The Jaguars kept pace in the North Bay League softball chase this week, gaining an even split in a set of games with Montgomery.
Windsor (5-4, 3-3) began the stretch with an 11-8 loss in a road slugfest on April 27, but bounced back two days later in the friendly confines with a tense, 7-6 victory.
At press time the Jags were preparing to host Maria Carrillo in the first of a home and road set on May 4, ending the series on Thursday, May 6 on the Puma’s home field in Santa Rosa. Both games start at 4 p.m.
Windsor has shown it can compete with the league’s best teams through the first six NBL games and seems on the verge of putting together a late-season surge.
“We just need to put both hitting and error free softball together consistently and I think we’ll be ok,” Jag’s head coach Charlie Johnson said. “It’s not going to get any easier with tough opponents Maria Carrillo and Rancho Cotate coming up in the next two weeks, but we’ll be ready.”
Jags gain split
The first of two scheduled games with the Montgomery on April 27 was an offensive showdown, as the Vikings erased an early 2-0 deficit with 11 unanswered runs. The Jaguars staged a wild, six-run rally in their final at-bat but Montgomery hung on for an 11-8 victory.
Pitchers Mia Avila (3.1 IP, 10 hits, 10 runs, 2 Ks) and Grace Boyle (2.1 IP, 2 hits) shared mound duties while leading hitters were Savanna Cordova (2 for 4, HR, run, 3 RBIs), Nataleigh Johnson (3 for 5, 2 runs, SB, RBI), Boyle (1 for 4, RBI), Adriana Novak (1 for 4, run, RBI), Lily Caughie (1 for 2, run), Zoe Finney (1 for 2, run), Riley Zwetsloot (1 for 5, run, 2 RBIs) and Kelly Tagnolli (1 for 4).
Cordova got the mound start in the rematch on April 29, giving her team four-plus strong innings, scattering five hits and two runs while fanning two before handing the ball to Finney (2.1 IP, 6 hits, 4 runs, 2 Ks) in the fifth. Windsor led 7-1 after five, but the Vikings rallied for four runs in the sixth and one in the seventh to make it interesting as the Jags escaped with a 7-6 win.
“We played solid defense again with no errors and had some timely hits,” Charlie Johnson said.
Cordova (4.1 IP, 5 hits, 2 runs, 3 Ks) earned the win while Finney (2.1 IP, 6 hits, 4 runs, 2 Ks) got the save. Collecting hits for Windsor were Jen Doherty (3 for 3, run, RBI), Cordova (2 for 3, HR, run, 2 RBIs), Tagnolli (1 for 3, RBI), Novak (1 for 3, 2 runs, RBI) and Johnson (1 for 4).
Multi-sport athletes
Like most schools in the craziest of all seasons, Windsor has its share of athletes that are forced to juggle more than one sport this spring. The situation would not be doable without the understanding and cooperation of all coaches.
“It does get interesting from here on out with two of my players playing volleyball, two playing basketball and one running track and playing basketball,” Charlie Johnson noted.
