James Wood smacks 15 hits in 10-2 softball win over Clarke County

WINCHESTER — You didn’t have to remind the James Wood High School softball players that they were swept last season by Clarke County.

So with an opportunity to return the favor on Wednesday, the Colonels succeeded, thanks in big part to some hot bats.

Sydney Orndorff and Sadie Kittoe each blasted home runs and three James Wood pitchers combined on a five-hitter as the Colonels rolled to a 10-2 triumph at Ridge Field.

Cadence Rieg joined Orndorff with three of James Wood’s 15 hits and closed out the contest with two innings of one-hit relief.

Last season, the Class 2 Eagles racked up 4-1 and 9-2 triumphs over the Class 4 Colonels. This season’s first matchup was tied 5-5 through six innings before James Wood scored four in the top of the seventh and held on to win 9-7.

Once Orndorff’s first-inning blast cleared the fence to make the score 2-1, the Colonels never trailed Wednesday and kept adding to their lead.

“I think we wanted a little redemption for our senior year,” said Orndorff when asked about completing the sweep. “We wanted to go out with a pretty good bang and prove we’re worth something and we’re here to stay.”

“It’s always back-and-forth against Clarke County,” Colonels coach Patrick Gibson said. “I love playing them. They are a great program and they always have talent. Of course, we want to beat a good team like them. They are on a roll and have a lot of good wins.”

James Wood (10-1) has been rolling along lately with its offensive output. Earlier this week, the Colonels put up 17 runs in a four-inning shutout against Berkeley Springs (W.Va.).

Gibson has recently tinkered a little bit with the batting order and the results were certainly good against Clarke County standout Anna Hornbaker, who struck out 14 batters in a three-hit win over Strasburg on Tuesday. The Colonels had 10 of their hits and scored six runs (five earned) against Hornbaker, who struck out five and did not walk a batter.

“We switched up our lineup to allow for a little bit of a change, just to see what happens when we have different hitters who are hitting behind each other,” Kittoe said. “I think this lineup is the best we’ve had pretty much in the four years that I’ve been here.”

“James Wood, all of the way through their lineup they have great hitters,” Clarke County coach Darren Lambert said. “It’s a tough battle any time we play James Wood to get through their lineup and minimize hits and runs. You’re doing something if you can shut them down.”

Clarke County got off to a solid start. Madison Edwards led off with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a passed ball to make it 1-0.

The Colonels bounced right back. Rieg blooped a single to right field and moved up on Kittoe’s sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Orndorff drilled a 2-1 pitch to right-center field that easily cleared the fence for her fourth homer of the season.

“I knew going in that she was going to try to get ahead in the count,” Orndorff explained of the at-bat against Hornbaker. “My thought process was that she was going to go high, but she didn’t. She went out and my favorite pitches are outside or inside. Once I saw the outside, I knew it was that time.”

The Colonels extended the lead in the third. Kittoe led off the inning with a bang, a line drive shot over the left-field fence.

“I know I do better when I attack early in the count,” Kittoe said. “I saw that pitch cut in and I said, ‘I at least have got to take a cut.’ Off the bat, I knew. It was a line drive right over, perfect for me.”

Later in the inning, Orndorff hustled in for a double and later scored on an error to make it 4-1.

The Eagles (6-4) got a run back in the top of the fourth. Courtney Paskel smacked a one-out single to left, moved up on a wild pitch and scored as Brooke Choate’s pop-up to right field was lost in the sun.

The Colonels got the run right back. Jenna Shull singled and courtesy runner Brooklyn Davis eventually scored on Rieg’s RBI single to make it 5-2.

Shull (three hits allowed, three walks, five strikeouts) ran into a sticky situation in the fifth. A pair of walks put runners on with one out and the dangerous Edwards coming to the plate. Gibson brought in Ellie Johnson to relieve and Johnson, who throws a variety of slow breaking pitches, was able to get Edwards on a pop-up to the mound.

After Hornbaker singled to left to load the bases, the Colonels got a break. Courtney Paskel hit a hard ball up the middle that glanced off the shortstop Kittoe’s glove, but it rolled right to second baseman Izzy McKee who grabbed it while standing on second for the final out.

“We can kind of like talk to each other without actually talking,” Kittoe said of her best friend McKee. “She saw that ball bounce off of me and she reaches out and catches it and gets the out for me. I was like, ‘Thank the Lord. It doesn’t go down as an error in the book for me.’”

That play and others signified the day for the Eagles, who could not come up with the clutch play when they needed one.

“The ball just didn’t fall our way tonight,” Lambert said. “We made some baserunning mistakes. We didn’t get timely hits. We had a few throwing errors. We had a lot of things going against us tonight.”

Skyla Compton doubled and scored on an error to make it 6-2 after five.

Johnson walked the first two hitters in the sixth, which brought on Rieg in relief. Rieg got two strikeouts and a pop-up to end the threat.

Edwards, making her first pitching appearance of the season, allowed five hits and the Eagles committed two errors in a four-run sixth. Rieg, Orndorff and Aliza Judd each plated a run in the inning.

The Eagles had two baserunners with no outs in the seventh, but Rieg closed out the contest with two strikeouts sandwiching a groundout.

Kittoe, Judd and Compton (triple) had two hits apiece for the Colonels, who travel to Millbrook on Thursday. Edwards had two hits for the Eagles, who host Bull Run District leader East Rockingham.

Gibson likes what he’s seeing from the Colonels as they begin the second half of district play.

“We’re hitting on all cylinders,” he said. “We’re hitting the ball well and playing good defense. Our pitching is coming around. We have three quality pitchers we can throw at any time. And, I really like our baserunning. We’re being aggressive and taking the extra base.”

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