WINCHESTER — Friday’s Region 4D quarterfinal game at R. Charles Hott Field produced a true pitching duel between James Wood’s Parker Kerns and Sherando’s Aaron DeHaven.
Both aces threw a complete game, but it was Kerns’ six-pitch top of the seventh that secured a 3-2 victory for the North No. 1 seed Colonels, who improved to 15-6. Sherando, the No. 4 seed, finished 14-9.
"Throw the numbers away, James Wood against Sherando, it's going to be a ball game," James Wood head coach Adrian Pullen said. "It's going to be about who outlasts the other one. Two pitchers battling head-to-head, both of them just battling pitch after pitch after pitch ... we're just fortunate and blessed to come out on the right side of it."
After each team previously won 4-1 at home in two regular-season contests, Kerns finished with four strikeouts, a walk, three hits and two earned runs across 74 pitches to help James Wood win the rubber match.
Kerns, who didn't allow a base runner in four of his seven innings, said his success stemmed from trusting his teammates to "make a play."
"I just relied on my team like I always do," Kerns said. "[My mindset was] be quick, don't let runners on. Like coach says, if you walk the first batter, most likely they're going to score, so if you keep walks [low] and just let the team do the work, you've got it."
Sherando’s DeHaven also impressed, finishing with six strikeouts, two walks, seven hits and three earned runs across 106 pitches. He recorded four strikeouts, a walk and a hit in the first three innings before James Wood’s offense picked up steam down the stretch.
With Sherando leading 2-1 entering the sixth, Kerns sent the Warriors order down in order to bring the Colonels back to the plate in the bottom of the inning.
The home team soon took the lead for good thanks to RBI singles by Brady Smith and Cole Ritter.
Jake Woskobunik opened the frame with a leadoff single and Luke LaFollette pinch ran for him with one out. Nolan Landry, who recorded an RBI earlier on, hit a single that dropped in left-center, placing runners on first and third.
Avery Phelps was then hit by a pitch to load the bases, setting up Smith’s RBI single down the first-base line that brought in LaFollette. Ritter, the Colonels’ leadoff man, then hit into a fielder’s choice, scoring Landry and causing pinch runner Cash Keeler to be thrown out at second.
Pullen said the Colonels played "fundamental baseball" in the sixth and highlighted Smith's contributions.
"It's getting down to crunch time, you're playing for a run, you're down one ... you're not going to go out and get 10, 15, hits off [DeHaven]," Pullen said. "You're going to go out and you're going to keep battling and battling. It's like a heavyweight fight. You keep punching and you keep punching and you keep working, and that's what we did tonight.
"We had great at-bats from the bottom of our order. Brady Smith, he's been struggling, just hats off to him. He has continued to work at it. He hasn't gotten down, he's continued to work about just staying through the ball and putting barrel on it. He did that tonight in that situation, and it was just a great job."
James Wood flew out moments later to end the sixth, but Sherando wasn’t able to mount a comeback after Kerns and the defense swiftly sent the bats down on a ground out, line out and fly out.
The Colonels took a 1-0 lead in bottom of the fourth inning when Landry hit a two-out RBI single to score LaFollette. LaFollette was running for Kerns, who hit a single down the third-base line to get on. The Colonels had bases loaded when they flew out to end the inning.
Landry, who finished 2-2 with a walk, an RBI and a run, said his everyday preparation readied him for this moment.
"The coaches have been preparing us all week for this type of pitching, and I just did what they taught us to do," Landry said. "I'm just glad to help my team out in any way that I can."
The Warriors tied the game in the top of the fifth when Brayden Phillips hit a double to deep left field, scoring Braylon Clark. Clark reached on a bunt and scored with two outs on the board.
One at-bat later, Sherando took a 2-1 lead thanks to Nick Usa’s single to right-center that brought in Phillips. Usa was caught stealing moments later to bring about the bottom of the inning. James Wood advanced Ritter to third with two outs, but eventually struck out, stranding a runner on third for the second consecutive inning.
Sherando head coach Craig Bodenschatz said runs were always going to come at a premium on Friday, and that the Warriors needed to build off their fifth inning. He also said Phillips' hard work put him in position to have a big moment.
"Playoff Brayden Phillips showed up," Bodenschatz said. "He's had a couple of big hits for us the last two games, and it's nice to see a kid that's worked hard all year [succeed]. He didn't have a whole lot of success at the plate [in the regular season]. Never gave up, kept plugging, stayed late, hit extra. To see him get rewarded is why you do this job."
DeHaven tallied two strikeouts in both the first and second innings and allowed one base runner in each frame. He hit Ritter with a pitch in the third, but Clark threw Ritter out stealing to keep the Colonels scoreless.
Bodenschatz said DeHaven was effective and thanked him and Sherando's other seven seniors for their contributions.
"Aaron gave us everything he had, like he always does," Bodenschatz said. "He's a battler, and we're super proud of him. Aaron's coming off an injury last Friday, he battled through tonight as hard as he could. We just weren't able to generate enough runs to get the win.
"You wish it goes the other way, but at the end of the day, there's only going to be one team that's going to be happy at the end of the year and everybody's going to have this feeling. It's tough right now, and the seniors ... they've worked hard. That's eight guys walking out of here that have put in a lot of time and won us a lot of ball games and I'm gonna miss every one of them."
James Wood's victory also served as Pullen's 100th as Colonels' head coach. The sixth-year skipper said the milestone means a lot.
"From where we were to where we are now, what we built here is special to me," Pullen said. "I've got great kids, I've got great parents, I've got the community support. If you look around tonight, that's [an] amazing crowd ... and that's what we build in our program. We expect to win, we build and we work to win, so you know, to get 100 in five and a half seasons is pretty good. That tells you that we're playing past the end of the [regular] season."
James Wood will now host North No. 2 seed Millbrook on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
The Colonels defeated the Pioneers at Millbrook 13-1 on May 12 and fell to them. at home 3-2 on April 9. Going into the third game, Pullen said he expects another great postseason contest.
"It's going to be two good teams going at it," Pullen said. "You're not still playing at this time of year if you're not a good team. So we look forward to seeing Millbrook come over here, and and I would expect nothing less but another tight ball game. Well-played defensively, well-pitched, and it's going to come down to who makes a mistake or who capitalizes on someone else's mistake."
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