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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

The West Forsyth softball team remained undefeated this past week with four wins against Davie County, East Surry and a doubleheader against Reynolds.

West Forsyth is 14-0 overall and 6-0 in the Central Piedmont 4-A as of Monday.

In the Davie County (10-2, 5-1) game this past Tuesday in Clemmons, West Forsyth scored a run in the first inning to take a lead they would never lose en route to a 12-2 mercy rule win.

Each player in the Titans lineup had at least one hit. Lilliana Parker had three hits, Sydney Horton had two hits, including a home run, and Madisen Barringer had two hits.

“I was definitely surprised by the end result,” Coach Kevin Baity said. “All around it probably was one of the better games we’ve played. You know, we had the big win the Friday before against Reagan, and we had a talk Monday because there were several things we could’ve done different against Reagan. And I showed them how that score easily could’ve been more like 9-1 just by leaving runners on base and doing basic throw and catch and knowing where we’re going with the ball.”

Following the conference win against Davie County, West Forsyth faced East Surry (4-7) this past Thursday in Clemmons and won 10-0 by mercy rule.

Horton was 3 for 4 with a homer and four RBIs, Lily Hardy had three hits, and Barringer went 1 for 3. 

Against Reynolds (1-11, 0-9) in the doubleheader in Clemmons, West Forsyth won 15-0 and 16-0.

Horton had a homer in the first game. Also in the first game, Barringer was 3 for 3, Morgan Maxwell, Ava Moore and Parker were 2 for 2. In the second game, Barringer was 3 for 3, and Horton and Parker were each 2 for 2. 

On Tuesday, West Forsyth is scheduled to travel to Kernersville to face East Forsyth (7-7, 4-2) in a conference game.

“East is definitely good enough that they can beat us,” Baity said. “If you remember last year, we beat them 14-0, 17-1, and then they had us beat in the first round of the (NCHSAA Class 4-A) state playoffs and gave it to us. (It) ended up 3-2, but they had us 2-1 going into the sixth.”

West Forsyth is scheduled to travel Thursday to play a nonconference game at Randleman (11-3) in a nonconference game.

The final scheduled game of the week is at home on Friday against Mount Tabor (2-5, 1-5) in the second meeting of the season. West Forsyth defeated Mount Tabor 16-0 on March 4. 

“It’s like I told the girls, if we beat East and we’ve gone through the first round of the conference undefeated, before we play the next team again, which would be Reagan. That’s in three weeks,” Baity said. “All of them have played each other. Reagan plays Davie again, Davie plays East again, Reagan plays East. They’re all hopefully going to beat up on each other.

“I said, if we can win Tuesday (at East Forsyth), by the time we play one of them again we should be two games up.” 

Baseball

The West Forsyth baseball team continued to roll this past week by sweeping the series against Reagan. 

In the first game this past Tuesday in Pfafftown, West Forsyth defeated Reagan 6-4. 

“We got into their bullpen and got their starter out of the game, which was big for us,” Coach Kevin McIntosh said. “Sam Rice kept us off balance all night long. That’s their starter.”

Garrett Secrist and Brayden Seeley were walked in the seventh, Jaxon Holloman had a sacrifice bunt to advance Secrist and Seeley. Luis Acevedo had a squeeze bunt and McIntosh said Reagan misplayed it and threw the ball to right field, allowing two runs to score to tie it 3-3.  

With one out, Mason Ridings reached on an error to put runners on first and second. Will Holden followed with a two-run double to give West Forsyth a 5-3 lead. West Forsyth added insurance runs in both the sixth and the seventh.

“It was a lot of executing on our part and taking advantage of their couple walks and error, and us getting the bunts down,” McIntosh said. “We had two sacrifice bunts that inning and then it led to the big hit by Will Holden.”

Grayson Jones started the first game for the Titans and picked up the win after going six innings. Ridings, Holden, Church and Seeley each had one hit.

In this past Friday’s game, West Forsyth won 2-1 in Clemmons. After a scoreless first three innings, Reagan scored a run in the top of the fourth. However, West Forsyth answered with two runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Holden led off the fourth with a leadoff double, Parker Trexler moved Holden to third with a sacrifice, and Holden scored on a single by Church to tie it at 1-1. Church stole second, and with two outs, Secrist lined to shortstop, but the ball was misplayed, allowing Church to score from second to take a 2-1 lead.

“It’s big to win the first game,” McIntosh said. “And it takes a lot of pressure off you when you win that first game on Tuesday night. And we went in Friday night with a great positive attitude.” 

Lucas Alderman started the second game for West Forsyth and pitched six innings and had seven strikeouts and had one walk. Church pitched the seventh for the save. Acevedo and Holden were 2 for 3 and Church and Ridings each had one hit.

This week, West Forsyth is scheduled to play a conference game Tuesday night at Glenn (6-6, 3-3), and Glenn is scheduled to play Friday night in Clemmons. West Forsyth is scheduled to play Wednesday night in a nonconference home game against Greensboro’s Grimsley (11-2).

“They’re high school kids, and they’re coming off two huge emotional wins last week,” McIntosh said. “But you know, we’ve still got four weeks of conference play. Just because you’re sitting 6-0 and you knocked off your rival Reagan by no way shape or form does that mean our season’s over with and we can put it in cruise control.”

Girls soccer

The West Forsyth girls soccer team outscored its two conference opponents 11-0 this past week and picked up two wins.

Against Glenn this past Monday, West Forsyth won 9-0 with the help of two goals apiece by Natalie Kerth and Allie Ramseur.

“Monday was Glenn, and we were able to get the game over with at halftime,” said Coach Jeffrey Williams (5-3-1, 3-0). “We actually scored a goal in the first 10 seconds of the game and we didn’t even have the kickoff.”

This past Wednesday, West Forsyth upended Reagan 2-0 with goals by Ashley Johnsen and Aisley Maguire. Brooklynn King had a shutout in goal.

“(Reagan was) very defensive-minded, they kept a bunch of people behind their lines, and we broke through a few times and maybe didn’t score as many goals as we’d thought or probably should have, but they definitely played tough,” Williams said. “And our girls did execute some things better. We were able to kick the ball from side to side a little bit better than we normally did, so that was a big positive from the game.”

This week, West Forsyth was scheduled to play host to Davie County (7-1-1, 3-1) on Monday night and at Reynolds (5-2-2, 2-0-1) on Wednesday. 

“Well statistically in conference it looks like we’re playing the four hardest teams now in the conference,” Williams said. “Davie County has emerged as a contender for sure and they have good players. They’ll be well-coached. And then Reynolds is tough. Reynolds is good depth-wise, and they’ll be ready to go, too.”

Girls lacrosse

It was an up-and-down week this past week for the West Forsyth girls lacrosse team. 

Last Monday, Northwest Guilford (4-3) routed West Forsyth 22-8 in a nonconference game in Greensboro, but West Forsyth bounced back with conference wins against Glenn and Reagan. 

“Actually, we came out to a really good start, and in the first quarter we played really well,” Coach Doug Brawley said of the Northwest Guilford game. “We had a short-lived lead and started strong, and they’re a very good team and had a little more depth than we did. We made a few unforced errors there that caused us to get behind.”

West Forsyth (6-4, 3-0) rebounded this past Tuesday with a 20-2 win in Kernersville against Glenn. And this past Friday, West Forsyth slipped past Reagan 12-9 in Clemmons.  

Glenn fell to 0-5 overall and 0-2 in conference. Reagan fell to 8-2 overall and 3-1 in the conference. 

“Reagan definitely has a much-improved team this year,” Brawley said. “And they came out strong. We still have yet to play our best. The game was closer than I thought it should be, but a lot of that was because of the heart and drive of Reagan. They never quit. But in the same aspect my girls played hard also.”

This week, West Forsyth was scheduled to play a nonconference game at Greensboro’s Page (1-3), followed by a conference game Tuesday at home against Davie County (4-3, 2-2), and a home conference game Friday against Reynolds (4-4, 2-0).

West Forsyth defeated Reynolds 15-8 and 12-6 in two regular-season games last season, and it also defeated Reynolds 14-9 in the conference tournament. 

“It’s going to be as big as it’s ever been just because it’s Reynolds,” Brawley said. “These girls on our team and on their team are going to get fired up. It’s like any rivalry. It doesn’t matter if one team is undefeated, and the other team hasn’t won a game, this game will be competitive, this game will be down to the wire. And this game will be based on who wants it the most, who plays the hardest and who can eliminate mistakes.”

Boys lacrosse

It was a mixed bag this past week for the West Forsyth boys lacrosse team. 

Coming into this past week, West Forsyth was undefeated after having not won a game last season. West Forsyth defeated Greensboro Grimsley 9-7 this past Monday in a nonconference game in Clemmons and followed that this past Tuesday with a 15-7 win in Kernersville against Glenn in a conference game.

“Those two games — Grimsley, I really didn’t know too much about them other than what I saw in the scores,” Coach Jacob Able said. “It turned out to be a close game, but I think we were the better team. We didn’t quite play up to where we should have.

“…The same thing the next night against Glenn. Glenn had a really good team at the beginning of the year, but they’ve had some pretty key injuries. I think that helped us out a bit.” 

This past Friday, Reagan defeated West Forsyth 15-9 in Pfafftown for the team’s first loss of the season. West Forsyth is now 7-1 overall and 2-1 in the conference. Reagan improved to 4-5 overall and 3-1. 

“Going from 0-16 to 7-1, that’s not bad at all,” Able said. “Comparing us to last year, I think we’re in a much better spot, obviously.”

This week, West Forsyth was scheduled to play a home conference game against Davie (8-1, 3-1) on Tuesday, a nonconference game Thursday at Morganton Patton (1-7), and a home conference game against Reynolds (7-2, 3-0). 

“(Reynolds) has been killing a lot of teams that are at a similar level as us,” Able said. “So, I mean we’re going to go out there and do our scouting and come prepared.”