NORTH ANDOVER — She’s the backbone of perhaps the hottest softball team in Massachusetts, a stabilizing force behind the plate, and a major threat with the bat for unbeaten North Andover High.
Jenna Roche is — her teammates agree — the rock of the Scarlet Knights.
“She’s our rock!” said North Andover ace Brigid Gaffny. “She’s the mastermind behind our pitching. She always knows what to do in the big moments. I couldn’t do it without Jenna. She’s my rock.”
A four-year starter, Roche has been a driving force behind the North Andover squad that entered the weekend with an 12-0 record and ranked No. 4 in the MIAA Division 1 standings.
“It means a lot to be this strong at this point in the season,” said Roche. “To be undefeated and highly ranked is a big accomplishment for me and the other seniors. I never expected this, but I knew what we were all capable of, and it was just a matter of leaving it all out on the field to prove just how good we are. Our team feeds off each other, so beating those really tough teams has pumped us all up, and we are looking to continue this energy straight through the rest of our season.”
Now in her second season as the starting catcher for North Andover — she played third base for two seasons while her sister Julianna held the position down — Roche is in full control behind the plate for the Knights.
And coach Caitlin Flanagan wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I was a catcher myself,” said Flanagan, a New York native who played at Stonehill College. “So I could very easily be calling the pitches. But I would never call pitches with Jenna out there. She has such an amazing eye. She has so much natural talent, but forget about her physical strength. She is just so smart behind the plate. No one can do the job like Jenna.”
Roche makes up one half of a dominant battery with fellow four-year varsity player and Eagle-Tribune All-Star Gaffny, a relationship that’s been forged through countless hours of throwing and communication, resulting in performances like the 3-0 shutout of previously-unbeaten Central Catholic.
“I call all the pitches out there, and I really do love doing that,” said Roche, who ranks in the top 5 percent of her senior class and has taken six Advanced Placement classes.
“But my biggest job is to support Brigid. I know her so well by now. I know all of her pitches, and how she can move them and what they look like on a given day. It’s me and her working out way through every game.”
Added Gaffny: “She brings everything and means everything to me. I respect everything she does for myself and our team. She is a really amazing catcher.”
Roche, who hits No. 2 in the North Andover order, also gets it done at the plate. She hit .391 with 18 RBIs last season, and has continued that success this spring. She had an RBI single and scored a key run to help hand defending Division 1 state finalist Central Catholic its first loss, two hits and two RBIs in a victory over Lowell and two more hits in a win over Dracut.
She will now savor every moment of her final season playing for North Andover and her last season catching. She’ll be moving to third base when she joins the Wentworth Institute of Technology.
“I’ll be giving up catching when I go to college,” she said. “Which is OK. I love catching, but third base is my secondary position, and I’m super excited to see how it goes going forward. But first I want to have a great finish to my high school career. I feel like, since freshman year, we have all earned our way to now, trying our hardest to make our senior season the best season we have had.”
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