Stories

Briar Woods eliminates Orange

When Aysha Richardson made one of the area’s most incredible softball plays of the year in the sixth inning against Briar Woods by collecting a flip from her catcher after a wild pitch and subsequently running down two Falcons on the base paths even though her Orange County team was down a run, a number of people felt like the momentum might shift in a big way in the Region II semifinals.

“I thought it would,” said Orange coach John Henry Ryder.

He wasn’t the only one.

“I thought that was going to fire us up a little bit,” Richardson said.

Even the other dugout had its worries.

“I was definitely nervous about that,” said Briar Woods coach Jennifer Trania. “I think that was huge for them…but at the same I still had confidence in Macy as a pitcher.”

Oh, right. Macy Jones.

Unfazed by Richardson’s heroics, Jones came out in the final two innings and did exactly what she did the first four — hold Orange County hitless. The Briar Woods junior hurler and the Dulles District’s player of the year, notched her first no-hitter of the season in the critical elimination game, handing Orange a 3-0 loss, only the second of the Hornets’ season, with the first coming in late April at the hands of the same Briar Woods team in an out-of-district tilt.

“What do I always say?,” Ryder said. “You’ve got to hit the ball to win.”

Jones struck out 16 batters, shutting down an Orange County squad that found a rhythm at the plate against Broad Run in the quarterfinals, but sputtered against the crafty, powerful Jones. The junior mixed her pitches well and kept the Hornets off balance throughout with an ability to move the ball that most high school pitchers don’t possess. Her rise ball gave Monticello a few problems in the 2010 Region II title game, as she held the Mustangs to a single earned run. It gave the Hornets even more trouble.

“We talked to her before the game and she was totally confident—I was in knots all yesterday and today,” Trania said. “I talked to her before the game and I said, listen, ‘it comes down to if you bring you’re A+ game, you cant bring your A game, you’ve got to bring your A+ game.’ She was so calm and collected — I don’t know how she did it.”

The junior also got it done at the plate, with an RBI triple that blooped into right field and bounced toward the corner in the third inning and an RBI double in the top of the seventh that helped give herself some breathing room in the circle. Kristina Karagiorgis followed up Jones’ second RBI with an RBI double of her own. She also shook off a shot to the back from an errant throw on the bases.

The Hornets lose a pair of critical seniors to graduation in Jefferson District player of the year Amanda Murphy and pitcher of the year Micalah Sacre, and move up a level to Group AAA’s Commonwealth District. But with Richardson slated to return and a number of other critical pieces set to be back, the Hornets should have a chance to contend.

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