Lady Jags earn road victory over the Lady Bulldogs

By James A. McCray III
Prince George's County, Content Manager

Pressure? What pressure? C.H. Flowers Lady Jaguars softball pitcher Michelle Shackelford doesn't feel pressure; she may even thrive in it.

With the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom half of the sixth inning Saturday afternoon against the hosting --and at the time undefeated-- Bowie Lady Bulldogs, Shackelford found herself in one of those rare pressure situations.

However, as she would later explain, she didn't feel the pressure, and it showed as she escaped the inning only giving up two runs en route to a complete-game performance helping the Lady Jaguars to an 8-3 victory.

"It really doesn't add pressure to me," she said of bases-loaded situations. "It just gives me incentive to do better."

However, she helped take off some of the pressure herself by knocking in the first run of the game in the top half of the opening frame, giving Flowers the quick 1-0 lead.

Dionna Clemons batted in the second run of the game in the fourth inning taking the lead to 2-0, however, Clemons and the Jaguars offense would later explode in the sixth inning.

In that sixth inning, Clemons gave the offense its kick start with a 2-RBI double to take the lead to 4-0, a Jasmine Muir RBI, two sacrifice RBIs, and a Shackelford solo home run later, Flowers held an 8-0 lead.

"This was a very big win," Clemons said. "I mean, we have not beaten Bowie in some years. ... We hit better than we been hitting, and I think it was a good game."

Flowers (10-1) head coach Molly Bender took notice of her team's hitting performance and in particular Clemons' day at the plate as the she finished 2 for 4 with a game-high 3 RBIs.

"She came up big," Bender said of Clemons. "She has not been hitting the ball well at all the past three weeks. Today, she did very well."

As far as the win, Bender added: "We did very good job at getting the ball on the bat and hitting, and getting runners on base."

Bowie (11-1) found its comfort zone at the plate in the bottom half of the sixth inning as Kiara Washington and Erica Monroe led the inning off with respective singles.

An error allowed the first Bowie run to score and a Skylar McBarnette RBI cut the led to 8-2.

An error would also allow a run to score in the bottom half of the seventh inning but Flowers was able to close the game out handing Bowie head coach Sarah Bible and the Lady Bulldogs the first loss of the season.

"They played really well, first of all," Bible said, "I can't take away anything from Flowers. We got down early, not that we haven't come from behind before, but we didn't make a couple of key plays. ... We just made too many mistakes and waited too long to start hitting.

"You score a couple of runs an inning, you can come back from something like that, but we just weren't here really."

As the two teams go its respective ways, the two are scheduled to meet again on Tuesday for what is sure to be an intense rematch.

"I think on Tuesday, they will be ready," Bender said of her team. " ... It should be another really good game on Tuesday."

Shackelford had her own thoughts on the team's mindset heading into Tuesday, adding: "Same thing as it was today; one pitch at a time, one out at a time, one inning at a time."

E-mail: James A. McCray III

C.H. Flowers 8, Bowie 3
Flowers   1 0 0   1 0 6   0   --   8 14 3
Bowie     0 0 0   0 0 2   1   --   3  6  6
WP: Shackelford   LP: Harvell
Extra-base hits -- 2B: CHF (Shackelford); HR: CHF (Shackelford)