King William uses run-rule victory to claim state title

The girls in the visiting dugout Saturday afternoon fell behind by one run early. That’s when they started chirping away. 

“Wah-dee, Wah-dee,” King William players yelled.

They weren’t screaming for anyone in particular, or sounding their nickname into the air around the Moyer Complex in Salem. They were chanting a hashtag, over and over. 

WADY: We Ain’t Done Yet. 

Far from it. Appomattox County’s brief lead melted away on a humid afternoon as King William broke out the bats and then received a lock-down performance from senior pitcher Jillian Smith to claim its second Virginia High School League Class 2 state softball title in three years with a 14-4, run-rule victory in six innings. 

“We just screamed that and kept saying that we’re gonna do this. We’re gonna come back,” Smith said after firing a complete game. The Cavaliers trailed 1-0 after the first inning. “We’ve done it before and, obviously, we did it again.”

King William (21-3) put to bed memories of last year’s 4-1 state championship loss to Central (Woodstock) and hoisted the trophy again. The Cavaliers last did so in 2024, with a 2-0 win over Randolph-Henry. 

“Coming into this year, knowing we had a ring was kind of moot, if that makes sense,” King William co-coach Liz Welshonce said. 

Not that they didn’t appreciate the rings they worked for two years ago.

“We wanted another one. We were hungry to get it again,” Welshonce added. 

Sometimes, teams of destiny have a special spark about them. This year’s King William players, appearing calm and relaxed Saturday, wanted something more than just more hardware. They wanted to soak in the moment as one unit. 

“We were hungry just to be here together for as long as possible, and we did that,” Welshonce added. “That’s really all we wanted.”

So they took stock. Then they walloped the Raiders (23-3). 

The two teams have a recent history. King William defeated Appomattox 5-2 in last year’s Class 2 state semifinals. In 2024, also in the semifinal round, the Raiders and Cavaliers battled into extra innings, with King William pushing across the winning run in the bottom of the eighth. 

The third matchup was all King William. The Cavaliers belted out 13 hits and leaned on its strong senior class for 10 of those knocks. 

Shortstop Addie Kirby went 3 for 4 with two RBI, catcher Hollyn Krukowski added two hits and Smith enjoyed a perfect day at the plate. 

That was, perhaps, unexpected; Smith hadn’t hit well in Salem previously. Prior to Saturday, she was 2 for 11 at the Moyer Complex, for a .181 average there, dating back to the 2024 state semifinals. 

“I’ve always had kind of a Salem Slump, that’s what we like to call it,” she said. 

But Smith went 3 for 3 with a double and three RBI on Saturday and got on base four times. 

She allowed one earned run (four total), walked one and struck out one in her six-inning performance in the circle. Smith allowed nine hits, so the Raiders had their chances, but the King William defense also stepped up. 

Appomattox scored in the first off an infield single by Kaysen Kesler, but the Cavaliers cut down freshman Maison Kelso advancing to third on the play to limit the damage. And the following inning, as Appomattox threatened with runners at second and third and one out, King William third baseman Adalyn Mills snagged a liner off the bat of Regan Shields and turned a double play, stepping on third before Makenzie Elliott could scramble back. 

“[Smith] threw really good pitches, but I think what helped her was the defense behind her,” King William co-coach Jim McGuckin said. “They hit the ball hard and we made some plays behind her that were game-changing plays.”

King William reeled off 12 straight wins at one point this season, but entered the state tournament limping from an 8-7 loss to Poquoson in the Region 2A finals on June 4. The Cavaliers led 7-0 after four innings in that game, but Poquoson stormed back with a four-run fifth before putting up three runs in the seventh and earning the walk-off in the ninth.

“That was a great point in our season,” McGuckin said. “They kept coming back and kept coming back and we could feel that momentum shift, and we couldn’t get it back.”

But … We Ain’t Done Yet, says the hashtag. Trailing Strasburg 4-0 after six innings in Tuesday’s state quarters, King William rallied for a four-run seventh and took the lead in the eighth. Smith shut down Strasburg in the final two frames. Her team went on to claim a 5-0 victory with her in the circle again in Friday’s semifinals. Smith gave up four hits in the complete-game effort. 

Appomattox, meanwhile, took care of Poquoson 10-8 in the other semifinal, scoring four times in the sixth. But the Raiders, back-to-back Class 2 state champions in 2021 and 2022, couldn’t recapture the come-from-behind magic Saturday. 

King William, armed with the lessons it has learned this postseason, made sure of it. Asked if they could take a few late-game breathers with a large lead late, McGuckin was adamant. “Never,” he said. 

“Because we had that Poquoson game in the back of our heads,” he added. “Nobody said it, but everyone remained focused and knew we’ve got to keep going. We cannot take our foot off the gas at any moment.”

Smith was happy to get the run-rule win; it meant she didn’t have to pitch the seventh inning. She planned, she said, to get back in the circle for her travel team Sunday, roughly 24 hours after throwing her final high school game. 

McGuckin thought about his senior class before exiting the field. They’d been through a whole range of athletic ups and downs: two state championships, a disappointing title game loss, setbacks that could have doomed runs like this year’s. 

And he thought about the team’s theme, another acronym. 

INAM: It’s Not About Me. 

“We’re fighting society,” he said of the idea behind that theme. “Social media, it’s always 'Look at me.' But this group embraced that theme. And I think it made all the difference.”