by Mac Paquette | Staff Writer

For the fifth consecutive year, the Johnson softball team has made it to the playoffs.  They kicked off the first round with a 2-0 win, in a win or go home game against Smithson Valley.

“We capitalized in one inning and were able to hold onto the lead for the rest of the game.  We had an excellent fielding night-all around as a team-thanks to great pitching throughout the whole game,” junior Brittany Muller said.

Great pitching may be seen as an understatement. Freshman pitcher K.K. Colquhoun threw a no-hitter in her first career playoff game.  If it were not for a few questionable pitches called as balls, which resulted in walks, she would have pitched a perfect game.  Questionable calls aside, K.K. held a dominating presence throughout the whole game which took pressure off of the rest of the team.

“I was able to get in a rhythm early in the game and I was just able to take advantage of it.  The infield had many great plays throughout the game and without them it would have been a much different game,” freshman K.K. Colquhoun said.

The stellar pitching performance did not require much offensive play, and it all came alive during the second inning.  It started off with hits by Alex Yarbrough and K.K. Colquhoun which lead to a double to right-center from senior Kayla Couch to drive home runners Lindsey Angelico and Alex Yarbrough.  This 2-0 lead would not be touched for the last five innings of play.

“We were all hoping to get some more runs on the board but luckily two was just enough for us to win and continue our season,” junior Nicole Urbanik said.

Now the Jags look forward to their next opponent: Corpus Christi-Carroll.  Unlike the first round, this  will be a best-of-3 series, with the first game being played in Corpus on Thursday night.  Then, the Jags will return home for game two, which will be played at the NEISD softball complex at 7.  If  a game 3 is necessary, the location will be determined later in the week.

“We are all looking forward to traveling to Corpus and hopefully being able to take care of business back at our home field,” Muller said.