The Davie softball team’s run for the regular-season roses began to shape up favorably last week for the peaking-at-the-right-time War Eagles.

Going into a home game against Reagan on April 10, the War Eagles were in a weird position for a team that’s always a contender in the Central Piedmont Conference. They were 1-2 in the league. Three CPC wins later, coupled with a loss by first-place East Forsyth, Davie is right in the hunt.

East is 4-1. Davie and West Forsyth are tied for second at 4-2. Glenn is 3-3, Reagan 2-4 and Reynolds 0-5.

It was Reagan’s misfortune to catch Davie when the War Eagles had something to prove after losing 11-4 to Glenn and 5-4 to East. Despite being idle for 11 days, Davie pounded Reagan with a big offensive outburst, 17-5 in four and a half innings.

It was a quality win because Reagan ripped Glenn 17-5 (Glenn beat Davie) and lost only 6-4 to East (East beat Davie).

“They have some talent in their lineup,” coach Dawn Lowery said. “But we were prepared. The girls were excited about the game.

“You can’t tell (what’s going to happen) with the conference this year. The scores are up and down. Whoever’s the most consistent is going to win the conference. We told the girls our consistency needs to improve.”

The Raiders rallied from 6-2 to 6-5 in the fourth. Davie’s answer in the bottom half was ruthless: 11 runs as 15 batters stepped to the plate. Bridgett Tierney (walk), Anna Devereaux (walk), Sierra Ferguson (walk) and Sydney Wyatt (HBP) worked their way on base before Sydney Hendren entered the box with the bases full and the margin 7-5. The catcher broke out of a funk with a grand slam.

Although Hendren smoked two homers in 2017, she entered the game hitting .210 with no long balls. She snapped the slump at key time.

“When she’s hitting, we’re a different team,” Lowery said. “She hits the ball just about as hard as anybody we have. She’s strong. She works hard to fix her mistakes and make adjustments.”

Davie scored the most runs in 17 games by getting multiple hits from Ferguson (2-3, three RBIs, double), Hendren (2-3, five RBIs), Emilee Dishman (3-3, double) and Shea Woody (2-3). Devereaux doubled and walked twice.

Rachel Bostic, who walked none in three innings, got the win. River Simpson got the save as she threw 21 of 27 pitches for strikes over two innings.

Davie has never lost to Reagan, winning 17 matchups.

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Davie needed a sixth-inning rally to pull out a home nonconference game against East Surry on April 11, but Lowery was not about to complain about the 11-8 decision.

Never mind East’s 1-A classification. The Cardinals (11-5) are pretty darn good, having beaten Forbush (2-1), West Forsyth (2-1), Glenn (10-6) and Ledford (2-0).

“They’re very well coached and very talented,” Lowery said. “Their losses are to really good teams.”

East broke ahead 3-0 in the first, but hits have never been in short supply for Davie and home team roared back on a day when Ferguson tied a school career record.

Davie put up a seven-spot in the second, with two of the six hits coming from the suddenly-hot Hendren. In the sixth, East scored twice to tie the score at 8. Davie responded with a rally in the bottom of the sixth even though its most feared bats, Devereaux and Ferguson, did not come through like they almost always do.

After Emma Patterson bunted for a hit, East’s pitcher struck out Devereaux on four pitches and fanned Ferguson on three offerings. But Davie didn’t blink. Wyatt singled to right-center. After East intentionally walked Hendren to load the bases with the score still tied, Dishman sent a hard slap to short. The fielder errored the grounder and two runs scored. (“Emilee has one of our hottest bats right now,” Lowery said.) Then Woody blistered an RBI double over the center fielder.

“It was probably five feet from going out,” Lowery said of the double. “Two of the most clutch players we have go down swinging. The fact that our team didn’t quit after that says a lot about the fight we had. Everybody else picked them up. That shows a lot of growth for our team.”

Devereaux went 2-4. Wyatt and Hendren both went 2-3, with Hendren driving in three runs. Ferguson knocked in one run to tie the career record for RBIs (93). Makenzie Smith had 93 from 2014-17.

After Simpson worked 3.1 innings, Bostic got her fifth win by recording the final 11 outs.

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The War Eagles could have named the score during a doubleheader at Reynolds on April 12, and that’s pretty much what they did, winning 17-1 and 15-0.

In game one, Ferguson knocked in four runs to shatter the RBI record. In game two, Davie defeated the Demons for the 51st consecutive time.

Notes: Davie is hitting .328 and averaging 9.1 runs. The batting-average leaders are Ferguson (.433), Wyatt (.404), Devereaux (.396), Tierney (.375), Dishman (.340) and Woody (.300). … The leaders in runs scored are Devereaux (23), Patterson (21) and Tierney (21). … Devereaux and Ferguson have five doubles each, while Hendren has four. … Tierney and Wyatt both have 12 walks/HBPs. … Tierney ranks high in two career categories. She’s second in runs with 110; Morgan Hendrix had 122 from 2011-14. She is third in hits with 125.