Colby Norris added to her impressive stat sheet in Warhill’s 6-3 victory over York, driving in the game-winning runs with a bases-clearing double Saturday.
Norris, a junior who is batting .523 with team-highs in RBI (19) and extra-base hits this season, knocked in the three runs during the Lions’ decisive six-run sixth inning against Bay Rivers District and Colonial Conference 25 opponent York.
While her numbers at the plate are impressive, even more superb are her pitching statistics this season. Norris, who allowed five hits and one earned run with five strikeouts Saturday, has a sparkling 0.25 earned run average with 68 strikeouts over 63 innings this season. Of the 270 batters she has faced this spring, she has allowed 51 hits.
“I don’t think you ever expect a young female high school athlete to be able to blow everyone away like she has, but she’s had the raw talent and ability since she was a freshman,” Warhill Coach Meredith Powell said of Norris, who also has a 4.2 grade point average in the classroom. “She has been doing so much for our team, it’s just been amazing to watch her.”
Saturday’s victory was easily the biggest of the season thus far for the Lions (7-4), as they remained two games behind four other Bay Rivers District teams with two losses — Grafton (9-2), York (8-2), New Kent (7-2) and Smithfield (6-2). York entered the game as the district’s only one-loss team and fell into a four-way tie for first place.
After Molly Rogerson limited Warhill to six hits hits and no runs through five innings, the Lions erupted for all six of their runs on five hits in the bottom of the sixth.
Like Norris, catcher Bridget Henzel also doubled in a run during the frame while Keely Rochard and Nadina Wright scored after reaching on one of their two base hits of the afternoon.
“We only struck out twice the whole game, but couldn’t break through and get runs across until the sixth because [York] made some amazing defensive plays when we had runners in scoring position,” Powell said. “York only had one loss, so this puts us in a good position with nine games left. There’s still a lot of softball to be played.”
Warhill 6 York 3
York- 000;021;0 – 3 8 0
Warhill- 000;006;x – 6 11 3
WP: Rochard (2-0)
LP: Rogerson
York (8-2 BRD)- Batchelor 2-4 (run), Russell 1-2 (run)
Warhill (7-4 BRD)- Norris 1-3 (2B, 3 RBI), Henzel 2-4 (2 2B, run, RBI), Rochard 2-3 (run), Wright 2-3 (run)
York Baseball Takes Advantage of Walks, Errors versus Warhill
A mixture of quality at bats by York and poor pitching on behalf of Warhill was the difference as the Falcons scored at least one run in each inning to beat the Lions 14-2 in five innings Saturday.
Warhill struggled on the mound, issuing a total of 11 walks on the day.
Hunter Collins, who went 2-2 with four RBI, reached base following each of his four plate appearances while Chris Rock doubled in a pair of runs. Senior standout Trevor Kelly also scored twice while Gabe Simmons pitched all five innings on the mound to give up two runs on five hits to lead the Falcons, who even their record to 6-6 on the season with the victory.
“We played good defense and had some quality at bats,” York Coach Rusty Ingram said. “We drew a lot of walks and got some timely hits. It was a good day for us, and probably a pretty frustrating one for [Warhill].
York 14 Warhill 2 (5 Innings)
York- 123;53 – 14 10 1
Warhill- 010;10 – 2 5 4
WP: Simmons (3-1)
LP: Rice
York (6-6)- Collins 2-2 (4 RBI, BB, HBP), Rock 1-5 (2B, 2 RBI), Kelly 1-3 (2 runs, BB), Parrish (2 BB)
Warhill (2-8)
