Brannon helps James Wood overpower Millbrook in softball

WINCHESTER — Having worked as Kati Brannon’s hitting instructor for three years, James Wood softball coach Patrick Gibson says he isn’t the least bit astounded by the freshman’s recent power surge.

“If you could see her in practice, you wouldn’t be surprised,” Gibson said. “She does it in practice all day long. She’s a great hitter. She has tremendous power, but I like her because she does not strike out a lot either. Yeah, she can explode at any time and she did tonight.”

Brannon erupted for a pair of home runs, including a three-run blast to highlight an eight-run sixth inning, as the Colonels rallied past Millbrook 10-3 on Tuesday. Cadence Rieg also struck a three-run homer in the sixth as James Wood recorded eight of their 11 hits in the inning.

Up until that point, it looked as if the night could belong to the Pioneers, who had rallied from a 2-0 deficit after two innings. With the score squared at 2-2, Lexi Edwards blasted a home run over the center field fence against reliever Sophia Gerald to lead off the sixth inning.

But the Colonels (8-2, 3-2 Class 4 Northwestern District) finally broke through against Millbrook starter Emma Martin, who had held them scoreless since Brannon’s solo homer in the second inning.

Brynnen Williams got James Wood’s rally started with a liner up the middle on a 3-2 pitch. Aliza Judd and Skyla Compton then followed with bloop singles to load the bases. Jenna Shull drew a walk to square the score and then a wild pitch on a 1-2 offering to Brannon made it 4-3.

After a Millbrook meeting in the circle, Brannon made the next pitch even worse for the Pioneers. She blasted a no-doubter deep to left-center field to make the score 7-3.

“I got down in the count and then they took the timeout,” Brannon said. “I was expecting her to come back with a pitch to get me out and I sat on her changeup. … I hit it off the good part of my bat.”

With three homers in her last three games, Brannon has moved into the area lead with four longballs.

“I have to thank my coach Patrick,” Brannon said when asked to explain her power surge. “He’s my hitting coach and we’ve put a lot of work in. I can’t thank him enough for how much effort he has put in to making me the player I am.”

Rieg, who has been one of the area’s top hitters since she was a freshman, says she sees something very familiar in Brannon. “She’s like a mini-me,” said the senior, who will play collegiately at Shenandoah University. “We hang out together and I’ve really taken her under my wing. She reminds me a lot of me when I was a freshman, so I’m really proud of her and seeing her doing well.”

Rieg would deliver the final blow of the inning. After Molly Maynor and Emma Parker reached on one-out singles, Rieg crushed a pitch to left-center.

“I always look up the middle, something where it’s just going to get down and I can get on base,” Rieg said of her final at-bat. “I had runners on, so if I got it in the outfield I would score a run.”

Gibson says he’s come to expect Rieg to perform in key moments. “She’s a professional hitter,” Gibson said. “That’s what we call her. She’s the person I want up in the big spot and she showed it tonight.”

Gerald got the Pioneers in order in the seventh to earn the win. She walked one and struck out five in her three-inning stint. Judd led the Colonels with three hits.

“We know we can explode at any time,” Gibson said. “We had relentless at-bats against Emma. She pitched really well tonight. We knew eventually we would get her if we had quality at-bats [Nos.] 1-9. We just put that big hitting together.”

Millbrook coach Carolyn Campbell thought her team played well. “It was one tough inning,” Campbell said. “That’s all it took.”

The Pioneers certainly didn’t quit after falling behind. Rieg was hit by a pitch and came around to score on Compton’s sacrifice fly in the first and Brannon’s homer in the second made it 2-0.

Rieg had retired the first eight batters before Rowan McCullough’s two-out single in the top of the third. The Pioneers would load the bases with a walk and a hit batter before Martin singled up the middle to make it 2-1.

Millbrook would tie the contest in the fourth. Alexis McFarland led off with a single and was sacrificed to second. With two outs, McCullough delivered an RBI single up the middle.

“They’ve got fight in them,” Campbell said of her players. “They’ve always had fight in them and we learn a lot every game. Each game we go, we learn more and more.”

Campbell said the Pioneers (6-5, 2-3) have one big thing that she is focusing on for the remainder of the season.

“They can hit the ball, field the ball and pitch the ball,” Campbell said. “We are getting better at the mental toughness part. Once we get that figured out, then we are going to go a long way.”

Gibson thinks his club, which made the Class 4 quarterfinals last season, can go a long way, too. He said his team has rebounded nicely after a 7-4 loss to Liberty to rout Heritage 19-3 and knock off the Pioneers, who the Colonels edged 6-5 earlier this season.

“We’re going to use that loss because it was a bad loss,” Gibson said of the Liberty game. “We’re going to use that loss to propel us the rest of the season.”

Brannon says the Colonels are definitely getting better. “It was a struggle at the beginning because we had lost seven seniors from last year,” she said. “We have a really young team. We have four freshmen. I think we’ve grown well together. The experience that we have together just clicks so perfectly and it shows in our outcomes.”

Rieg liked what she saw from her teammates on Tuesday. The comeback against the Pioneers resembled those the Colonels had often in 2023. “We always say, ‘Refuse to lose,’’ she said. “This was one of those games we refused to lose. No matter what, we are going to find a way.”

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