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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

The West Forsyth softball team clinched the Central Piedmont 4-A regular-season championship this past week.

In addition to clinching the championship the team won three conference games against Glenn, Reagan and Davie County. 

West Forsyth (20-1, 13-0) routed Glenn 11-0 last Monday in Clemmons after scoring seven runs in the second inning.

That win against Glenn (11-9, 6-6) clinched at least a share of the conference title. That led to last Tuesday night’s home game against Reagan.

“The Glenn pitcher actually is very good,” West Forsyth Coach Kevin Baity said. “She’s the one that (pitched) the 1-0 ballgame to Davie. They only had one hit.”

West Forsyth defeated Reagan 3-2 after breaking a tie with a run in the bottom of the sixth.

“We didn’t hit,” Baity said. “Caycee (Wilson, Reagan’s pitcher) is very good.”

But that one run in the sixth inning led to winning the outright conference championship, which means the Titans will be the top seed in next week’s conference tournament and will be the conference’s top seed in the upcoming NCHSAA Class 4-A playoffs.

“That was huge,” Baity said of winning the championship. “It took a lot of pressure off. The girls are playing loose, having fun. It’s something about playing (Reagan). You could actually see our girls were very (good) to begin with in that game.”

Reagan is, as of Sunday night, 18-4 overall and 10-3 in the conference.

West Forsyth then traveled to Mocksville this past Friday and pummeled Davie County 14-3.

West Forsyth trailed Davie County 2-1 after the second inning, but it scored two runs in the top of the third, three in the fourth, five in the fifth and four more in the seventh.

“I started Meredith (Casey),” Baity said. “She struggled a little bit, hitting her spots. They actually hit some pretty hard balls, so I had to take her out in the second and put Morgan (Maxwell) in.” 

Davie County fell to 12-6 overall and 7-4 in the conference. 

This is the final week of the regular season in softball. West Forsyth has a nonconference game against East Wilkes Tuesday night in Ronda.  

East Wilkes is 17-4.  

“They’re the defending (1-A) state champions,” Baity said. “They’ve got the same pitcher. She’s good. They graduated quite a few hitters. They struggled early. They’ve gotten better and better.” 

The final regular-season game is scheduled for Clemmons on Thursday against East Forsyth (13-9, 8-4) in a conference game.

West Forsyth defeated East Forsyth 15-5 on April 1 in Kernersville.

“That was a strange game because they jumped on us early,” Baity said. “And that game actually flip-flopped. I started Morgan and I had to take her out in the second inning.”

Baseball 

West Forsyth clinched at least a share of the conference championship this past week after defeating Mount Tabor a combined 28-1 in two games. Both games only went five innings because of the 10-run mercy rule. 

Visiting West Forsyth defeated Mount Tabor 13-0 last Tuesday. And this past Thursday in Clemmons, West Forsyth upended Mount Tabor 15-1.

With West Forsyth (17-3, 12-0) sweeping Mount Tabor (4-12, 2-10) this past week, and Reagan (16-4, 10-2) sweeping East Forsyth (16-5, 10-2) this past week, West Forsyth is two games ahead of both East and Reagan with just this week’s games remaining. West Forsyth is scheduled to play at East Forsyth on Tuesday, and at home on Thursday. Reagan is scheduled to play at Reynolds (7-12, 3-9) on Tuesday and at home on Thursday.

If West Forsyth wins Tuesday’s scheduled game against East Forsyth, it will win the conference outright with Thursday’s scheduled game remaining. If East Forsyth wins Tuesday’s scheduled game. West Forsyth could still clinch the outright conference title on Thursday with a win.  

If West Forsyth loses both games to East Forsyth there will be a tie for first place, and if Reagan sweeps Reynolds there could be a three-way tie.  

In addition to the two conference games West Forsyth has scheduled this week against East Forsyth, it has a home nonconference game scheduled Wednesday against North Surry (12-7). 

Girls soccer

The West Forsyth girls soccer team had just one game this past week, but they made the most of it.

Visiting West Forsyth (9-3-1, 7-0) blazed past Parkland 9-0 this past Wednesday night.

West Forsyth defeated Parkland 12-0 in the previous meeting on March 19 in Clemmons.

The Mustangs, as of Sunday night, are 0-14 overall and 0-8 in the conference.

“I think it’s tough for both sides,” West Forsyth Coach Jeffrey Williams said. “And we were able to play some people at some different positions. We had three people who had not scored this year.” 

Those three players were Skyler Eisinger, Campbell Baldwin and Olivia Hutchison. In addition, Leigha Curry and Ella Fergus had two goals apiece.

West Forsyth has three conference games scheduled for this week. The first one is scheduled for Monday in Clemmons against Glenn.  

West Forsyth defeated Glenn 9-0 on March 24 in Kernersville in the first meeting. Glenn is 2-10 overall and 1-7 in the conference.  

Following the Glenn game, West Forsyth is scheduled to play Wednesday at home against Reagan (4-9-2, 3-5-1). West Forsyth edged Reagan 2-0 on March 26 in Pfafftown. 

“I think (Reagan is) playing better,” Williams said. “They went into overtime and got a tie with Reynolds. They’ve been playing tough here recently, so that’ll be a tough game for sure.” 

On Thursday, West Forsyth is scheduled to travel to play at East Forsyth in a makeup game from a couple weeks ago. East Forsyth, as of Sunday, is 9-3-1 overall and 6-1 in the conference. 

“I’m not thrilled about having to play three games this week, with East Forsyth,” Williams said. “We have a pretty hard final two weeks. But we’ve got some people coming on. You know, I think we’re in a good position.” 

Girls lacrosse

The girls lacrosse team had an up and down week this past week with a nonconference win last Tuesday at home against Hickory, a forfeited conference win against Glenn last Wednesday, and a loss this past Thursday at Waxhaw Cuthbertson in a nonconference game. 

West Forsyth (13-5, 8-0) defeated Hickory 19-4 with the help of seven goals by Tatum Snow. Also, against Hickory (8-5), Gabby Vestal scored three goals, and Isabel Gil, Kendall Gurley, Kayleigh Mutkus, and Brigdhe Mullen scored two goals apiece. 

“We didn’t know much about Hickory,” West Forsyth Coach Doug Brawley said. “We’ve played them sporadically over the last few years and have come out on the winning side at least the last three or four years.” 

Also, West Forsyth had a 1-0 forfeit win against Glenn (0-12, 0-7). West Forsyth defeated Glenn 20-2 on March 25 in Kernersville. 

And this past Thursday in a nonconference game, Cuthbertson dominated the first half to win 19-6. The Cavaliers (9-6) led 14-5 at halftime, Payton Chester led them with five goals. 

(Cuthbertson is) good,” Brawley said. “We played a poor game. We had a lot of turnovers. By my count we had around 13 turnovers on our part from just unforced errors — passing the ball, failing to maintain control of it. They, on the other hand, took good control of the ball, were a lot more patient than we were on the offensive end.” 

This week, West Forsyth has a scheduled conference game Tuesday night in Pfafftown against Reagan (12-3, 7-1). Reagan’s conference loss came March 28 in Clemmons after West Forsyth slid by to win 12-9.  

“It’s going to be a tough one,” Brawley said. “I know they’re going to be prepared. I know they’re going to be ready for us. The game was very close last time. We did not play up to our ability last time, which takes nothing away from Reagan, but we’ve got a lot of errors and mistakes to fix on our own end of the field before we even begin to worry about addressing their strengths.” 

West Forsyth also has a home nonconference game scheduled for Friday against Atkins (8-6). Visiting West Forsyth defeated Atkins 21-2 on March 4. 

Boys lacrosse

The West Forsyth boys lacrosse also had a roller-coaster ride this past week with a loss and a win.

This past Tuesday in Clemmons, Hickory scored five goals in the fourth quarter to help it win 15-11 in a nonconference game. Hickory is now 9-4.

Cole Tisdale and Grayson Brandon led the Titans (11-4) with four goals apiece. 

“I think it was a really fun game,” West Forsyth Coach Jacob Able said. “They went up big early on. I think they were up 8-2 at one point in the first half. And then our boys just kept playing and brought it back within two goals.  

“And then they kind of pulled away again, and we came back a little bit, but it just wasn’t enough.” 

Last Wednesday, West Forsyth throttled Glenn 14-5 in a conference game in Clemmons. 

Brandon led the Titans with five goals, and Tisdale chipped in with four. 

The Bobcats are 5-8 overall and 1-7 in the conference. 

“I think we played pretty well,” Able said. “You know, in the first quarter I think we went up 6 or 7-0 really quickly in the first quarter.” 

This week, West Forsyth has just one scheduled game — a conference game at home Tuesday night against Reagan (6-8, 5-3). West Forsyth lost to Reagan 15-9 on March 28 in Pfafftown. 

“Reagan’s been weird this year,” Able said. “They’ve had a one-goal game with East (Forsyth), who is not that good this year. And East just lost to (Mount) Tabor and East lost to Glenn. And we only beat (East) by four, but that’s partially because we did not play very well against them.  

“…And then last (Thursday) night (Reagan) almost beat Davie. And a couple weeks ago they played Reynolds closer than anybody’s played Reynolds. So, I think Reagan has the potential to be a really, really good team still.”