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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

The West Forsyth baseball team had already clinched at least a tie for the Central Piedmont 4-A championship before this past week started.

But after sweeping East Forsyth this past week, not only did it win the regular-season championship outright, it finished undefeated in the conference with the conference tournament scheduled to start on Monday night.  

West Forsyth (19-3, 14-0) defeated East Forsyth 14-2 in Kernersville this past Wednesday, which clinched the outright championship, and just one night later in Clemmons 4-3 to finish undefeated in the conference.

“After the (Wednesday) night win, especially in the fashion that we won it in, it made breathing a lot easier on Thursday night,” West Forsyth Coach Kevin McIntosh said. “Anytime you can clinch before the season’s officially over it makes it easier on all avenues of things.”

The first game was originally scheduled for last Tuesday, so that game was moved back until Wednesday.

“Weather was a question mark, and we ended up having to move it from Tuesday to Wednesday, which always throws another wrinkle into it because your plans don’t go as planned 100 percent,” McIntosh said. “But we answered that plan and did what we had to do.” 

In the first game against East Forsyth (16-7, 10-4), West Forsyth scored two runs in the first inning and added six more in the second inning.

“Wednesday night’s game is by far the best we’ve hit the ball all year,” McIntosh said. “And we were facing a good pitcher. Take nothing away from East Forsyth and what they had on the mound – 16 hits, 14 runs, 8-0 after the second inning – that makes it easy.”

This past Thursday, West Forsyth led 4-1 after the sixth inning, but East Forsyth tacked on two runs in the top of the seventh.

“Our mindset all year has been 1-0 on the day,” McIntosh said. “And even going into Thursday that was still our mindset – be 1-0 on the day, 2-0 on the week, and be 14-0 in the conference. And if we can check all three of those boxes at the end of that night it was a great night for the Titans.

“And obviously we were able to check off all three of those boxes. Our kids were on a mission. They wanted that unblemished mark. It was something that was mentioned at the beginning of the year, and then we didn’t talk about it.”

The conference tournament began on Monday night, with No. 1 West Forsyth defeating No. 8 Parkland 15-0. West Forsyth defeated Parkland (1-22, 0-14) 15-0 and 20-0 this season.  

With the win, West Forsyth will play Tuesday in the semifinals at 5 p.m. at Reagan against the winner of Monday’s game between No. 5 Glenn (11-12, 5-9) at No. 4 Davie County (12-12, 8-6). The championship is scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. at Reagan. 

“This group of seniors, they don’t know anything other than winning the Central Piedmont conference baseball tournament, having won the last three and going for the fourth one” McIntosh said. “So, I think it’s a little pride. It’s a little personal challenge within this group to go 4-0 as CPC tournament champions in their high school career.” 

Softball

The West Forsyth softball team had already clinched the conference regular-season championship two weeks ago, but it still had to play East Forsyth this past week.

It defeated East Forsyth 4-2 Thursday night in Clemmons to finish the regular season undefeated in the conference with the conference tournament set to begin Monday night. 

“Honestly we did not play well at all,” said West Forsyth Coach Kevin Baity (21-1, 14-0). “It was a really emotional pregame with so many seniors who had been with the other girls for a while.” 

One extra wrinkle in the game is something Baity elected to do for senior Kaylyn Riddle, who has missed the entire season with a torn ACL.

“I actually started Kaylyn,” Baity said. “I had them announce her as a starter in the No. 2 spot, where she would’ve been, and at first base. So she went out and actually threw the ground balls at the beginning of the inning.”

East Forsyth (14-10, 9-5) led 1-0 after the top of the first inning, but West Forsyth tied it in the bottom of the first and took a 2-1 lead after the bottom of the second.  

“We did not play well,” Baity said. “In the book it has five errors. In my head we had eight errors because passed balls don’t go as errors. They go as passed balls. That’s an error.” 

West Forsyth added two runs in the fourth to take a 4-1 lead.

The conference tournament began on Monday with a 15-0 win by West Forsyth in Clemmons over No. 8 Reynolds (3-17, 0-14). West Forsyth defeated Reynolds 15-0 and 16-0 earlier this season.

“There’s no doubt in my mind (Thursday) night was just because we had things sewed up, it was senior night, there were a lot of distractions, weather,” Baity said. “I don’t think that worst performance will carry over to next week.” 

With the Monday night win, West Forsyth will play in the semifinals at 5 p.m. on Tuesday at East Forsyth against the winner of Monday’s first-round game between No. 5 Glenn (12-11, 6-8) at No. 4 East Forsyth. The championship is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday at East Forsyth. 

“I want to go back to peaking, get our bats going again top to bottom, playing sound defense,” Baity said.

Girls Soccer

It was a busy week this past week for the West Forsyth girls soccer team. It played three  conference games in three nights, sweeping Glenn, East Forsyth and Reagan. 

In the first game last Monday against Glenn (2-13, 1-9), West Forsyth (12-3-1, 10-0) scored 10 goals in the first half to win 10-0. Allie Ramseur and Aislynn Maguire led West Forsyth with two goals apiece.

Last Tuesday in Kernersville, West Forsyth defeated East Forsyth 3-2 in overtime on a goal in the first overtime by Ashley Johnsen. It was the first time this season that West Forsyth had given up a goal in a conference game.

West Forsyth led 1-0, but East Forsyth (10-4-2, 7-2-1) scored just before halftime to tie it. West Forsyth regained the lead in the second half and East Forsyth tied it at 2-2 with 24 seconds remaining in regulation. Even though Johnsen scored, West Forsyth still had to hold off East Forsyth for a second 10-minute overtime. 

“We did some things OK, and we didn’t do some things OK,” West Forsyth Coach Jeffrey Williams said. “So, we have to work on how to finish out games better.” 

Last Thursday night against Reagan (4-10-2, 3-6-1), Ella Fergus and Hannah Hanes scored two goals apiece to help West Forsyth win 8-1. 

“We were on the third game of the week and third game in a row,” Wiliams said. “And we did fairly well. It was 3-0 at halftime. And the second half we found sort of a second wind and were able to sub a lot. We were moving the ball pretty well.”

This week, West Forsyth defeated Davie County (9-3-3, 5-3-2) in Mocksville 5-0. West Forsyth defeated Davie County 4-0 April 1 in Clemmons.

“I definitely think that we’ve gotten better,” Williams said. “I think that they’ve gotten better, too. They’ve been doing a couple different things, kind of experimenting with stuff. And we’ve still got a couple things to solidify and move around.” 

On Wednesday, West Forsyth is scheduled to play at Reynolds (8-5-3, 5-3-2). West Forsyth defeated Reynolds 3-0 on April 2.

“They’re a good team,” Williams said. “They do some different things. They’ve got a lot of good young players. Last time they came out with a lot of energy to start the game and took us a while to get into a groove. We’ll try to combat that this time.”

Girls Lacrosse

The West Forsyth girls lacrosse swept their two games this week – a win against Reagan to remain undefeated in the conference, and a nonconference win against Atkins. 

Last Tuesday at Reagan (13-4, 8-2), Kendall Gurley scored seven goals to help West Forsyth win 19-9. 

“She had a great night,” West Forsyth Coach Doug Brawley said. “And she has just recently returned to our team from tearing an ACL last year.” 

Tatum Snow added four goals for West Forsyth, Gabby Vestal had three, and Kayleigh Mutkus and Brigdhe Mullen scored two goals apiece. 

“They played true team ball, dominating all three aspects of the game – offense, defense and midfield,” Brawley said.

Friday night in Clemmons, West Forsyth upended Atkins 22-9 in a nonconference game.  

“Atkins has got some good ballplayers,” Brawley said. “They’re just not as deep as we are. So, the game tends to get away from them.”

The Camels fell to 9-7. 

This week is the final week of the regular season with three games to play. Tuesday, West Forsyth was scheduled to travel to Reynolds (9-7, 7-2).  

“Well right now we’re 9-0 in the conference and everybody else has two losses,” Brawley said. “So, pretty much one of the next three games we have to win to at least clinch a share of the conference championship.” 

West Forsyth defeated Reynolds 14-13 on April 4 in Clemmons. 

“This is always the biggest game for the girls,” Brawley said. “I don’t have to create any hype for this game.” 

West Forsyth is scheduled to travel to Davie County (7-7, 4-5) on Thursday, and it is scheduled to finish the regular season on Friday at home against East Forsyth (3-9, 3-6). West Forsyth defeated Davie County 19-8 in the first meeting, and defeated East Forsyth 17-2.

“We don’t want to lose to Reynolds at all, ever,” Brawley said.  

Boys Lacrosse

The West Forsyth boys lacrosse team played one game this past week and lost to Reagan 13-6 in a game in Clemmons on Tuesday. 

“The first half we played really well,” West Forsyth Coach Jacob Able said. “And then the second half we just couldn’t throw and catch, didn’t do the things we needed to do, same as the first time we played them.” 

Cole Tisdale led the Titans (11-5, 5-4) with three goals. 

“Going into the game our guys know who they’re playing against. They’ve got a lot of friends on the other team,” Able said. “Reagan’s our big rival. I think sometimes they can get a little too into their own heads.” 

This week is scheduled to be the final week of the regular season. 

West Forsyth was scheduled to play at Reynolds (15-2, 10-0) on Tuesday, at Davie County (14-2, 7-2) on Thursday and at home Friday against East Forsyth (3-11, 1-9).  

Reynolds defeated West Forsyth 16-7 on April 4 in Clemmons. Davie County defeated West Forsyth 20-3 in Clemmons on April 1. West Forsyth defeated East Forsyth 8-4 on April 8 in Kernersville. 

“Obviously Reynolds and Davie beat us pretty bad when we played them earlier in the year, both of them,” Able said. “We just need to go into it with the mindset of ‘We’re just going to play our game. We’re going to try our best.’ 

“Worst-case scenario we lose, but we get to practice against a really good opponent, which is going to help us against East, and then the conference tournament and maybe in the state playoffs. Best-case scenario, we shock the world and come out with a win.”