WINCHESTER — In Kati Brannon’s time in the James Wood softball program, she has had some exceptional upperclassmen to help lead and teach her and her teammates the game.
In 2026, Brannon, now a junior, and the three seniors on the team find themselves in a leadership role for the rest of young team. Wood has five freshmen on the roster, with three in the starting lineup, and what a group of freshmen it is.
Led by freshman Taylor Fishel, who homered twice, the Colonels rolled over Liberty 15-5 at Ridge Field for their second win in as many nights. The game was called after six innings because of the run rule.
“The good thing about it as a coach is we got the bench emptied,” James Wood coach Patrick Gibson said. “Those are the best games for coaches when everybody gets to play. We swung it well tonight. I liked the plate discipline. We were better with that tonight, we swung at better pitches and worked the count.
“It’s always good to get a win, and beating Liberty is always big.”
James Wood (2-1) went 2-1 against the Eagles (2-2) last year, including a 4-3 victory in the Region 4D quarterfinals.
The Colonel freshmen combined for six hits, six RBIs, three runs, two home runs and a triple, but it was Fishel that caught everyone’s attention.
Hitting in the third spot for the Colonels, Fishel finished 3 for 4 with two home runs, three RBIs and three runs scored, and for good measure she pitched two innings of relief.
“Taylor is on my travel team. She’s amazing,” Brannon said. “I want to say I’ve kind of taken her under my wing a little big bit. I look at her as like a little niece. As Cadence Rieg did for me her senior year I try to help her. I only want the best for her. She’s doing really well. She stays with the ball, has quick hands. I think she’s going to have a really good season.”
Gibson expects big things as well from Fishel, who now has three home runs this season.
“We know what she’s capable of,” he said. “She’s a phenom. She takes great at-bats. That’s why we stuck her in the three hole. She flat out gets it done. She’s got a great swing and just a mature hitter for her age.”
Fishel had plenty of offensive help in the middle of the lineup. Brannon hitting cleanup was 2 for 4 with a home run, a double, two RBIs and two runs scored, and five-hole hitter, senior Kayleigh Harden, was 3 for 4 with a triple, an RBI and two runs.
Sophia Gerald got the win in the circle. She tossed three scoreless innings, retiring all nine hitters she faced, with six strikeouts.
James Wood scored four times in the first, and it did it by showing speed and power.
Shortstop Brynnen Williams walked to lead off the game. Center fielder Aubrey Nail dropped down a perfect sacrifice bunt, but Williams wasn’t content with just second. She rounded the bag with a full head of steam and raced all the way to third on the play.
With Fishel at the plate, Williams made it 1-0 when she raced home on a wild pitch. Fishel then quickly made it 2-0 when she hammered a pitch high and deep over the center-field fence for her first homer of the game.
Brannon hit a one-out double to the fence in right-center field and she scored on Harden’s RBI triple to the fence in right. Harden scored on Molly Maynard’s RBI groundout to make it 4-0 at the end of the first.
Two freshmen got the Colonels going in the second inning. Reece Madagan and Sophia Rohrbach drew back-to-back walks to start the inning and moved into scoring position on Williams’ groundout.
Madagan was out at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch. But Nail lined an RBI single to right to score courtesy runner Gabby Madagan and make it 5-0. Nail stole second and scored on Fishel’s base hit to right for a 6-0 advantage.
Brannon followed with a no-doubt blast over the left-center field fence to give the Colonels an 8-0 lead after two innings.
“All I can do is just thank our hitting coaches. We’ve worked a lot on our hitting,” Brannon said. “We’ve been hitting in the cages, and I think it paid off tonight for everybody. Our offense is very good. We hit the ball. We’re 15 deep and I really think that all 15 girls have full potential to be in the lineup.”
Once Gerald exited the game, Liberty was finally able to find some offense. With one out in the top of the fourth Morgan Waln and Chloe Dodd hit back-to-back doubles to make it 8-1.
But the Colonels answered right back. Fishel led off the bottom of the fourth and promptly blasted her second home run of the day, another no-doubter over the center-field fence to make it 9-1.
One out later Harden singled for her third hit of the day. Gabby Madagan was hit by a pitch and Maggie Maynard drew a walk to load the bases.
Freshman Taliah Sheppard singled to to left to score Harden and Madagan for an 11-1 lead. After a wild pitch put two more into scoring position, Williams ripped a two-run single to right to make it 13-1. Williams would later score on a wild pitch for a 14-1 edge.
Liberty scored four unearned runs in the fifth inning. Leah Tibbs homered over the left-field fence to close to gap to 14-3 and Lucia Contreras had a two-run single to right.
With two outs in the sixth, Reece Madagan walked. Another Colonel freshman Marleigh DeHaven came to the plate and took advantage of the right fielder that was playing shallow. DeHaven lined a shot over her head to the fence in right for a triple, easily scoring Madagan to end the contest with the run rule.
Off the bench, Colonels freshman DeHaven and Sheppard both had good nights. DeHaven had two hits, including a triple, and an RBI, while Sheppard had a hit, drove in two and scored twice.
“[Good offense], that’s what we want,” Gibson said. “We always play solid defense, and our pitching is really good, so we’ve got to get the at-bats going and that’s what we did tonight. We’ve got a lot of freshmen. They got a lot of playing time tonight and they showed tonight what they can do in the moment. We’ve just got to keep on rolling and keep on playing our best softball until the end of the year.”
James Wood was set to host Fauquier on Thursday, then is off until April 7 when it travels to Henkel-Harris Field to play Handley.
“This win is definitely going to make a statement for us, for our record this year and how our team is going to go,” Brannon said. “I really think this win, and [Tuesday’s 7-0 win against Clarke County] started that.”