Another Late Rally Comes Up Short for Northwest

As Richard Montgomery pitcher Katie Jordan retired batter after batter, the Northwest dugout buzzed with potential remedies for the team’s offensive ineptitude.

Assistant coach Kevin Rigsby told the Jaguars to quit swinging at pitches out of the strike zone. Senior catcher Emily Forst called several team meetings. Head coach Kevin Corpuz even had players do 10 push-ups in an attempt to awaken Northwest’s dormant bats.

For 6 1/3 innings, nothing worked. Richard Montgomery led 4-0 and Jordan was two outs from a no-hitter when Northwest freshman Jenna Brown singled to left. Two batters later, freshman Jordan Sheppard came off the bench and belted a run-scoring double to left and advanced to third base. Ensuing batter Paige Callahan ripped a double into left, scoring Sheppard. However, Callahan was thrown out trying to advance to third, the final out in a 4-2 Rockets victory on Thursday at RMHS.

Callahan, still wearing her blue batting helmet with the white face guard, joined her teammates in right field after the game while Corpuz addressed Northwest’s season. The coach told the Jaguars they’re a talented team that has lost winnable games and needs to return from spring break focused and regrouped.

Thursday’s loss dropped Northwest’s record to 3-5. The Jaguars’ five losses were by a combined nine runs, including one-run defeats against Churchill and Gaithersburg.

“To sum it up, we’ve got to do some soul searching,” Corpuz said. “It’s obvious we’ve got some good character and some good fight in this team, but we can’t afford to start slowly like that. We’re halfway through our season. When we come back, the important thing is that we come back and start off on the right foot and just keep going from there because I feel like we’re underachieving. That’s not a negative thing toward anybody on the team, but we have potential. The girls, they’re kind of realizing that they’ve got some good potential, but we’ve got to go out and show it and we need to live up to that.”

Northwest showed its character and fight in Thursday’s seventh inning, ending Jordan’s no-hit bid while scoring a pair of runs. However, it wasn’t the first time this season the Jaguars waited until late in a game to play well and fell short despite their resilient effort. Corpuz said players talked about the need to get off to a better start.

“When we get down to the end of things, we really do we muster up some good fight,” he said, “but it can’t be at the end when we bring that. The light bulbs are coming on with [the Jaguars] that we’ve got to come out strong from the get-go.”

Jordan and Northwest freshman pitcher Lily Schenkel were locked in a pitching duel through five innings, with both hurling shutouts. Jordan retired the Jaguars in order in the top of the sixth and the Rockets (2-7) took control with four runs in the bottom half.

Schenkel suffered the loss, allowing four runs --- three earned --- and seven hits while walking one and striking out one. Jordan’s no-hit bid fell short, but the right-hander earned the victory, allowing two earned runs and three hits while walking one and striking out eight.

“She’s an amazing player,” Richard Montgomery head coach Mike Horton said. “She’s the real deal.”

Jordan said she was pleased the team won rather than frustrated she fell short of a personal accomplishment.

“I try not to think about no-hitters going into the last inning,” she said. “It comes down to who wins it in the end, no matter how many hits there are.”

Taylor Simpson was the only Jaguar to reach base prior to the seventh inning. The sophomore drew a base on balls with one out in the second inning and reached via error to lead off the fifth. Brown’s single was the first of three hits in the seventh.

Brown said they really wanted it in the seventh inning.

“We just really wanted to go out there and try to win that fight and go out there and show them that we can fight back and show them what we’re made of,” Brown said.

Northwest is scheduled to return to action on April 27 at Magruder, the first of three games in three days. The Jaguars will host Walter Johnson on April 28 and Paint Branch on April 29.

“I know that our team has a lot of fight in us and I know that we’re going to come back after spring break and we’re really going to hand it to all our opponents,” Callahan said. “We’re just going to go out there and do our best. … Expect big things from us coming back from spring break.”