The Sherwood softball team are state champs.

The Bowmen defeated North Medford 10-6 on June 7, at Jane Sanders Stadium in Eugene, and in the process exorcised demons of year’s past and stayed the course en route to the school’s first softball state title.

“The girls put their heart and soul into the season and stayed really focused,” Sherwood head coach Kris Moore said. “When we lost a game they didn’t let it defeat them, they rebounded. And we had a really tough route through the playoffs…so, a lot of emotion with this win.”

Last year it was a state quarterfinal loss to eventual champion Sheldon; the year prior it was a semifinal loss to that same Sheldon team; and a year before that Sherwood lost in the opening round to Lake Oswego. But not this year. Not even to a Black Tornado team that had Moore’s utmost respect.

“That North Medford team is really well coached and really well disciplined, and they gave it all they had,” Moore said. “But we were able to get the answer when we needed to to finally finish off the game.”

It was all Bowmen early, with the No. 3-seed getting two runs in the first inning on a Maisy Schindler home run coupled with a McKenna Parmalee RBI-double, followed by two more runs in the second thanks to a fielder’s choice and a Schindler sacrifice fly to center.

From there it was mostly about the pitching, where Sherwood’s Destiny Cornwell and North Medford’s Julia Edwards locked opposing hitters up.

But with Cornwell out of the game and with Bowmen freshmen standout Presley Sarono-Ramos in the circle, the Black Tornado stormed back to tie the game with four runs in the top half of the sixth inning, the bulk of which came with two outs.

That didn’t faze Sherwood however, for Moore said his team was steadfast in their belief in their ability to respond, and proved it shortly thereafter.

“When we came off the field, even though we gave up four runs, nobody looked dejected,” Moore said. “Everybody was just excited to get out there, get up to bat and execute and just do the little things we needed to do to get one or two runs.”

Well, they didn’t just get one or two, instead they got six.

Sarono-Ramos and Berklee Henning led off with singles and scored when junior Hollie Maughan hit an RBI-double to right-center field. Then, after an error and hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, Maughan stole home, Daisha Cornwell singled, Schindler hit her second home run of the game, and Parmalee doubled to make it a 10-4 game and the Bowmen were on their way to a state championship.

Schindler finished 2-for-3 with the two homers and four RBI, and while her coach was excited about the roundtrippers, he was equally pleased regarding his junior outfielder’s work and attitude throughout the season and leading up to the game.

“I was so proud of her,” Moore said. “She’s had her ups and downs this season, just like everybody else. But she just kept working really, really hard over the last couple of weeks and she delivered. The two home runs were great and I loved every second of those, but her sacrifice fly to center for a run represented all the hard work she’d put in. I was really proud of her for that.”

He was also proud of his pitcher, Cornwell, who allowed two earned runs over her 4.1 innings of work.

Throughout their playoff run, Cornwell and Sarono-Ramos shared innings, with both experiencing success. But in their regular season finale against this same North Medford team, it was Sarono-Ramos who took the circle and dominated the Black Tornado to the tune of 16 strikeouts. But while many would’ve chosen to chase a similar outcome and put the freshman in the circle in the title game, Moore chose instead to stay with what had worked over the course of the postseason.

“It was a no-brainer,” Moore said. “Presley had obviously pitched against them the last regular season game and just totally dominated them. Completely shut them down. But the whole playoffs we had the same formula and it worked well for us.”

And there was no pushback from the team who Moore said put winning over everything else.

“They were all willing to give up personal accolades for team success, they wanted a title,” Moore said. “So, we sat down and we talked about what that would take, and it really was going to take sacrificing personal accolades in order to win as a team. And they were all okay with that.”

And that includes Sarono-Ramos who while uncharacteristically struggling in her 2.2 innings pitched against North Medford on Saturday, was a force in the circle and at the plate for the entirety of the season.

Moore said he was more than aware of the freshman’s ability to start the year, but was equally impressed by her willingness to adapt and put the team first.

“She was great to coach,” Moore said. “Not only is she a great pitcher, but she’s a great offensive player too. She was just really special to watch and very adaptable when it came to wanting to do what’s best for the team.”

And she’ll be a key ingredient to next year’s team who’s losing but three seniors (Destiny Cornwell, Parmalee and Camryn Knight) and returning a core of quality and now championship players. That’s exciting for Moore, but at the same time the coach knows it will be up to them all to find what works for a roster that will be losing a starting pitcher, catcher and center fielder.

“Those three seniors are irreplaceable, so we’re going to have to figure that out in the offseason, how we’re going to do that,” Moore said. “But I definitely think we have the talent and team chemistry to find a formula for success as far as how we’re going to make another deep run next year.”

And how would Moore sum-up the season, its final game, and ultimately the team that can now call itself the state’s best?

“Destiny Cornwell getting that final out on a hard hit ball, it was kind of symbolic of the season,” Moore said. “Everybody making the tough plays and executing at a high level in order to get the job done. It was a really special win.”