FOREST — Jefferson Forest junior Cameron DeWitt showed in Tuesday’s Region III girls soccer quarterfinal against Robert E. Lee that she can finish an assist and dish one out.

FOREST — Jefferson Forest certainly made things a lot harder on itself than it needed to Tuesday in the Region III playoffs.
The Cavaliers committed eight errors that led to four unearned runs, but JF managed to pull out a dramatic 9-8 victory over visiting Northside in the bottom of the ninth to advance to Thursday’s Region III quarterfinals.

Going into Tuesday’s Group AAA state quarterfinal boys tennis match at E.C. Glass, the only team the host Hilltoppers or Deep Run had lost to this spring was Colonial District and Central Region champion Mills Godwin, this year’s state tournament favorite.

Spotswood’s softball team may have played its best game of the season Tuesday in the Region III quarterfinals. It’s opponent, Brookville, may have played its worst.

GRETNA — Hitting into a triple play to end the first inning of a Region B playoff game might cause some softball coaches to throw a fit.
But Gretna coach Ketina Brooks reacted with a smile, Monday at home against Randolph-Henry in the Hawks’ first regional appearance since 2002.

For the last two weeks, E.C. Glass’ girls soccer team has devoted an extra 20 minutes in practice to penalty kicks. The players run wind sprints for 15 minutes to simulate the fatigue of an overtime game and then take aim at the goal.

Stuarts Draft’s baseball team wasted no time in making itself at home in the Hill City during its first round Region III tournament game at Heritage.
The Cougars pounded the Pioneers (16-7) for 10 hits, including two homers and nine runs in the first two innings, advancing to today’s 5 p.m. quarterfinal game at Alleghany with a 12-7 victory.

FOREST — The biggest concern for Jefferson Forest boys soccer coach Jedd Zaring this spring was shoring up a defensive line depleted by graduation.
He recruited two forwards — Jordan Smith and Andrew Dempsey, the team’s second-leading scorer last year — and backup goalkeeper Kyle Wachenheim as stopgap defenders.

With the Region III girls track and field team championship in the balance, the anchor runners from Brookville, Heritage and Turner Ashby crashed across the finish line simultaneously in Saturday’s meet-ending 1,600-meter relay at Liberty University.

FOREST — One hundred minutes of soccer wasn’t enough to decide Friday night’s Seminole District girls championship game between host Jefferson Forest and Staunton River.

Heritage entered Friday’s Seminole District baseball championship having scored a combined 31 runs in the first two games of the tournament, including a 22-6 defeat of Rustburg on Wednesday in the semifinal.

Of the nine baseball, softball and boys and girls soccer championship games to be waged tonight in the Dogwood, Seminole and Western Valley Districts, only one — Nelson County’s baseball game at Chatham — is do or die.

Regular-season champion Brookville (12-4) got a couple fortunate bounces in the second inning of its 3-0 win over Liberty (13-7), which was delayed for 30 minutes before the start of the seventh when Bees catcher Summer Jones passed out twice in the dugout.

It’s been an uneventful three weeks for the E.C. Glass girls soccer team.

Will Poats scored the tying goal 40 seconds into the second half, and Hodges Berry tallied the game-winner on a header 13 minutes later as E.C. Glass’s boys soccer team beat George Washington 3-2 in the Western Valley District tournament semifinals Wednesday at City Stadium.

Jefferson Forest’s Trevor Johnston (5-2) picked up the win for the Cavaliers by holding Amherst to just an earned run over six innings in Jefferson Forest’s 9-1 victory over the Lancers on Wednesday in the Seminole District tournament semifinals at Heritage.

Few teams have challenged E.C. Glass in boys tennis this season, but Monday’s 5-0 sweep of Fauquier County in the Northwest Region tournament should serve as a good tune-up for next Tuesday’s Group AAA state quarterfinal match.

They’re not there yet, but E.C. Glass’ boys and girls lacrosse teams are on the brink of something big.

Spring high school sports hit full speed with postseason play today when Dogwood, Seminole and Western Valley District tournaments start in baseball, softball and boys and girls soccer.

E.C. Glass’ boys and girls teams overcame sizeable deficits to GW-Danville and Franklin County, respectively, to capture their ninth consecutive Western Valley District championships, Friday night at E.C. Glass’ Vince Bradford Track.

DANVILLE — Lynchburg College took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning against the NCAA Division III South Region top-seed Salisbury (41-3), but the Gulls erupted for five runs in the inning to snatch a 5-3 victory from Hornets (32-12) and stay alive in the double-elimination baseball tournament at Dan Daniels Park.

FOREST — Senior catcher Josh Huffman had his doubts at the start of the season regarding Jefferson Forest’s fledgling pitching staff.

Except for the meet-ending 1,600-meter relay, which Heritage’s boys ran away with, tight finishes characterized Wednesday’s second and final day of the Seminole District track and field championships at Brookville.

It took Liberty Christian Academy until the bottom of the fifth inning in Tuesday’s Virginia Independent School Division III first round state playoff game against St. Catherine’s to come up with a clutch hit, but when Bulldogs finally got that clutch hit LCA went on to pummel the Saints 7-3.

Jefferson Forest boys and girls tennis teams have found that their best competition often comes in practice, especially for their top two seeds.

NARUNA — Whenever William Campbell’s Amber Marstin and Altavista’s Brooke Short pitch against one another on the softball field, the two juniors are bound to get into an intense duel.

A minute into sudden-death overtime, in the championship game of the Virginia Independent Conference boys lacrosse tournament, Covenant’s Alex Keuhler was trapped in the crease, sacked like a quarterback in the pocket by two or three Virginia Episcopal School defenders.

t was a rocky first inning in the Blue Ridge Conference softball tournament championship game for Liberty Christian Academy against eight-time defending champ Holy Cross, but the Bulldogs rebounded behind the brilliant effort of freshman starting pitcher Killian Harrison to claim the Blue Ridge title with a 6-2 victory.

Kent Brizendine was robbed.

On the day after netting the 100th goal of her varsity career, with her third hat trick of the season Wednesday night at Rustburg, Brookville senior Nichole Smith signed a partial scholarship to continue her soccer career at Winthrop University, a Division I program.