'It gets better every time': Jay softball captures fourth consecutive district championship

A senior started the rally.

A pair of seniors continued the rally.

And a senior ended the game, as the Jay softball team won its fourth consecutive District 1-1A championship over rival Northview on Thursday at neutral site Central.

As soon as Brett Watson caught the final out in center field, it couldn’t have been drawn up any better. Players immediately started sprinting to the pitcher’s circle, realizing what had just been accomplished. Head coach Brian Watson couldn’t stop smiling.

Brian Watson knew the magnitude of the moment. The Royals were taking home yet another district championship trophy – his 11th in 19 years of coaching – and the seniors, which includes his daughter Brett, know nothing but district championships.

Then the celebrations began.

“Coach, you have glitter on your face,” one player told Brian Watson, as he was hugging players in the rave of celebration.

“I don’t care,” he responded.

The only thing he cared about – and rightfully so – was the pride he had for Jay, how it battled throughout the season, and came away with another district championship trophy.

“It’s been a struggle all year. We just never really got going. We never really got that hot. Most of it had to do with our schedule,” Brian Watson said. “At the same time, when you’ve won a state title – I’ve got nine girls with a state title ring – and you’ve gone to the final four for three straight years and you’ve won three straight district championships, they think it’s just going to happen. …

“Northview is a very good ball club. They won 20 games, you don’t just do that – they played a pretty tough schedule, too. To get it and to fight back – the last couple championships have been easier, but this one we had to come back in the seventh.”

A back-and-forth game started off with a three-run home from Jay’s Morgan Barrow in the top of the first inning. Northview responded with four runs in the bottom of the third before the Royals plated two more runs in the top of the fourth.

The Chiefs plated a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth frame to regain the lead, 6-5, and then the pitchers went at it for the next couple innings. That was until the story-tale ending in the seventh inning, which saw Jay score the game-tying and game-winning runs, followed by a one-two-three inning to close out the game.

“Just the fact that I know that every girl who comes through this program, if they stay with me, they’re going to have a chance to win a district title,” Brian Watson said. “That’s something special to get four in a row.”

Northview (21-4), with its best season since the 2019 campaign when the Chiefs went 20-5 and ultimately falling in the region semifinals, was ranked No. 1 in Region 1-1A entering the district tournament. Despite the loss, the Chiefs are still likely to earn an at-large bid into the region tournament. Northview head coach Amy Holland said she was proud of the fight her team – a young team, which boasts several freshmen and sophomores – had against Jay.

“It’s a good confidence-builder for them. But, overall, we’ve still got the fight to go win it. And I believe in them,” Holland said. “Keep fighting. Don’t stop. … That’s what we plan to do. We will not lay down. They’ll fight out. And we’re excited about that. … (Jay) just hit us in the mouth, but we’re going to come out swinging.”

Jay (14-9) earns the automatic bid into the region tournament, which begins with the region semifinals on Tuesday. Unless the Royals are paired up against a higher-seeded district champion – which looks unlikely since they were ranked second in Region 1-A – Jay will host the game.

And automatic berths into the region tournament are all this senior class knows.

“It gets better every time,” Brooklyn Sorrells said with a giant grin.

“I want to go to state so bad. This year, I want it more than anything,” Brett Watson said. “That’s the goal. We’re working harder to get there, and you can tell.”

The seventh-inning stretch

Trailing by one run entering the seventh inning, Brian Watson had the utmost confidence in his team. His best players were heading to the plate. The Royals’ one-two-three batters were due up. And Samford signee Ella Nelson was first.

She had already scored one run after safely reaching first base on a walk, and then was stranded earlier in the game in the fourth frame after getting to first on an error. However she could reach first base safely would do.

“When I got in the box, my mindset was just to get on base. That’s what I was thinking the whole time. When I got down to two strikes, I was thinking, ‘Oh shoot,’” Nelson said. “But I had it. I got a double out of it.”

Then she ripped a single to left field.

Up next? Brett Watson.

“There was a mixture of emotions for me. My mindset wasn’t to get on base, it was to move the runner. We just needed to tie the game at that point. We can go into extras, we can play more,” Watson said. “It was more about tying the game, sacrifice yourself, don’t be selfish, do it for others.”

The first two pitches she saw were both balls. The third pitch was also a ball that got past Northview’s catcher, and Nelson advanced to third base. Then came a play call from Brian Watson, standing at third base.

The squeeze bunt.

Brett Watson had been given the signal before. It came during the 2022 state championship game, where the Royals scored two runs on the play to take the lead. She’s also practiced it “a million times,” she said. And for the one millionth and first time, she had to execute the bunt again in a game situation.

“No matter what, I knew I had to get it down. No matter where the ball was – whether it was over my head or in the dirt – I was getting it down,” Brett Watson said. “You have to know you can do it. You can’t second-guess yourself.”

Nelson scored, avoiding the tag from Northview’s catcher. And Brett Watson stood on first base. The next two batters flew out and struck out. Then up to the plate was Sorrells. After a strike, on the second pitch, Brett Watson stole second base.

“I hit another one (to right field) earlier in the game, but they caught it,” Sorrells said. “I knew this time it was my job – I had to do it.”

As soon as she made contact, Brett Watson was gone, and rounding third.

“(Brett’s) a speed demon. I knew she had it,” Sorrells said. “I was like, ‘We just won it.’ I knew that we won the game.”

The reaction was chaotic. Brett Watson was “getting tackled” as she entered the dugout.

“It was insane,” Nelson said.

“It’s going to be satisfying to know that Ella and Brett got to hit, but then Brooke got the big two-out hit to score Brett,” Brian Watson said of a trio of seniors being the ones to win the game.

In the bottom of the seventh, after pitcher Cadee Caroll forced a fly out to right field – caught by Kylei Martinez – and a strikeout, a line out to center field was caught by Brett Watson to seal the game. What a fairytale.

For family; for team

For family.

When Brian Watson lost the state championship the first time as head coach at Jay, Brett was about 5 or 6 years old. She went up to her dad after the game and said one thing to him.

“She looked up at me and said, ‘Daddy, when I get into high school, we’re going to win a state title,’” Brian Watson recalled. “To see that happen her 10th-grade year, and to be there three years in a row with four district titles – and to go back to regionals – that’s probably the most satisfying, watching her through the years.”

The Watsons have done just that. A state title in 2022. District titles all four years – and Brian believes it would’ve been a fifth had there been a full season in 2020 when Brett was in eighth grade – plus numerous trips to the state final four.

And it all came full circle again on Thursday.

“She was sitting in the dugout when she was 5 or 6 years old, then was the bat girl when she was 9 or 10, and now she performed when she needed to the most,” Brian Watson said. “It’s come full circle.”

Brett, who’s signed to play at the University of West Florida next year, said all of the work that’s gone on at home – before and after practice, in season and during the offseason – all came to fruition once again.

“Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, it’s you and your dad.’ But they don’t see what goes on at our house. For all of our work going on behind the scenes, for it all to pay off, it means a whole lot,” Brett Watson said. “At the end of the day, he’s still my dad and he’s going to push me to be the best I can be. He’s not going to favor me just because I’m his daughter. He’s always pushed me to be the best I can be. Even when I get mad at him, he’s still there to support me.”

For team.

The seniors mentioned that the 2024 season had “been rough.” They couldn’t get everyone together. There were ups and downs. There were moments where the Royals just “gave up and sat down” in games that were one- or two-run final scores.

Thursday had to be different. It was going to be different.

Sorrells said the seniors and the rest of the team had a “come to Jesus” meeting the week before the district tournament started. The biggest part of the discussion?

“It’s not a one-person thing,” Sorrells said. “It’s a full-team thing.”

“There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team,’ Nelson said.

That was followed by another meeting this past Monday before the district tournament began. The Royals’ spot in the regional tournament was likely solidified no matter how the district tournament went.

But Jay had to change its mindset and attitude.

“We’re in the playoffs, but we had to get in playoff mode. … We treated Tuesday’s game as an elimination game, because we didn’t want to back into anything,” Brian Watson said. “We talk about pressure – and we put pressure on our girls – so we expect our girls to perform under pressure.”

And perform they did. It finally came together.

“I was texting our pitcher from last year on the bus ride here that we had a speaker going and we were all jamming out,” Brett Watson said. “This was the most we had been acting like a team all year and I told her, ‘I have a good feeling.’ … To be together as a team, it’s the best feeling in the world.”

“It was us (as seniors) that had to bring everyone back together,” Sorrells said.

‘You can’t give a team a ball game’

Northview was right there. Just an extra-base hit away from tying the game up or adding some insurance runs earlier in the contest. But mistakes became costly, Holland said.

That included an early double play in the first inning after a line out to third base, and then a handful of fielding errors which allowed for easy bases for the Royals.

“The message I gave them (after the game) was, ‘You can’t give a team a ball game.’ We gave Jay the game tonight,” Holland said. “We had multiple errors, offensively and defensively, and you can’t just give them a game. You’ve got to make them earn it.”

The Chiefs are a young squad, mainly built up of freshmen and sophomores, with a “great future ahead of (them),” Holland said. But Northview has to focus on the short-term with a regional tournament chance.

“Keep fighting. Don’t stop. … That’s what we plan to do. We will not lay down. They’ll fight out. And we’re excited about that,” Holland said. “(Jay) just hit us in the mouth, but we’re going to come out swinging.”

Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Jay softball beats Northview for fourth consecutive District 1-1A title