Drew Ridenhour belts a homer.

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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

A look back at Davie sports 25 years ago …
The 2000 Davie baseball team kept fairy dust in its bat bags and was basically the Michael Jordan of comebacks. The softball team had one of the most thrilling seasons we’ve seen.
And then there was a junior who was absolutely insane in all the jumping events. In the first track & field meet of the 2000 season, Nick Propst went 6-9 in the high jump to shatter the school record of 6-4 shared by Propst and Chad Alexander.
“My goodness, that was unbelievable,” coach Devore Holman said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. There must have been 50 people around him clapping and pumping him up.”
Weird things happen in baseball. Davie took visiting Alexander Central to extra innings despite only managing one hit and committing six errors. Central piled up 10 hits and made just one error, but the Cougars had to fight like crazy to prevail 5-4 in eight innings. Davie’s one hit was an Andrew Daywalt homer in the bottom of the eighth.
Davie softball tamed archrival North Davidson 6-1 at home behind pitcher Shannon Handy’s surgical precision, the junior striking out 11 in a four-hitter. Brandi Cornatzer, Ashlie Sanders and Stacey Handy produced two hits each to fuel the offense.
“She’s unbelievable,” coach Tammy Reavis said of her pitcher. “The only thing that worries me about Shannon pitching so good is I’m afraid our defense is going to fall asleep.”
Davie golfer Greg Brooks carded an even-par 36 at Oak Valley. The sophomore was backed by 38s from senior James Stewart and junior Trent Clement.
Brad Willard came out of nowhere to give Davie baseball a come-from-behind 5-4 win in the CPC opener at Mt. Tabor. After Thadd Johnson and Chris Seaford got on with hits and Tabor committed an error, Willard supplied a tiebreaking, two-out, two-run single in the sixth.
“I’ve been working hard on swinging and defense,” Willard said. “I love being in the spotlight.”
Tabor put the tying run at second with one out in the seventh, but reliever Ross Smith did not blink.
“There’s nothing like competition and having to rise to the occasion,” Smith said.
Stewart enjoyed a spectacular 4-under 33 at Hickory Hill. G. Brooks and John Landen had 39s, Shawn Brooks 41 and Jake Taylor 43.
“I think (Stewart) got upset at me because I didn’t play him at No. 1, so he was determined to prove to everybody that he was No. 1,” coach Doug Illing said.
Davie boys tennis halted a freefall (13 straight losses) with an 8-1 win over South Rowan. The singles winners were Luke Koontz, Steven Chambers, Djordje Lukic, Brandon Frisby and Matt Johnson. Davie was without top seed Austin Powell, who was sidelined with a broken arm.
Davie baseball trailed visiting Reynolds 5-1 going into the bottom of the seventh, but won 6-5 with an unbelievable finish.
“The way we were down 5-1 and the way things were going, this is one of the most exciting wins I’ve had as a coach,” coach Mike Herndon said.
In the seventh, Zeke Earle’s infield hit and Johnson’s double energized the War Eagles. After Smith reached on an error and Daywalt took one for the team (HBP), big Drew Ridenhour, a .447 hitter across two seasons, lined a missile up the middle to pull Davie within 5-4.
With two outs, Ricky Bentley was on the hot seat. He came through with a seeing-eye single up the middle to tie the game at 5.
“I wasn’t nervous,” Bentley deadpanned.
Willard capped the walk-off win with a line-drive RBI single, and sophomore reliever Cody Wright escaped jams in the sixth and seventh.
“He can be something very special,” Herndon said of Wright.
“It was the most exciting game,” Ridenhour said. “It wasn’t fun during the game, but it was fun at the end.”
In a showdown for first place, Davie softball had a scintillating 5-3 win over West Forsyth.
In the top of the sixth, with West leading 5-3, Davie had the bases loaded with two outs. No. 8 batter Kim Hilton was down 0-2 in the count against superstar pitcher Marissa Mickey, but Hilton came up huge, roping a bases-clearing double into the left-center gap. Before that, Stacey Handy had a frozen-rope single, Ember Spillman bunted for a hit and Ashley Quinn walked.
“I was really nervous but I just took a deep breath and tried to concentrate because I knew this was a big game for us,” Hilton said. “I like a challenge.”
“We were depending on her and she pulled through,” Sanders said. “We all had our fingers crossed. That was a lot of pressure.”
With first place on the line, Wright displayed remarkable composure for a sophomore, threw a five-hitter and helped the War Eagles to a 6-1 win over visiting West Forsyth. The young fireballer ran his record to 4-0 and lowered his ERA to 0.72.
Davie softball gutted out a 4-2 win at South Rowan to extend its winning streak to seven. With the score 2-2 in the sixth, Stacey Handy’s hit by pitch and Spillman’s infield hit set the stage for Sanders, who unleashed a two-run double.
Davie baseball walked a tightrope in a 9-8 win over visiting South Rowan, which had held an 8-5 lead and led 8-7 going into the bottom of the seventh. Davie scored the last four runs of the game without getting a hit.
“Tonight’s game could have really sunk us,” Herndon said.
In the seventh-inning rally, Seaford and Earle walked and Johnson was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Smith, who walked to push across the tying run. The winning run scored on an error. Ridenhour unloaded a mammoth homer and drove in three runs as Davie notched its sixth comeback win in the CPC.
The War Eagles pulled another Houdini act at Reynolds. Will Jones of the Demons had a no-hitter for 6.1 innings and a 3-0 lead, but Davie scored four times in the last inning to survive 4-3.
“I think their goal every game is to see how mad the coach can get before they start playing,” Herndon said.
With one out in the seventh, Bentley and Seaford bounced singles between first and second. With runners at second and third and two outs, Reynolds intentionally walked Earle to bring up Johnson, who walked to put Davie on the board. Then Smith’s two-run double down the right-field line tied it. Johnson scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch, and Smith got the win with three scoreless relief innings as he lowered his ERA to 1.69.
At Pudding Ridge, Shawn Brooks fired a 3-under 33 to earn medalist for the third time in four matches. Seth Correll shot 38 and Greg Brooks 39 as Davie protected its first-place standing at the halfway point of the CPC race.
Davie softball withstood a heavyweight fight at North Davidson, winning 1-0 thanks to Sanders’ sixth-inning double that plated Stacey Handy all the way from first. Shannon Handy (three-hitter) pitched at her usual level to raise her record to 9-1.
In the CPC championship meet at Mt. Tabor, Propst captured league titles in the long jump and triple jump, took second in the high jump and earned field athlete of the year. Junior Jhockton Dalton won the discus and was runner-up in the shot put. Adrayus Arnold was second in the 400. Jason Crowley, Jason Hogue, Arnold and Scottie Crump were second in the 800 relay.
Davie baseball trailed visiting North Davidson 5-0 through four. Did this really happen again? Yes, it was divine intervention stuff again as the War Eagles rallied for a 6-5 win.
In the sixth, Earle smacked a game-tying double, advanced to third on Johnson’s bunt hit and scored the winning run on a throwing error. The comeback would not have been possible without Daywalt, the sophomore reliever who tossed three-plus innings of no-hit ball. North had the tying run at third in the seventh. The game ended on a wild pitch in which catcher Ridenhour threw to a covering Daywalt for the third out.
“It was the same old thing,” Herndon said. “We wait until the sixth inning and then we start playing a little bit.”