Stephens CIty — While the Sherando High School baseball team took more than a half hour fumbling with the tarp during Monday’s rain storm, pitcher Nick Merchant sat in the dugout by himself looking on.

Merchant’s heavy lifting was to come Wednesday when the Warriors finished their suspended game against James Wood. The senior right-hander did his part, tossing a four-hit shutout in a 4-0 win that keeps Sherando (16-4, 13-3) tied with Brentsville atop the Northwestern District standings.

“Thankfully I’m a better pitcher than a tarp roller,” Merchant said with a laugh.

Sherando’s Jason Tunison steals second base in the second inning of the Warriors’ game against James Wood that began Monday. The Warriors finished the game with a 4-0 win Wednesday, staying in first place. (Photo by Rick Foster)

The Warriors and Tigers will play a tie-breaker tonight at 6 at Bing Crosby Stadium in Front Royal to determine who gets the automatic Region II berth and the top seed heading into the district tournament.

Merchant surely won’t be on the mound for that game, but he proved his durability, throwing 61 pitches Wednesday, two days after hurling 37 over three innings before the game was called.

He picked up right where he left off, too, surrendering just two hits in the final four frames.

Sherando led 3-0 when the rain storm hit Monday after Merchant led off the bottom of the third with a single.

The key for the Warriors was not letting that turn into a disadvantage.

“We didn’t want our players to come in with this mind-set that we have a 3-0 lead and we only have 12 outs left,” Sherando coach Pepper Martin said. “The game was totally, absolutely in question. James Wood has such an explosive offense that they can put four or five runs on the board in the blink of an eye.”

The Colonels (13-6, 11-5) only threatened in the seventh, when Matt Copley walked with two outs and Travis Viands followed with a single.

Tim Spore grounded to second baseman Blake Adams, who bobbled the ball in front of him.

It appeared the bases would be loaded for the middle of the order, but Adams saw Copley take a wide turn around third and fired behind him just in time to record the final out.

“This team, for some reason, we tend to wait till the end to put something together, so we didn’t really look at [3-0] as a deficit,” James Wood coach Jared Mounts said. “I don’t think the deficit [was an issue]. We put ourselves in that position being down three runs.”

Sherando took that 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning Monday.

Tre Porter (2-for-2) led off with a walk, then on a hit-and-run Jason Tunison rolled an infield single to the vacant second base position.

Porter scored when Wood made an error trying to turn a double play, and Derek Reid followed by driving a two-run double into the left-center field gap.

The Warriors tacked on an insurance run in the fifth Wednesday, when Curry Clevenger grounded to short to plate Merchant (2-for-3).

Sherando has won nine in a row following a stretch of three losses in four games in the middle of the season.

Aside from their struggles pulling the tarp out on Monday, the Warriors hope to maintain that momentum and secure a regular-season championship tonight. (The Warriors and Tigers split in the regular season.)

“There was a couple times in the season that we had to dig ourselves out of a hole just to put ourselves in this position,” Merchant said. “But you can’t think about what happened or what’s going to happen. We just have to think of the game at hand, and that’s Brentsville.”