Parkdale senior Vincent “Scooter” Jenkins arrived for his team’s home game against DuVal on Thursday expecting to take his usual spot in centerfield, but found himself pressed into a different role.
“Some of our players didn’t show up because they had family problems,” Jenkins said. “… I was just being a leader, and I just stepped up and said, ‘I’ll pitch,’ just to help out.”
The left-handed Jenkins struck out 11 batters and allowed just two hits as Parkdale notched a 12-2 victory over the Tigers in a Prince George’s County 4A contest. The game was stopped in the bottom of the sixth inning due to the 10-run slaughter rule.
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The Panthers (6-3) only suited up 10 players, and were still trying to piece together their lineup together just minutes before Thursday’s game was scheduled to begin.
“It’s bad when you don’t have a full squad,” PHS assistant coach Fred Howze said. “I mean, you want to win every ball game, but then again, you can’t worry about who’s not here, you know? You just put those guys in there and hope it works.”
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It worked out just fine on Thursday, as Jenkins kept the Tigers off-balance all day. He did issue nine walks, although five of those came in the last two innings as he struggled to find his footing on the crumbling mound.
“When I stayed focused and went through my mechanics, everything worked good,” Jenkins said.
Senior catcher Eli Deogracia went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs for Parkdale, while third baseman Kelvin Reyes also homered to put the Panthers back in the win column after they suffered a tough 5-4 home loss to Wise on Wednesday.
“Yesterday’s game, I really wasn’t hitting at all,” Deogracia said, “and [today] I just came out here and did my best.
DuVal grabbed the game’s first lead in the fourth inning, as Jenkins’ yielded and RBI double.
It didn’t take Parkdale long to respond, though, as they scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth – highlighted by Deogracia’s two-run homer – to take control.
The Panthers extended their lead to 8-1 after five innings and scored four runs in the sixth. Reyes’ solo homer to centerfield created the 10-run margin that ended the game.
“We were short [on players] but we came out on top,” Parkdale assistant Sheldon Dunbar said. “Basically, we felt going into this game that we would make sure that we just had the right pieces to the puzzle. And once we put that puzzle together, we went out focused and did what we had to do.”