WINCHESTER — It is said in baseball that hitting is contagious.
James Wood High School hitters certainly had the fever on Tuesday night at Millbrook.
Led by Jake Woskobunik’s long homer and double, the Colonels scored in four of five innings and cruised to a 13-1 romp to split the season series against the Pioneers.
Parker Kerns tossed a three-hitter and helped himself with three hits and three RBIs against Millbrook (11-7), which had defeated James Wood 3-2 earlier this season.
“We came out swinging today,” said Woskobunik after the Colonels racked up 11 hits against four Pioneers pitchers. “It feels good for the team. Each and every day we come to work. … The dugout stays energized and that translates to every at-bat.”
James Wood (12-5) already had 7-1 lead when Woskobunik hit what is believed to be the first homer in nearly three seasons at Millbrook, a notoriously hard park to clear the fence. With maybe a slight tailwind giving some aid, Woskobunik hit a towering drive over the left-center field fence, which measures 355 feet from the plate.
“I was fortunate to get a pitch to hit,” the sophomore said of his first homer this season. “I couldn’t do it without my coaches and teammates pushing me every day during practice.”
James Wood coach Adrian Pullen, who was a longtime assistant before taking over the program after the 2019 season, said Woskobunik’s blast holds some distinction.
“I’m not sure in all of my time at James Wood that we have hit one out here,” Pullen said. “There was a little wind blowing out but he did it right and caught the ball out front. He had his foot down and kept his leg back. That’s what we practice every day. He did it right, got a pitch to hit and did that with it.”
Millbrook coach Scott Jenkins said he believed it is the first home run from any player at the field since the Pioneers’ Chase Ford crushed one near the end of the 2023 season.
To prove it was no fluke, Woskobunik nearly took another one out an inning later. He hammered a drive that hit off the top of the fence in left, missing by only a couple of feet.
“It feels good that the hard work each and every day pays off,” Woskobunik said. “We hit every day in the cage or on the field. It doesn’t matter. We push each other to be great.”
The Colonels got off to a great start against Pioneers starter Holden Faith by scoring five runs in the first. James Wood sent 10 batters to the plate in the inning.
With runners and second and third and one out, Cole Ritter opened the Colonels’ scoring by smacking a two-run double down the third base line. Later, Nolan Landry’s infield single plated one run and an another came home on an error on that play to make it 4-0. Miscommunication on Jackson Lang’s pop-up down the right field line allowed another run to score on what became an RBI single. James Wood had five hits, a walk and a hit batsmen in the uprising.
“That’s exactly what our offensive game plan is — to get runs early and often and then try to put teams away,” Pullen said. “Today we had some good at-bats and some poor at-bats. … We took advantage of some mistakes and that’s what we have to do. If other teams make a mistake, you have to capitalize on it and we did that tonight.”
Kerns, the area’s ERA leader (0.95) coming into the contest, was happy to see a big number on the scoreboard before he had to throw his first pitch.
“It’s amazing,” the junior right-hander said. “When my teammates are hitting like that, I can just [throw]. They’ve got my back and I know they’ve got it in the outfield as well. It’s amazing just to have a score like that to pitch behind.”
The only run against Kerns came in the third inning. Millbrook’s Nate White reached on an error and later moved to second on Jaxen Carter’s line single up the middle. Later on a pitch in the dirt, White broke for third and came in to score as the ball was thrown into left field.
Kerns struck out five, walked one and hit a batter.
“It was all about throwing strikes and letting the team do the work,” Kerns said.
Jenkins was disappointed his players did not take a more disciplined approach against Kerns, who was able to negotiate a tight strike zone.
“One of the things that we should have done early and we didn’t make the adjustment was that the umpire had a minuscule zone,” Jenkins said. “We didn’t take advantage of it. They took advantage of it and made us throw way too many pitches. We were up there swinging at everything. Yeah, [Kerns] was around the plate, but we’ve got to make that adjustment earlier and I don’t think we ever made it, honestly.”
Jenkins said his team — which travels to Sherando on Thursday — needs to answer another tough question.
“We’ve got to figure out how to win a game without Dylan Apfel (5-0, 1.05 ERA) on the mound,” he said. “It’s weird scheduling when we play James Wood and Sherando in the same week. Two days apart, we can’t throw our ace in both games. The other guys had an opportunity to step up and we just didn’t.”
Kerns (single) and Ritter (sacrifice fly) drove in a run each in the third to make the score 7-0. Kerns followed Woskobunik’s homer with a bases-loaded, two-run single in the fourth to make it 10-1. Avery Phelps (RBI single) and Lang (RBI groundout) drove in runs in a three-run fifth.
Kerns said the triumph over the Pioneers was big.
“They’re a good ball team,” he said. “They have good players and good pitchers. It was very important [to get a win]. It’s good for the team to swing like that.”
Pullen likes what he saw from his squad as the postseason looms. The Colonels have four regular-season games left, starting with Thursday's home game against Warren County.
“Tonight we hit the baseball,” he said, noting his batters struck out just twice. “… If we don’t strike out and we put the ball in play, we give ourselves a chance. … I know strikeouts happen and they are part of the game, but you can’t have double-digit strikeouts and expect to beat anybody. Tonight, we put bat on ball and good things happen when you put the barrel on the baseball.”
Jenkins believes his team will respond.
“We’ve got to learn from this,” he said. “We’re too good not to rebound. We’re too good not to make adjustments. I think we’ll be OK in the long run.”
By WALT MOODY For The Winchester Star