The JR Curse Strikes Again: Baseball and Softball Teams Lose Championship Games

The Jackson-Reed baseball and softball teams have dominated DCIAA for years, but this season SWW was determined to end their supremacy. In early May, the SWW baseball and softball teams challenged JR in the championship, with baseball aiming to break JR’s 30 game winning streak, and softball focused on ending their decade of championship wins. 

Despite the odds, there were signs of optimism going into the game. The softball team had recently won their regular season matchup against the Tigers, and this past Fall, the Walls Baseball club team – the T-Birds – beat Jackson-Reed’s club team. This school year's victories gave the players hope that they could finally take JR's place as number one in DCIAA

The biggest reason why Jackson-Reed dominates baseball and softball is because of the size of their talent pool. Their school has significantly more students than any other DCIAA member school, and nearly triple the size of Walls. Jackson Reed also has easy access to facilities, with a field across the street; whereas Walls teams travel much further and often also live further from where they practice. Lack of accessible resources makes it more difficult for SWW student athletes to develop. However, the teams still need to play the games, even if JR poses the toughest test on the schedule.

To motivate his players for this game, Kip Smith – SWW Athletic Director and longtime coach of the baseball teams – focused on “provid[ing] players with the confidence that they are good enough to beat JR.” Baseball is notoriously a mentally challenging sport and a game of failure. Coach Kip reminded his team that they “are the biggest threat to dethroning JR.” Don Stanley – SWW softball coach for the last two seasons – took a different approach, instead trying to motivate with the desire to beat an ‘unbeatable’ team. Mr. Stanley told his team that they needed to just “go out and … play ball” against the strong opponent.

Wesley Freed (‘25) is a senior on the baseball team who has played JR 8 times during his time at Walls, including multiple times in the DCIAA championship game. Freed said “the mentality was to try to jump and put pressure on them.” However, the baseball team fell short, losing 12-2. The loss was hard hitting, especially for the seniors. Freed reflected on the game, expressing that “It would’ve meant a lot [to win the championship game]. It’s our goal each year to win that championship and as a senior that was my last chance.” Noah Lee (‘25) similarly deeply wanted to win the championship, citing how it would reflect “the hard work we put in all season day in and day out.” Even still, Lee enjoyed the atmosphere of the game, “The highlight of the Jackson Reed games is all the energy we have in stands, our dugouts, and both sides of the field.”

The softball team also lost the championship in a multi-day slugfest. Going into the bottom of the 7th inning, the game was tied 19-19 with Jackson-Reed needing to score just one run to win the game. Then, with bases loaded and one out, the game got called for lightning. The teams had to come back later in the week to finish the game. Jackson-Reed got a walk-off walk to win 19-20. Yet, Anna Morelli (‘27) still saw growth on her team. “I played Jackson-Reed four times. I think we’ve gotten better and we’ve made the games more competitive. I think this year it was a really good game and we can do even better next year.”Abigail Dowd (‘26) agreed with Morelli, adding “this year it was a lot better because we were more confident.”

Looking towards the future of the softball team, Harper Barlow (‘28) commented “It would mean a lot [to win the championship in a future season] because I think it would showcase how far the program has come.”

And while both Hazel Robin-Lerner (‘27) and MK Edwards (‘28) thought that the team played great defense, with Ashley Ayala-Rubio (‘26) in the outfield as a stand-out performer, Mr. Stanley quickly pointed out an area for improvement. “Pitching. That’s the biggest thing, pitching.” Along with pitching, Mr. Stanley thinks that “more aggression” and confidence can help give the softball team a boost in future games. Ambitiously, Mr. Stanley sees Walls softball “winning the next three years.”

This time next year, Walls baseball and softball will once again aim to end JR's continuous winning streaks.