Softball Comes Out On Top in Championship Rematch

by Natalie Murray ’18

After last facing the Northwest Jaguars in the 2015 state championships, every member of the Sherwood softball team knew they would have to play their best if they wanted to defeat Northwest–one of their toughest competitors. On April 5, the Warriors defeated the Jaguars by a close margin of 10-7.

Though the game started out slowly with a scoreless first inning, the Warriors dominated early in the game. A home run by junior Faith “Buggy” Hanrahan gave the team a 1-0 lead early in the second inning, and a double from senior Marisa Mancini drove in a second run shortly afterwards. The fourth inning proved to be even more successful, with five Sherwood runs scored and only one for Northwest. The Warriors earned two more runs in the next inning and entered the sixth inning with a 9-1 lead.

However, the Jaguars began to rally when the Warriors went three up, three down in the top of the sixth. When Northwest got up to bat, they got two runs scored off of a series of singles and doubles, followed by an additional two runs from a home run.

That inning cost Sherwood a lot of momentum, especially when catcher Brittany Mathis was injured after being slid into.

“It seemed like that was a turning point,” said Coach Ashley Barber-Strunk. “The cheering from Northwest started getting louder and louder, and we got softer and softer.”

The Warriors got one run in the seventh to put them ahead by five, but Northwest chipped away at their lead until Sherwood was up by only three runs, with two outs and one runner on first base. Finally, a ball hit high and hard into center field was caught to end the game, 10-7–Sherwood’s smallest margin of victory this season.

Though the score was far closer than the Warriors would’ve liked, “It was good to see, obviously, that we came out on top–starting from here, what we can do to perfect those little things,” said Barber-Strunk, and added that the minor fielding and baserunning errors that occurred during the game were going to be focused on so that the team can continue to improve and keep winning.