STEPHENS CITY — Over the years, James Wood and Sherando have played some memorable softball games, especially in the postseason.
However, Monday night’s Region 4D semifinal game might go down as one of the best, if not the best.
James Wood senior left fielder Kayleigh Harden’s RBI single in the top of the seventh inning snapped a 6-6 tie and helped the North No. 2 Colonels slip past the North No. 1 Warriors 8-6 in a hard-fought game that went back and forth all night at Sherando Park.
With the win James Wood (19-3), advances to Wednesday’s Region 4D championship game, where it will host South No. 4 Jefferson Forest at 6 p.m. and earn another trip to the Class 4 state tournament after a one-year absence.
“I feel like this team always comes through,” said Harden, whose team lost both regular-season meetings against the Warriors. “It feels good to win against them. I knew we were going to win. We lost those other two times but I knew we would pull through when it counted.
“No matter what happens [Wednesday), we get to play in states. It feels really good.”
Sherando’s dream season comes to an end at 19-3 and once again one win short of a state tournament berth.
“Another instant classic,” James Wood coach Patrick Gibson said. “They went off, we got back in it, they kept punching back, and we kept responding. That’s what we talked about, we’ve got to score with them.
“Part of our game plan was to play to win. I feel like the first two times we played not to lose. We were going to play with our backs to the wall, play to win the game and not play not to lose. We were going to be crazy, we were going to bunt, we talked about bunting with two strikes, we were going to do anything it took. We prepared for it, we worked on it, and we executed it.”
What started out as a home run derby through the first four innings turned into a contest of, “Anything you can do, I can do better,” for the last three innings, with seniors that didn’t want their high school careers to end on both sides having big days offensively.
With the score tied 6-6 in the top of the seventh, James Wood third baseman Taylor Fishel led off with an infield single, and that was followed by a single to left by cleanup hitter Kati Brannon.
Harden, who had already homered in the game, stepped up and ripped a sharp single to left, scoring Fishel from second to make it 7-6.
Two outs later, with Brannon on third and Harden on second, pitcher Maggie Maynard dropped down a safety squeeze bunt. The Warriors fielded it cleanly but the throw to first was off line, allowing Maynard to reach safely and Brannon to score for an 8-6 lead.
Sherando’s inability to execute bunt defense became a theme in the later innings. The Warriors committed five errors — four came on sacrifice bunt attempts from the fifth inning on, leading to four James Wood runs.
Sherando got the scoring going in the bottom of the first inning when senior pitcher Lily Wray hit a two-out home run over the left-field fence for a 1-0 advantage.
The Colonels got their offense going and answered in the top of the third.
With one out, senior shortstop Brynnen Williams singled and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Aubrey Nail.
Fishel stepped to the plate and drilled a two-run home run over the left-field fence to give Wood a 2-1 edge.
In the top of the fourth, Harden led off the inning with her home run blast, a shot just to the right of where Fishel’s had landed, and the Colonels enjoyed a 3-1 lead.
Wood’s lead didn’t last long. The Warriors answered right back in their half of the fourth.
With one out, Elle Shutts singled to center. Senior shortstop Makayla Williams followed Shutts and hammered a shot over the center-field fence to tie the game 3-3.
That’s where the home run derby ended and the Colonels started playing small ball.
Wood catcher Sophia Rohrbach led off the fifth inning by drawing a walk. One out later, Nail again laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt. The Warriors throw to first was wild, allowing Nail to reach and Rohrbach to advance to third.
Rohrbach scored to make it 4-3 when Fishel reached on another Warriors error and later in the inning, Nail scored on a sacrifice fly from Brannon to make it 5-3.
The Colonels added another unearned run in the sixth. Sophia Gerald led off with a single. The next two hitters, Maynard and Rohrbach, each dropped down sacrifice bunts, and both reached on wild throws to first.
Courtesy runner Reece Madagan scored to make it 6-3 on Brynnen Williams’ RBI groundout.
With their season in jeopardy and only six outs left in the game, Sherando responded with a big sixth inning.
Wray and Shutts reached on back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. Williams then ripped a double into the left-field corner, easily scoring Wray and putting runners on second and third.
Jessie Kaiser then dropped down a safety squeeze bunt that scored Shutts and moved Williams to third. With one out and the tying run at third, catcher Leighanne Lowe lined a single to right center to score Williams and tie the game 6-6.
Eliza Anderson walked to move the lead run into scoring position, but Maynard struck out the next two hitters to end the threat and leave the game tied 6-6.
After her offense got her the decisive runs in the top of the seventh, Maynard retired the side in order in the bottom of the seventh for the victory.
“It’s always right down there to the wire,” Sherando coach Mark Conner said of the game. “James Wood did a good job tonight. We fielded the bunts. We just couldn’t make good throws and they exposed that a few times on us, and that probably was a game-changer for us.”
Conner said he was proud of his team.
“They fought to the end,” Conner said. “We just came up a little short. They did a great job. Just try to fight for seven innings, we’ve been saying that for the last couple of weeks. As a coach you obviously want to win but you see that they’re fighting every inning to help each other out. You can’t ask for any more. We had a good season. Best of luck to James Wood.”
James Wood outhit Sherando 9-8. Williams, Fishel, Brannon, and Harden had two hits each, with both Fishel and Harden driving in two runs and Brannon and Williams one each. Fishel scored twice for the Colonels. Wray, Shutts, and Williams each had two hits and scored two runs for the Warriors. Williams drove in three with her double and home run.
“Last year we were extra innings away from getting to states,” Gibson said. “We talked about that all offseason. That’s what we were preaching when were doing suicides, when we were doing all that work, that’s what we talked about was getting back to states.
“We kept grinding [through this season]. We worked on defense a lot and we got better. We knew Sherando was a big challenge. They’re a really good team. I have a ton of respect for Lily Wray and the shutdown pitcher that she is. They hit one through nine. We talked about we had to play good defense and we had to hit with them.”