It’s still early in the softball season but so far the surprise team in the Central Region is the Patrick Henry Patriots. On Thursday the Patriots moved to 4-0 with a 5-0 win over Douglas Freeman to follow up a 4-0 win over visiting Atlee the night before.

  And on the surprise team, the biggest surprise has come from the performance of first year pitcher, Emma Mitchell; a sophomore that has shown both talent and poise on the mound. Against the Raiders, Mitchell struck out 13 batters, but more impressively, through three games she has given up very few walks.

  “Emma Mitchell on the mound has done a spectacular job,” said Patriots’ head coach Matt Crowder. “I think she’s walked two or three batters all year. Thirteen strikeouts, she’s done a great job.”

  Atlee head coach John Early agreed. “Their pitcher did a great job on us. We weren’t adjusting to the outside pitch.”

  Mitchell’s poise was evident early when Atlee lead-off batter, freshman Taylor Sutherland lined a shot into right for a double. But the young pitcher was not phased by the early offensive attack, getting three straight outs. 

  “Emma’s, she’s as cool as she can be,” Crowder said. “She’s real quiet. She never gets rattled it seems. She’s just a real quiet kid. 

  “Even if she gives up a hit or walks somebody, which doesn’t happen often, she just goes back to work. Just a hard worker.”

  Most surprising of all for Crowder is that Mitchell was not even projected as the starting pitcher coming into the season. Instead the coach planned to primarily use sophomore Sam Moore.

  “Really (Mitchell) was a big surprise for me this year,” Crowder said. “I really thought Sam was going to handle most of our innings this year but Emma came along, we pitched her in the scrimmage and she just did a great job of hitting spots and I said we’re a much better team with Sam at short and Emma on the mound.

  But Atlee was not without its own impressive pitcher on the mound. Freshman Jessica Holte turned in a solid performance with few lapses. Holte started off with a strikeout of Allie West followed by two quick outs from the succeeding batters.

  “She’ll be good,” Earley said. “She’s just learning where to pitch and what pitches to throw. So when she throws a bad one she’s leaving it in a great spot for the hitters to hit and they’re taking advantage of it right now. But she’ll get better. She’s already made some improvements since the beginning of the season. We can already see some small improvements every day. Hopefully once we get into district play and that she’ll be where she wants to be.”

  In the second Patrick Henry struck on offense and defense. Mitchell struck out the side and it appeared Holte would do the same for Atlee, getting K’s on the first two batters.

  But PH’s strong sophomore class went to work.  Anna Hogue drilled a double shot to center then came home when junior Kendalle Weaver tripled to right. Next up, sophomore Katie Woody punched a shot to right, plating Weaver for a 2-0 lead.

  “They just hit the ball hard,” Earley said of the Patriot batters. “There was maybe one of them we’d be able to get to. They put it where we weren’t and that’s the name of the game.”

  The score remained the same until the fourth when Mitchell gave up her lone walk of the game, but equaled the equation by striking out the other three Atlee batters.

  With two out in the bottom of the fourth, PH sophomore Kacie Melton stood on third after getting a triple to right. Weaver picked up her second hit of the game on a double to right center driving in Melton. Then Woody drove in Weaver on a single to center for a 4-0 Patriot lead, creating the final score. 

  As scary as it may sound to future opponents, the Patriots continue to win despite not getting the best from the strongest part of their batting order.

  “Tonight, the middle part of our order really struggled.” Crowder said. “We had one hit at the five spot, three and four were shut out. But the bottom of the order did absolutely great, going against what she was pitching. She (Holte) was pitching outside and they were hitting the ball to right just like you ask them to do. A good team effort today.

  “There are not easy outs in our lineup really,” Crowder added. “Luckily tonight the bottom part of the order really came through.”

  Despite suffering their third loss in four games, Earley said his young Raiders continue to make strides, which he pointed out to his players after the game.

  “I told them when we were out there, we lost, you’ve got to learn from it,” he said. “If you learn from it, it’s not a loss. But if you don’t make the adjustments then you didn’t learn anything. We’re expecting better things. We’re young. We’re making little steps every game. It’s going to be a tough adjustment for some of them.

  “We’ve got two seniors starting the rest are three freshmen, a couple of sophomores,” Earley said. “So we’re predominantly young. We’re learning. Some days the freshmen play like freshmen and some days they play bigger than what they are. We’re hoping like the middle of the season they’ll be playing like sophomores and juniors.”

  On Thursday, Atlee bounced back to defeat Hermitage 2-1.

Atlee ...................000 000 0 — 0 3 0
Patrick Henry…..020 200 x — 4 7 2
Holte and Keyes ; Mitchell and Gilman; W: Mitchell, L: Holte
Highlights: Kendalle Weaver (PH) 2 for 3, 2b, 2 RBI, 2 runs; Katie Woody (PH) 2 for 3, 2 RBI; Emma Mitchell (PH) 13 K’s; Taylor Sutherland (A) 1 for 3, 2b
Patrick Henry…..000 050 0 — 5 8 1
D. Freeman…......000 000 0 — 0 1 3
Mitchell and Gilman; McLaughlin, Boykin (7) and Doggett. L: McLaughlin.
Highlights: Emma Mitchell (PH) 10 K’s; Sam Moore (PH) 1 for 4, grand slam; Allison Tingler (PH) 2 for 3, run; Jacey Quarles (DF) 1 for 3
Records: Patrick Henry 2-0 Colonial, 4-0; Douglas Freeman 1-2, 1-2
Hermitage ..........001 000 0 — 1 4 0
Atlee ....................100 010 x — 2 4 1
Francisco and Diaz; Holte and Keyes
Highlights: Taylor Francisco (H) 1 for 3, RBI; Jessica Holte (A) 9 K’s; Taylor Sutherland 2 for 3, run, game-winning RBI; Mackenzie Keyes 1 for 3, 2B, RBI
Records: Hermitage 2-2, Atlee 2-3

For video highlights of this game see the latest episode of The Score.