Laurel High School Sports: Laurel Prep Roundup

Becca Jayne, a senior left fielder for the Laurel High softball team, is ending her career with a bang. The four-year standout has been on a tear at the plate for the Spartans in recent games.

Laurel beat High Point, 7-2, on Tuesday as Kevia Walker-Humphries got the win on the mound and catcher LaTerria Arizola threw out two runners trying to steal. Jayne had two hits, including a triple, and scored three runs. Casey Li Causi had a triple and drove in three.

Jayne had drive trips in five at bats, with a triple, homer and five RBIs, as the Spartans beat Wise, 18-12, on Monday. That brought her season average up to .600 with seven doubles, three triples, a homer and 25 RBIs.

"We played Roosevelt and Flowers and that was a higher speed (of pitches). I have just been adjusting a lot from the beginning of the season," Jayne told Laurel Patch on Wednesday. "I have been adjusting to different pitchers."

Jayne, at this point, may attend Howard Community College and play rec league softball once her high school career is over.

Freshman Bria Wallace had three hits and four RBIs to lift her average to .467.  Walker-Humphries, a junior, had two hits and three RBIs and improved her mark to .464. Jasmyn Walker, Sjori Thompson and Natalie Bishop each had two hits.

Laurel lost on Saturday to Flowers, 23-8, and to Roosevelt, 20-10. Jayne had three hits against Flowers and three hits and three RBIs against Roosevelt.

Walker, Thompson and Walker-Humphries had two singles against Roosevelt and Wallace added a double, single and two RBIs.

Jayne kept on a roll Thursday as she had three singles and drove in four runs as Laurel beat Suitland, 20-17, in softball. Walker-Humphries had a triple, double and single and drove in four and Wallace had two singles and drove in three.

Pallotti softball ends regular season with loss

The Pallotti softball team lost, 12-0, to Notre Dame Prep on Monday in five innings. The Panthers ended the regular season at home with a 13-1 loss in five innings on Tuesday to Elizabeth Seton at Fairland Regional Park in West Laurel.

The two seniors this season for Pallotti are Allie Isrin and Jordyn Crockett. A three-year starter, Isrin has played short, third and center and has been a captain and leadoff hitter. She plans to try out for the club team at James Madison in the fall. Crockett, a left fielder, played one season at Pallotti and was also on the basketball team.

"Allie is a leader because she truly understands the need for each and every player to be the best they can be," according to Laura Horstkamp, the first-year head coach for the Panthers.

"Jordyn is one of those gifted athletes.  She’ll be good at whatever she sets out to do.  Having had very little softball experience prior to her transferring to us this season did not stop her from trying out for our team.  And I am so glad she did," Horstkamp wrote.

Carmen paces Laurel baseball

Laurel won at home, 16-0, on Thursday over Suitland as Spartans pitcher Anthony Nicome threw a no-hitter. Nicome had combined with Alex Hanavin on a no-hitter earlier in the season for Laurel, which now has three no-hitters from its pitching staff this season. Nicome had 14 strikeouts in the five-inning game as Laurel improvedto 10-5 overall.

David Carmen was the winning pitcher and also had three hits as Laurel beat High Point, 13-3, in baseball on Tuesday. Carmen had a double, triple and homer and drove in four runs. The Spartans improved to 9-5. "David is my leading hitter, by far," Laurel head coach Bryan Harris said Wednesday.

Laurel lost, 14-5 to Flowers on Saturday. Losing pitcher Anthony Nicome had an RBI triple and Carmen had a multi-hit game.

"It has been a pretty good season. The last few games have been a roller coaster," Harris said. "We had the big victory over Roosevelt and came back the next day and were able to get a win over Oxon Hill. We then played Flowers on Saturday and we were not completely ready for that game."

Laurel ends regular-season play Tuesday at home against Bowie. "We want to get momentum going into the playoffs," Harris said.

Pallotti High baseball ready for playoffs

The Pallotti High baseball team won, 5-3, at St. Mary's of Annapolis on Monday as five players had two hits: Matt DeFrank, Corey Dirks, Ryan Basile, Nate Spicher and Ryan Johnson. DeFrank drove in two runs and Dirks was the winning pitcher as he pitched all seven innings. The pitcher for St. Mary's was Danny Usewick.

"We were jumping on his fast ball. Even the guys that made outs hit the ball hard," Pallotti head coach Pat Courtemanche told Patch on Wednesday. "I feel we can hit with anybody."

The Panthers improved to 15-8 overall and 7-5 in the B division of the MIAA and clinched third in the black division. Courtemanche said his team will open the playoffs on the road May 13 against a No. 2 seed to be determined.

The regular-season finale and Senior Day game is this Saturday against non-league foe Bullis at Panther Park in West Laurel.

Leading hitters through Tuessday for Pallotti were DeFrank (.391, team-high 22 RBIs), Raffi Correa (.379), Johnny Maloney (.373), Steve Martin (.333), Dirks (.324), Basile (.310) and Spicher (.303).

On the mound Dirks was 7-2 with an ERA of 1.99. Pallotti lost two games on Saturday to Annapolis Area Christian, 5-3 in eight innings, and in game two, 4-3.

New hoop coach at George Mason

Paul Hewitt was born in Jamaica and grew up in Queens, New York. But there were some Laurel ties when he was introduced on Monday as the new men's basketball coach at Division I George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.

Hewitt spent 11 seasons as the head coach at Georgia Tech before he was fired after the past season. Among those on hand Monday at the Mason Inn on the Mason campus was Louise Jack, the mother of former Pallotti basketball player Jarrett Jack.

After one season at Pallotti he headed to Mt. Zion in North Carolina and played at a prep school in Massachusetts. Jack then played for Hewitt at Georgia Tech and was part of the Final Four team in 2004. Jack has played in the NBA and was with New Orleans this season.

Louise Jack said her son was recruited by dozens of schools but she was impressed with Hewitt and his emphasis on academics. "It is not just lip service. And he is family oriented," Jack said of Hewitt, who is married to Dawnette and has three daughters.

Jack, whose NBA season ended with New Orleans, was invited to Miami for the playoffs by former Georgia Tech teammate Chris Bosh, according to his mother. Bosh now plays for the Miami Heat.

Another person on hand Monday was Jim Emery, who has coached youth hoops in Howard County. He used to coach in upstate New York in the 1980s against St. John Fisher College, where Hewitt played. Emery is also a former assistant coach at George Mason.

Hewitt said he figured he would stay out of coaching for at least one season and admitted that the Georgia Tech run drained him emotionally. But after talking to friends he realized Mason was a good job. "I am happy to be back in the game," he said.

The Patriots made the NCAA tourney last season and knocked off Villanova in the first round before losing to Ohio State. "This was too good to turn down," said Hewitt, a former Villanova assistant coach who was also the head coach at Siena before going to Georgia Tech.

Hewitt, who turned 48 on Wednesday, said he understood the importance of his role as a high-profile coach at Mason. "You understand you are one of the leaders on campus," Hewitt said.

It took about a week for Mason to find a new coach after Jim Larranaga left for South Beach.

"This was a team effort," Mason athletic director Tom O'Connor said Monday. "We were looking for a coach who could teach. We wanted someone who could recruit."

Mason President Alan G. Merten, who will step down next year, said Monday: "The men's basketball program is extremely important. Today we open a new chapter in men's basketball history."

When Mason made the Final Four in 2006, all five starters were from Maryland. That included Lamar Butler, who played at Oxon Hill High. A redshirt that season for the Patriots was John Vaughan, a former Laurel High standout. Butler and the other four starters from the 2006 team (Will Thomas, Jai Lewis, Folarin Campbell and Tony Skinn) have all played pro ball overseas.

A freshman for Mason last season was Jonathan Arledge, a product of the Laurel Boys and Girls Club. A former student at Meade High, he went to high school at KIMA, a charter school in Washington, D.C., that played home games at the Laurel Boys and Girls Club.

Vaughan played four years for George Mason and ended his college career in 2009 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).

Pallotti grad in France

Pallotti grad Austen Rowland, who played college basketball in the CAA with Delaware and one year at Lehigh of the Patriot League, is now a pro in France. In his first 20 games he averaged 11.8 points per contest for Le Portel. He had five points and seven assists in a game on Saturday.