STEPHENS CITY — Losing three of first first four games is not the start to the season the Sherando High School softball team had envisioned.
However it’s often said one good game, or even one good inning can turn the whole season around, and that’s exactly what the Warriors are hoping for.
Sherando rallied from a 5-0 deficit to defeat Class 4 Northwestern District rival James Wood 9-5 on Tuesday night in Sherando Park.
In losing three of its first four games, Sherando faced early five-run deficits (5-0 to Strasburg and 6-1 to Skyline) but battled back to lose by two (5-3 and 10-8, respectively).
This time the Warriors’ rally didn’t come up short. Sherando exploded for a seven-run fifth inning, highlighted by junior Makayla Williams’ first career grand slam, and went on to hand the Colonels their first loss of the season.
“This win is real big. We’ve had some struggles starting out,” Sherando coach Mark Conner said. “We felt pretty good coming into the season. We’re just trying to clean up some things.
“It’s always a big game with James Wood. You never know what the outcome is going to be. It was exciting to see us step up and grind this game out. We just tell them to keep swinging the bats. We told them to keep fighting, especially on offense. They did a great job and got dialed in.”
James Wood (3-1, 0-1 district) got on the board in the second inning thanks to the long ball. Sophomore pitcher Sophia Gerald led off the inning with a single to shallow left field and left fielder Kayleigh Harden followed with a two-run shot over the center field fence for a 2-0 lead.
The game stayed that way until the Colonels hit in the fifth.
With two outs, Kati Brannon walked and stole second. Aliza Judd then reached on an error, setting the stage for Colonels cleanup hitter Molly Maynard. Maynard made it 5-0 when she cleared the bases with a three-run home run just to the left of where Harden had homered.
The Colonels pitching staff had thrown shutouts in each of their previous two games, and it appeared it was going to do it again. Sherando (2-3, 1-0) had other ideas and put together arguably its best inning of the season in the fifth.
Abigael Rinker led off with a double to the fence in left-center. One out later, Kayla Grum reached on an error and Elle Shutts reached on an infield single to load the bases.
Lily Wray got the Warriors on the board with a double to the fence to score Rinker and Grum and make it 5-2. Wood chose to walk Warriors clean up hitter Mady Cox to reload the bases and bring Williams to the plate.
In a moment that dreams are made up of, Williams didn’t miss the opportunity. She put the Warriors on top to stay with her blast over the left-center field fence for a 6-5 Sherando lead.
“I just knew I had to put the bat on the ball and score some runners,” Williams said of her grand slam. “I needed to do something to get some runs on the board, we were struggling for a little bit.
“I knew it was gone. I could tell because it came off my bat so good. It was a moment you always live for. My first grand slam, never will forget it. It’s a moment that will live in my head forever.”
The Warriors weren’t done in the fifth. With two outs, Eliza Anderson singled and scored all the way from first on Rinker’s second double of the inning to give Sherando a 7-5 advantage.
James Wood threatened to regain the lead in the top of the sixth. Gabby Madagan and Aubrey Nail led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Two outs later Brannon sent a blast to left field that looked like it was going to be the Colonels third home run of the game and give the Colonels the lead back.
However, Sherando left fielder Kendra Chunta tracked the ball all the way to the fence and robbed Brannon of a three-run home run while tumbling over the temporary fence for the third out of the inning.
Sherando added a couple of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth on a two-RBI single by Anderson.
“Tough loss. It’s not going to define our season,” James Wood coach Patrick Gibson said. “We’re a young team and we kind of just let off the gas a little bit and you can’t do that against a good team. Props to them. They showed really good energy and heart and they came back.
“That’s the game of softball, the margin of error is small. We’re going to face adversity. We didn’t expect to go undefeated but we have to learn from it and we have to play better defense.”
Sherando outhit the Colonels 9-7. Rinker led the way with three hits (two doubles) a run and RBI. Anderson had two hits, two RBIs and a run and Cox added two hits and scored twice. James Wood had seven players with one hit each.
Despite the win, Conner knows the Warriors need to be better.”
“We’re trying to find the right pieces right now,” Conner said. “We’re trying to get our defense cleaned up to support our pitchers. We knew we had to get going.
“We’ve just got to take the momentum into the next game. This was a big confidence-builder for us. Everyone contributed in some fashion tonight to help us win that game”.
James Wood returns home to face Kettle Run on Wednesday, and it will also host Manassas Park on Friday. Sherando travels to Strasburg on Thursday for a rematch with the Rams.