Softball - James Wood walks off with district crown

Add Friday’s Northwestern District final to the dramatic comebacks.

The contest capped a crazy season in which each of the three contests between the teams were decided in the final inning.

Neither James Wood’s Todd Baker or Sherando’s Clarence Smith seemed surprised by another crazy outcome.

“Don’t Stop Believing, that’s us,” said Baker after the Journey hit blared on the P.A. system after the game. “That’s our song. I am not going to say we didn’t get down in the middle innings ... but the team believed we could do it. From that far down in the seventh, buddy, you’ve got to be a believer.”

“It’s par for the course whenever we match up with them,” Smith said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of lead you have. It’s going to come down to the last at-bat. Not for a second did I think our 4-1 lead was safe.”

And it wasn’t in a crazy inning.

The Colonels had the bottom third of the order up against Sherando’s Lauren Smith, who had only allowed a run on Lani Spielman’s sixth-inning homer. But Hailey Kaiser led off with a single and Mackenzie McCarty reached on an error. Emma Van Horn followed with an RBI single to cut the lead to 4-2.

Olivia Miller then lifted a short fly to left field that was dropped, but the Warriors got a force out at second.

With the dangerous Ivy Rosenberry at the plate, Miller swiped second on the first pitch. Clarence Smith then elected to walk Rosenberry, loading the bases and putting the winning run at first.

Lauren Smith then struck out Lindsey Anderson to bring up Rebecca Boone, who was hitless on the night.

Boone then hit an excuse-me, check-swing roller between second and first and outlegged Sherando first baseman Korenn Paige to the bag. Miller steamed all the way around from second to score the tying run.

“It wasn’t how I planned it, but anything can happen,” Boone said. “Errors happen. Any base hit works. It scored two runs, that’s all we needed. I was going as hard as I could and I know my whole team wanted me there. We wrote ‘together’ on our wrists. I knew I had to do it for them.”

Miller made the heads-up move to score on the play.

“She is one of the most savvy, heads-up players I’ve ever coached,” Baker said. “You wouldn’t have had to tell her to go in that situation. She’s going all of the way.”

The craziness wasn’t over, yet.

Spielman, the next hitter, struck out, but the ball got away and Spielman beat the throw to first, loading the bases again.

That brought up Rizzari, who spanked the first pitch from Lauren Smith into center field, setting off a wild celebration.

“I was pretty nervous, of course, but I knew we had the bases loaded and we had to score that run,” Rizzari said. “I thought, ‘Any way I can get on, any way I can score this run.’ She threw the pitch right down the middle and I knew I had to hit it.”

“We finally put some pressure on them,” Baker said. “We had not put any pressure on them the whole game.”

Mainly that was because Lauren Smith pitched so well for the majority of the contest. One day after throwing 91 pitches in shutting out regular-season champion Fauquier 2-0, Smith was dominant through five innings. She began to fall behind hitters in the sixth and looked tired in the seventh.

“She is a bulldog,” Clarence Smith said. “... She exceeded all of my expectations. I wasn’t sure whether she could go another seven innings today. In all practical purposes she got 21 outs. Our defense decided we were going to give them 23 or 24.”

After an out, Brooke Moses’ grounder plated Conner. Lauren Smith lined a single into right to drive in Seymour.

The score stayed that way until the fifth. Conner, who had three hits and reached base in all four at-bats, lined a double into the left-center gap. One out later, Paige did the same thing to plate Conner.

The Warriors scored another run in the seventh off reliever Rosenberry. Conner reached on an error and scored on an error. In two innings of relief, Rosenberry struck out six.

Smith surrendered seven hits, walked one and struck out three. Spielman allowed six hits, two walks and struck out six.

The Colonels get another matchup against Loudoun Valley’s Tressa Kagarise. Last season, Kagarise blanked them 6-0 in regional play.

“They’re going to be solid, rock solid,” Baker said. “From here on out, you are not going to play anybody that’s not good. We are capable of beating anybody if we just play defense and get some hits. We’ll see what happens. We are going to show up.”

Sherando’s season ends with a 13-10 mark. The Warriors lose three seniors, third baseman Seymour, first baseman Paige and catcher Sarah Marshall.

“I can’t say enough about my team,” Clarence Smith said. “We’ve gone through a lot of adversity. I don’t want this season to be reflective of that seventh inning. ... I’ve never seen a team overcome so much, band together and persevere.”

Smith said the first goal next season is to earn the top seed by winning the district regular season title.

“These kinds of games is what gives us motivation in the offseason,” he said. “I want this taste to stay in our mouths and be bitter for awhile. That will give us motivation to work in the offseason to make sure these games aren’t so close anymore.”

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