The Woodlands softball captures state title

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Woodlands High School softball team captured the UIL Class 5A State Softball Championship on Saturday, defeating San Antonio Northside O’Connor 7-5 at Red & Charline McCombs Field on the campus of the University of Texas.

Junior pitcher Paige McDuffee delivered for herself a huge birthday gift, going the distance to complete a 37-1 season as the Lady Highlanders (44-1) captured their first 5A state softball championship. McDuffee was named the state tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

“I can’t say enough about Paige,” The Woodlands coach Richard Jorgensen said. “She’s a phenomenal athlete and competitor. She’s going to go out and give everything she has on every play.”

The Woodlands built a 7-1 lead primarily on the strength of homers from both Jessica Snyder and Faith Bohack that highlighted a five-run fourth inning and broke open a tight 2-1 game.

“We had two long balls that we haven’t had in a while,” Jorgensen said. “Two big homeruns.”

But four uncharacteristic errors helped the Lady Panthers (34-5) close the gap and a 7-2 lead became a 7-5 nail-biter after a three-run seventh inning.

However, McDuffee punctuated her birthday with a strikeout for the final out of the game as the Lady Panthers left the bases loaded.

It was the fourth state tournament appearance for O’Connor, which coming into Saturday’s state championship game had only lost once in the last 24 games, a 7-2 setback at the hands of New Braunfels in the region quarterfinals. Two of its four previous losses this season were by one run.

The Woodlands tagged Lady Panthers sophomore pitcher Kenedy Urbany 21-1 with her only loss of the season.

Snyder began the fourth-inning outburst with a towering homer over the left-center field fence.

“It felt so good,” said Snyder, who knew it was gone the moment she hit it. She should know, she led the team in homers this season.

“It’s not my first home run so I know how they feel,” Snyder said. “But hitting it over a tall fence like this and it being this far, it felt great.”

Bohack followed up with a two-run blast later in the inning.

“I just hammered it,” Bohack said.
Bohack and McDuffee delivered two hits each to pace a seven-hit attack. Alyssa Jorgensen added a hit and scored two runs while driving in another. Senior Brooke Riemann had a hit and scored a run while fellow senior Kelsey Jolly also scored a run.

Olivia Boutch scored a run and Taylor Vick added a stolen base while Kayla Prater came up with some key stops behind the plate. Taylor O’Dell also played a key role defensively as well.

Nothing, it seemed, would stop the Lady Highlanders from winning their first state championship; not even their lucky school bus. The team traveled to Austin in its lucky school bus. But the air conditioning stopped almost immediately.

“We get in the bus to come up here, we’re about 30 minutes out of Houston on Thursday and air quits working,” The Woodlands coach said. “It’s 98 degrees so we had the windows down and the girls didn’t complain. They were champs.”

Not only state champions, but the Lady Highlanders are national champions.

“It’s unbelievable,” Jorgensen said. “Since 2005 we have one of the highest winning percentages in the state. We’re 215-45 since 2005. We didn’t just start winning. We’ve been building towards this. We have a great team and Paige was that final ingredient we needed. Last year we were close and this year we were able to go all the way."

“It’s unbelievable. I would’ve never dreamed it. I’m ready to go to Disneyworld,” Jorgensen said.