Woodbridge softball returns to regionals
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By HUGH RIST
For the News & Messenger
Published: May 21, 2008
For the News & Messenger
Little things mean a lot.
That adage was the reason the Hylton Bulldogs softball team saw its season end and why the Woodbridge Vikings made the Northwest Regional quarterfinals for the first time in their coach’s memory.
Woodbridge (11-11) played what coach Colleen Kersey called a “complete game” for one of the few times this season, beating Hylton 5-2 in the semifinals of the Cardinal District Softball Tournament at Woodbridge. The victory set up a title matchup with top-seeded Forest Park, which beat Gar-Field, 4-3, earlier Wednesday.
The Vikings logged eight hits, received a strong pitching performance from Colleen Williamson, and played errorless defense to reach the title game.
Hylton’s inability to do the little things right aided Woodbridge as the Bulldogs (11-10) committed five errors, saddling starting pitcher Katie Barham with a much worse fate than she deserved. Hylton coach Harry Bell said the Bulldogs’ defensive lapses were critical.
“Katie pitched her heart out. She’s not going to strike many people out, so she relies upon her defense and they didn’t support her tonight,” Bell said. “We said before the game that it would come down to offensive execution, good pitching, and strong defense and if we could do two of the three of them, we would win. We lost on every one of them and there is nothing else to say.”
Woodbridge got off to a great start, as Williamson worked around a leadoff walk to Taylor Williams and a sacrifice bunt by Leighann Jacobs that moved Williams to second by inducing fly ball outs to the next two hitters.
In the bottom of the first, Alecia Bailey lined a single to right, stole second, and moved to third on a throwing error by Barham. Freshman shortstop Melissa Martinez then drilled a run-scoring single to left to make it 1-0. A fielder’s choice grounder to second by catcher Amanda Hernandez forced Martinez, but enabled Morgan Cooke to score a second run.
Meanwhile Williamson retired the next six consecutive batters, fanning two to keep Hylton on its heels. The Vikings made it 3-0 in the second as Alison Hill ripped a double to right and scored on a fielding error.
The Bulldogs pulled within 3-2 in the fourth on run-scoring singles by Heather Wood and Barham.
But Woodbridge answered back with a run in the fourth on a leadoff single by Mary Clair Pedagno, who stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on another error.
The Vikings tallied their final run in the sixth, parlaying two fielding errors and a stolen base into an extra run.
Williamson said the timely hitting, as well as the gift runs, made it easy to pitch.
“There was no pressure,” Williamson said. “(Getting to regionals) is huge. We talked about it before the season because we thought that we were in the upper half of area teams. We just had to believe.”
Kersey said playing a solid game in all facets has been difficult for most of the season.
“That has been a struggle for us,” Kersey said. “We played solid defense and got good hitting when we needed it. We were happy that they helped us defensively.”
Williamson said the Vikings will need a similar effort on Thursday to beat the Bruins.
“Hitting will be the key,” Williamson said. “We haven’t hit well against them this season. If we are able to do what we did tonight, get good hitting, and play errorless ball, we can stay competitive with them. I guess we’ll see what happens.”
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