Jaguars force 3-way tie for first in 28-6A
Riding a flurry of late runs, the Johnson Jaguars rallied for a 12-3 victory against Madison and turned the District 28-6A race into a three-way tie.
The Jaguars scored seven runs in the fifth inning and five in the seventh to defeat the Mavericks for the first time since 2019.
“We really wanted to get the win at this point,” Johnson sophomore pitcher Maleena Moreno said. “We haven’t been able to beat them in so long. We had this drive to want to beat this team. There are some really great players on the other team, so this competition is exciting, and it made us want to be better.”
Johnson (11-6 overall) improved to 7-1 in District 28-6A. Madison (15-5) fell to 7-1. Both are tied with Clark with one more round of league play to go.
Senior catcher Maya Kassis, junior shortstop Brooklyn Foster and freshman second baseman Emily Kaman each had three hits for Johnson, which had 14 in all. Foster was 3-for-3 with a sacrifice fly.
“I think, right now, we are on top of the world,” Foster said. “We have all the confidence in the world. Our team is very
positive and we have a lot of confidence in each other and we bring each other up and we never push each other down.”
After falling behind 3-0, Johnson broke through with seven runs in the top of the fifth as the Jaguars sent 11 to the plate.
“It was a very gritty moment,”
Moreno said. “We all pushed our hardest. … We wanted to show people that we deserved to be where we are.”
Moreno did her part at the plate by leading off the fifth with a walk.
That sparked a chain of tough luck for Mavericks, who had a 17-inning scoreless
streak snapped in the inning.
Madison committed three errors in the fifth. The Jaguars laid down three bunts, which all led to runs. Moreno later came up in the fifth and roped a two-out double to center field that capped the big inning.
The breakthrough was significant because Madison senior pitcher Sofia Ytuarte, who had no-hit LEE the game before, had nine strikeouts through four innings before finishing with 12.
“Once we saw we were having trouble getting the bat on the ball, we needed to do something quick,” Foster said. “Bunting was the suggestion, and we just kept putting them down.”
Moreno faced the Mavericks in the bottom of the fifth with a four-run lead.
“It was a great moment because it just helped us and gave me the confidence that we had those runs scored and also my defense was all hype and ready to go,” said Moreno, who had five strikeouts in the complete-game win.
Johnson added five runs in the seventh on run-scoring singles from Savannah Decker, Kaman and Kassis plus a two-run single from Foster.
“We do this from time to time,” Foster said. “We won’t hit the first few innings, and then we’ll get to the fifth, sixth and seventh inning, we’ll just out of nowhere start hitting.”
Madison took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a run-scoring single from Jewliana Cartagena, who then scored Sarah Zamora’s grounder to shortstop.
The Mavericks made it 3-0 in the fourth after Aryanna Provencio drew a bases-loaded walk, scoring Brooklynn Gonsalez, with two outs.