCHESTER STAR | The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — James Wood junior Lauren King said she likes being in the pitcher’s circle in pressure situations.

In a Conference 21 West softball tournament semifinal game against Sherando at Ridge Field — that was an elimination game for both teams — the Colonels’ hard-throwing right hander made sure the real pressure situations were few and far between.

King allowed just two hits and struck out seven, and Colonels sophomore Haley Kaiser drove in two runs as James Wood defeated Sherando 4-1 on Friday night.

The Colonels (18-3) advance to play top-seeded and unbeaten Woodgrove (17-0), a 7-0 winner over Millbrook in Friday night’s other semifinal game, in the conference championship game at Woodgrove High School in Purcellville at 6 p.m. on Monday.

James Wood also earned a berth in the 4A West Regional tournament after regular season conference champion Woodgrove advanced to Monday night’s title game.

The Colonels and Warriors split two regular-season matchups in a pair of one-run games. Sherando won 6-5 on April 13 at Sherando Park, and James Wood edged the Warriors 7-6 at Ridge Field on May 4.

Friday’s win also marked the second consecutive season that the Colonels knocked off Sherando to clinch a regional berth.

“Two years in a row [making it to regionals],” Colonels coach Todd Baker said. “We had Sherando here last year in the same situation, and we were able to beat them 4-2 and this year we beat them 4-1.

“It says a lot about this team. We’re not easily intimidated and we were ready for the task and battled.”

Sherando (14-8) took advantage of a leadoff walk by Blake Conner in the top of the first to take an early lead.

Conner advance to second on a wild pitch by King, and moved to third on a groundout by Tori Seymour.

Korenn Paige followed with a flare to left that dropped in for a hit to put the Warriors ahead 1-0.

But after that run, King only allowed one hit the rest of the way.

King said she just tried to focus on shutting down the Warriors after falling behind 1-0 in the first inning.

“For me, it was [thinking] one run, no big deal — we can come back from that,” said King, who improved her season record to 10-1. “I didn’t want them to get up [too much] on us early, and I knew it was serious [once the Warriors took the lead], but if we wanted to win — we needed to start early.”

James Wood’s offense, which totaled seven hits, made sure any momentum the Warriors had from the early one-run advantage didn’t last long.

The Colonels evened the score in the bottom of the second. Rebecca Boone led off the inning with a single off Sherando starter River Baird.

Two outs later, Colonels No. 9 hitter Haley Kaiser ripped a double into the gap in left-center field to score Boone and tie it 1-1.

“There was two outs and I was just thinking that I needed to get a base hit,” said Kaiser, who went 1 for 2 with two RBIs. “I wasn’t thinking about [anything] big. I was just thinking that I wanted to have a good season for [our] seniors because they really do deserve it. I just wanted to [come through] for them.”

In the fourth inning, James Wood junior Lani Spielman sent a sinking line drive into right field. Sherando right fielder Emily Walker tried to make a diving grab, but the ball landed in front of her and skipped past her, allowing Spielman to advance to second on the error.

Camryn Rizzari lined a single to center to put runners on first and third, and Afton Sykes followed with a single back through the middle to plate Spielman.

With a 2-1 lead, Rizzari and Sykes moved to third and second, respectively, after a passed ball, and Kaiser followed with a sacrifice fly to right to extend the Colonels’ lead to 3-1.

Baker said Kaiser devoted a lot of time to hitting off a tee this season, and she was rewarded for her effort against the Warriors.

“Kaiser didn’t surprise me too much because she’s really been coming on,” Baker said. “[I] could see her getting better and better each week.”

Staked to a two-run lead, King retired the Warriors in order in the top of the fifth, striking out Sarah Marshall and Lauren Smith before retiring Ashton Clark on a grounder back to the circle to end the inning.

In the sixth, King retired Sherando in order once again, getting Conner to ground out to third and then retiring Seymour and Paige on a pair of infield pop-ups. King came out of the circle to make a nice running catch to retire Seymour, and then Boone made a nice running grab in foul territory near the Colonels’ dugout to retire Paige.

In the top of the seventh, King walked Baird and Sierra Strosnider to start the inning.

Baird and Strosnider advanced to third and second after Marissa Webb grounded out to second, but King struck out Marshall with a fastball for the second out.

Sherando pinch-hitter Brooke Moses walked to load the bases, bringing the tying run to the plate in Ashton Clark.

Clark hit a ground ball to third, and Colonels third baseman Alyssa Brown (2 for 4, RBI) scooped it up and stepped on third base for a force out to end it.

Baker said King delivered a great pitching performance with the team’s season on the line.

“When Lauren’s on, we’re pretty tough,” Baker said. “If we play good defense behind her, it’s a pretty tough battle for anybody.”

Sherando coach Clarence Smith credited King’s effort in the circle.

“If you look at our game log — to hold us to one run is a pretty remarkable feat,” Smith said. “That’s just a testament to how well she had it going today.

“Our hitters are pretty prolific and pretty disciplined and they were talking about her ball dancing all over the place. She runs it up there pretty hard, so she doesn’t give you a large margin for error. She got a lot of swinging strikes from us tonight, and she did a nice job of keeping our offense down.”

Baird (9-5) took the loss, allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits. She also went 1 for 2 at the plate with a walk.

With the Colonels taking pictures with a canteen — a trophy that the winning team keeps until the next matchup between the two Frederick County rivals — following the game, Smith hoped his team can learn from Friday’s loss.“We’re graduating just two seniors [Webb and Walker] so we’re still relatively young,” Smith said. “These are the kind of games that I’m confident that our girls will take and use as motivation to get better in the offseason.

“We need to play in these kind of games for our girls to mature and understand the level they need to play at, so we’ll try to look for positives. It kind of stinks that we’re going home, but the better team won today.”

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