What a night in Manassas.

Simultaneously on Friday, two Battlefield pitchers threw complete-game one-hitters against their rivals from Stonewall Jackson, earning big district wins right before spring break.

Softball senior Miranda Kemp ended up tossing a near-perfect game, allowing just one hit to left field as she faced 22 batters in a 2-0 BHS win. Not long afterward, John Williams kept up the streak on the baseball diamond with a one-hitter of his own during a 6-1 Bobcat victory.

The two pitchers struck out a combined 27 batters, with Kemp recording the most at 15.

Collecting Ks aside, the Battlefield teams won in opposite fashion. Williams had a 2-0 lead to work with right from the get-go in the first inning while Kemp faced a tough challenge from former teammate Kelsey Cockrill, who gave up five hits and three walks in seven innings of her own pitching for Stonewall.

It took back-to-back homeruns from seniors Katherine Palmer and Stephanie Figgins for Battlefield (10-1 overall) to finally break open the scoreless game in the seventh and give Kemp the opportunity to mow down SJ 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the inning. The baseball Bobcats (6-2 overall) maintained a lead the entire game as part of their 6-1 victory.

Schelzo told The Times earlier in the week that he deemed Kemp and fellow pitcher Bailey Liddle "virtually untouchable." The stats backed him up as the two seniors entered the week before spring break with a combined ERA of 0.97, tallying 77 strikeouts to just 28 base-hits, only seven of which went for extra bases.

For Williams, speed turned out to be his strong suit.

"Going out there with a 2-0 lead, it gives me the ability to stay back and I can just let the ball go and throw it as hard as I can without pressing and, like, worrying about giving up a run," said Williams.

According to Stonewall manager Brian McCarthy, his batters came across a barrage of fastballs early and often in the count.

"He was hitting both sides of the plate," said the coach.

Unlike the softball team, which relied solely on power production to score runs, the baseball team utilized every aspect of its hitting game to bring home runners. Williams and Derek Evans both clocked doubles for Battlefield while Chris Moylan rounded the base paths twice.

Small-ball also worked to Battlefield's advantage such as when Nate Abel scored on a squeeze bunt by Dylan Porterfield. Evans also scored a run of his own and Williams and Abel both collected two RBIs.

"The passed balls and the errors, throws to first, gave us an extra base a few times to where we could bunt a guy over and get him into scoring position with two outs to work in that run," said Williams as he reflected on how the team took advantage of some Stonewall miscues in the field.

Battlefield manager Jay Burkhart agreed with his assessment, adding that he told his players look for first-pitch fastballs.

"I thought we ran the bases exceptionally well tonight too to take an extra base, whether it was a ball in the dirt" or anything else, he said. "We stole a lot of bases and that helps. When you put guys in scoring position and (you’re) able to score guys; that was our game plan and we were able to do that tonight."