State-champion Woodgrove thumps James Wood softball

By ROBERT STOCKS | The Winchester Star

PURCELLVILLE — Facing defending Group 4A softball state champion Woodgrove and junior pitcher Camryn Dolby isn’t an easy assignment.

James Wood knew that all too well after Dolby tossed a no-hitter against the Colonels earlier this season on April 29.

The Colonels totaled four hits against the Wolverines’ hard-throwing right hander Monday night, but the end result was the same.

Dolby struck out 12 and notched her 15th shutout in 18 games as unbeaten Woodgrove rolled to an 11-0 victory over James Wood that was shortened to six innings in the Conference 21 West tournament championship game at Woodgrove High School.

James Wood senior shortstop Courteney Harper said Dolby makes it difficult to string together hits.

“She’s always tough, and she’s a great pitcher and you’ve got to give that to her,” said Harper, who went 2 for 3 as the lone Wood player to have multiple hits. “We’ve always struggled against her. We need to be more selective — she’s got a great riseball.”

The Wolverines (18-0) scored single runs in each of the first three innings against Colonels starting pitcher Lani Spielman. Jenna Dunn had an RBI groundout in the first, Lexi Acton added two-out, RBI double in the second, and Hannah Thomas had an RBI single in the third.

Spielman worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam to give up just Thomas’ RBI single in the third.

But staking Dolby to a 3-0 lead through three innings proved to be more than enough, considering Dolby (18-0) has allowed just three runs all season (Woodgrove has outscored opponents by a combined 200-3 margin — and no team has scored more than one run against the Wolverines this year).

James Wood junior Lindsey Anderson had a two-out single in the first, but Dolby struck out the side in the second.

Harper had a two-out single in the third, but she got thrown out trying to steal second by catcher Dunn to end the inning.

In the top of the fourth, Alyssa Brown reached on a bunt single. After Anderson struck out for the first out, Lauren King reached on a Dolby throwing error, but Brown was thrown out trying to advance to third for the second out.

From there, Dolby struck out Spielman.

“You’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities when you get them [against Dolby],” said James Wood coach Todd Baker. “We had an opportunity there [in the fourth inning] when we got thrown out at third, but we were just trying to be aggressive.

“We felt like we had to take some chances and we did. It just didn’t work out — it’s as simple as that.”

Woodgrove added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth.

Dunn singled to start the inning, but was forced out at second when Maxine Barnes reached on a fielder’s choice.

Thomas followed with a bunt, but Spielman’s throw to first was off the mark and went down the right-field line. Barnes scored all the way from first, and Thomas ended up on third.

After Spielman struck out Taylor Donches for the second out, Shelbie Daughtry (2 for 3) followed with an RBI single into the gap in left-center to score Thomas and extend the Wolverines’ lead to 5-0.

Woodgrove batted around in the sixth against Spielman, scoring six runs on seven hits.

Barnes had a two-run double to put the Wolverines ahead 7-0, pinch-hitter Katie Merchant and Donches drove in runs with back-to-back infield singles.

Acton, who went 4 for 5 with a pair of doubles and two runs scored, doubled off Spielman to score Merchant and Daughtry for the walk-off, run-rule victory.

“The fact that we scored early was key,” said Woodgrove coach Joe Spicer. “We had a break when we got [Brown] going to third. It was a real nice break for us at that point.”

Spicer said Dolby’s command — particularly with the riseball and a sharp breaking ball — makes it tough for opposing teams.

“[Dolby] forces you to do some things where maybe your comfort level is not there,” Spicer added. “They were bunting a lot so it took us a while to adjust to their game plan.”

And armed with that riseball, Dolby made bunting pretty difficult for the Colonels. When King bunted with Anderson on second and two outs in the first inning, Dolby came out of the circle to throw out King at first.

“I just want to do the best I can to help my team win,” said Dolby, who gave a verbal commitment to Boston College last year as a sophomore. “Since they were bunting, I threw a lot of riseballs.”

Although the final score doesn’t show it, Anderson, who went 1 for 3, said the Colonels played better against Dolby in Monday’s second meeting.

“We knew coming in it was going to be tough because last time we [faced] her we had a whole bunch of strikeouts,” Anderson said. “I feel like this time we put the ball in play a lot more than we did last time, but we need to come up bigger and get the base hits when we have runners on the bases.”

Despite the loss, the Colonels (18-4) still advance to the 4A West Regional.

Baker said his team will likely play in a regional first-round game on Friday, which he hoped the Colonels might host at Ridge Field. He said official pairings won’t be released until Tuesday at the earliest.

Spielman (8-3), who mixed in a nice changeup along with her fastball, struck out six in the loss.

“I thought Lani pitched plenty well enough to keep us in the game early,” Baker said. “Woodgrove made the best of its opportunities when it had runners in scoring position, and we didn’t. We had some opportunities early and just couldn’t get the hit — or couldn’t get the bunt down.

“We’ll be back. We’re guaranteed regionals. We’ll get back to practice and see what happens.”

— Contact Robert Stocks at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1