The Falcons' fended off two of their biggest challenges to the 2008 Mountain Valley 2A crown in recent action, drilling Ashe County 10-0 on Monday and topping North Surry 5-0 last Wednesday.
The recent results, plus a Tuesday win over North Wilkes, moved Forbush to 6-0 in the MVAC at the halfway point in the conference season, 12-2 overall.
"I keep telling the girls, 'You can't take anybody lightly at this point because everybody wants to knock you off the top," Falcon coach Burl Love said.
Ashe County was the last team to beat Forbush in softball, about four or five years ago. The Huskies have a solid team and pitcher this season, so Love and company knew not to take Monday's visitors lightly. Sure enough, the game remained a 0-0 stalemate until the fifth inning, with pitchers Lauren Harris of Forbush and Kendra Yearick of Ashe keeping most hitters off balance.
But Ashe finally blinked in the bottom of the fifth. And Forbush pounced with a vengeance.
Junior Haley Pardue got things started, leading off with a single against Yearick. Her sharp roller skipped up the right-field line and past Ashe's first baseman.
Jessica Dzeskewicz followed with a shot to center that moved Pardue's pinch runner, Lauren Triplett, to third. Jessica Hinkle then hit a dribbler toward first. A throw home was late, and the Falcons were on the board when Triplett safely crossed the plate.
"I had just made a point to the girls on how huge it is to get that leadoff batter on base," Love said. "If we can get a runner on with no outs, they feel like they can score that run. Everybody loosens up, and everybody has a different mindset."
That mindset turned into full attack mode. The Falcons scored nine runs before Ashe could get out of the inning. Brita Stanley ripped a two-run single into right for a 3-0 lead. A passed ball and throwing errors on Ashe brought two more runs home for a 5-0 game.
Paige Hauser later added an RBI single, and Jessica Hinkle stroked a two-run base hit to push the lead out to 8-0.
The Falcons nearly brought the mercy rule into play after a single by Lyndsey Hutchens. Her shot went into center, allowing one run to score easily for a 9-0 game. Hinkle came flying around the bases as well, but she was tagged out trying to slide into home for the 10th run.
Forbush finally got its 10th score in the bottom of the sixth after a passed ball by Ashe County's relief pitcher allowed Stanley to come home.
"In the fifth inning, we let a couple of bad things happen and it got away from us," said Huskies coach Bill Key, who noted that his team was missing its regular starting shortstop and second baseman. "We lost mental concentration and it kept steam-rolling. We're better than that. We just didn't show it."
Stanley's fifth-inning blast to right field, which sailed over the fielder's head, proved one of the most satisfying plays of the night for Love. The senior third baseman has been one of the Falcons' most improved players offensively this season, after struggling at the plate some last spring.
For the second time of the night, Ashe County walked the batter ahead of Stanley, senior Lyndsey Hutchens, to get to Stanley. In the fifth inning, the intentional walk loaded the bases with no outs.
"I'm over here thinking, 'Lyndsey is a good hitter but Brita has been killing it,'" Love said. "They didn't have that knowledge because they don't watch us every day. But Brita has moved from the bottom of the lineup to the three spot. She's probably hitting .400 or better right now. Her confidence is there, and that came up huge tonight.
Love said he told Stanley to take it personally when Hutchens was walked twice in front of her.
"Brita is dangerous," Love said. "The way she's been hitting the ball, she may at any point and time hit a home run. She has that kind of power. She couldn't have come around at a better time."
Harris got the pitching win for Forbush, striking out seven and giving up only three hits.
Harris had 14 strikeouts in a dominating performance at North Surry last week. The senior, who is headed to play for Lenoir-Rhyne, retired the first nine hitters she faced -- including eight strikeouts -- and was perfect until North's Chenoa Marsh doubled in the bottom of the fourth inning, for one of the Greyhounds' three hits.
The Falcons broke the game open with four timely hits in the top of the sixth, including a two-RBI double from Stanley. With a 5-0 edge, Harris sat down six of the final eight batters she faced.
North senior Megan Holt took the loss.
"When Chenoa hit that ball, I thought it was over the fence," North Surry coach Julie Gammons said. "We were pleased with that, but we left too many runners on base. We have a ton of respect for Forbush. Brita Stanley was the one coming in that worried us and she hurt us. Harris and Megan pitched well, and it was just a good game between two good teams."
Forbush has been a late-inning team of late offensively.
"I expected it to be a tough one. I was thinking 1-0, 2-1 type of game," Love said after the North Surry win. "We knew how good Holt would be and she's tough. She can throw the ball.
"(Harris) was the biggest difference for us. That's as sharp as I've seen her in a long time in those first three innings. She was blowing it by them and sitting them down."
-- Mac Heffner contributed to this story
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