By Angela Watts
Assistant GM, Washington D.C. Metro Area
** Click the links to the left to access a full photo gallery, dozens of video highlights and a video interview with Wildcat senior standout Jessica Ferrick!
Centreville Coach Rich Ferrick stood with his assistant coaches as his team circled up and took a seat in the outfield grass a few feet away from him.
The girls chatted and giggled with delight until Ferrick, after several minutes, turned to face them.
When quiet finally settled over them, Ferrick shook his head and said simply: “Wow.”
The giggling returned, and a few celebratory cheers followed.
“I don’t know what to say … and that doesn’t usually happen,” continued Ferrick, whose team rallied from a two-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat traditional WCAC powerhouse O’Connell, 3-2. “But understand that we’ve said from Day 1 that the potential here is just limitless. You guys can do anything you put your minds to.
“That is a very good team over there that you just beat. So you know you can do it. It’s all about heart and determination … and you had it tonight.”
Trailing 2-0 entering the final half-inning of play, the Wildcats (12-5 overall) showed incredible patience at the plate.
Freshman second baseman Courtney Burke led off the inning with a walk, junior first baseman Katie Sokol reached on an error and sophomore pinch hitter Karen Johnson singled to shallow right field to load the bases with no outs. Freshman right fielder Kara Love — the team’s No. 9 batter — then walked to score Centreville’s first run of the game.
Longtime Knights’ Coach Tommy Orndorff, whose team slipped to 15-3, made a pitching change, but the result was more of the same. Centreville senior catcher Victoria Marvin, the Wildcats’ leadoff batter, walked in the next at-bat to plate the game-tying run.
That’s when things got even more tense.
Wildcat freshman shortstop Lexi Murdock hit a ground ball back to reliever Sarah Eidt in the pitching circle and Eidt not only got the force out at home plate, but O’Connell sophomore catcher Sophie Giaquinto also threw Murdock out at first base to complete the double-play.
Centreville sophomore left fielder Cara Donovan walked in the next at-bat to again load the bases … this time, though, with two outs.
Next at the plate — and with everything on the line — was Wildcat senior pitcher Jessica Ferrick. Ferrick, the team’s clean-up batter, had singled in her first at-bat, struck out in her second and was intentionally walked in her third.
“When it’s your kid getting up to the plate it’s a whole different feeling,” Coach Ferrick said of his daughter. “And you’re just praying the poor kid comes through because you know how they’re going to feel when they get home if they don’t … and you’ve got to live with them.
“But then again, you want your kid to be there when something good happens, too. So you want them to have that kind of opportunity.”
And Jessica Ferrick certainly made the most of it.
Ferrick fired a hard-hit, ground ball up the middle to score the game-winning run, and was embraced first by Marvin and then by the rest of her teammates.
Her father offered only a firm fist pump in his daughters’ direction.
“With this group I don’t know what to think sometimes,” Coach Ferrick said. “They’ve done some amazing things this year, but they’ve also done some thing that weren’t so amazing.
“But the one thing about this group is they never every quit on me. So I always know there’s a chance something good can happen.
“And wow, was this special here tonight. We’ve had some very exciting games over the years with O’Connell and this was just another one of those. I couldn’t be happier for the girls.”
Email: awatts@digitalsports.com
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