If she has her choice, Emma Douglas prefers to do her best work behind the scenes.
The Our Lady of Mercy Academy rising senior enjoys giving her time and efforts toward noble causes, and she doesn’t necessarily enjoy receiving any praise or acknowledgement once the job is done.
Douglas, who is a stellar high school softball player, is part of her school’s Campus Ministry, which participates in community outreach. Recently, her group helped out a local animal shelter by making dog beds and organizing a food drive to help pets.
“We do a lot of service projects and fundraisers at school that we send off the money to different places. We had one for [Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia], and we had an autism awareness fundraiser. It’s really great to be able to give to people without it being direct,” she said.
On the softball field, there’s no hiding her success. Douglas was already known as one of the best players in South Jersey; she has more than 500 pitching strikeouts and is a career .417 hitter through her junior season. That attention earned her a spot on a team of talented all-stars representing the Tri-Cape team in the 18th annual Carpenter Cup Softball Tournament, which was held in South Philadelphia. Tri-Cape is a mix of players from the Tri-County Conference and the Cape-Atlantic League in which OLMA competes. The tournament took place from June 19-21 with 16 of the best high school softball conferences in Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and Delaware.
Douglas delivered the tournament-winning hit in the championship game as Tri-Cape defeated Jersey Shore to win the tournament for the second time in the franchise’s history. Tri-Cape’s other championship came in 2014.
“I was very excited to get the call to play in this tournament,” Douglas said. “It’s definitely something I was looking forward to, and it’s great to play with a bunch of people I played against throughout the year.”
Douglas mainly played second base in the tournament but also pitched in two of her team’s six games. The left-handed slap hitter batted .384, scored five runs and had an on-base percentage of .529 during the tournament. The clutch RBI hit came in the bottom of the seventh inning with one out and the game tied 1-1. Douglas slapped a single that brought home Buena High School’s Cami Johnson in walk-off fashion. Tri-Cape went 5-0-1 in the tournament and built bonds pretty quickly in the dugout.
“We only had one practice before this and our team was already really close,” Douglas said. “It’s a lot of fun being able to play with the best of the best.”
One of those players was Schalick High School’s Taylor Sparks, who is Douglas’ friend and teammate on the South Jersey Heat travel team.
“We’re really close, so it was great to have her here,” Douglas said of Sparks, an outfielder who contributed five hits and four runs in the tournament.
The spring was pretty great for Douglas, too, as OLMA went 12-8 and won a first-round playoff game. Douglas struck out 260 batters in 131 innings while posting a 2.08 earned run average while also batting .426 at the plate. She sits at 515 career strikeouts entering her senior year and is closing in on some historic numbers.
“Honestly, I haven’t really thought about that yet because my goal was 180 [strikeouts] this year and I ended up with more than 250,” Douglas said. “So I’m not really sure what my goal is yet. But at least 700 [in my career].”
Douglas, who lives in Swedesboro, worked out with a strength coach over the winter, adding more zip to her fastball. She hopes to play college at the next level while pursuing a career in the medical field in either nursing, physical therapy or occupational therapy, following the footsteps of her mother, who is a nurse.
One way or another, she’ll end up helping people, and probably without receiving all the thanks and recognition medical professionals deserve.
“I just like to be able to help people,” Douglas said.
at the bottom and then tap “Add to Home Screen”
