Sweat beats down his face as he stares at the catcher, affirming or denying signals. The pitcher stands up, focused and in the zone. Ready to throw, he pulls his knee up, creating a ninety-degree angle with his leg, before stepping down, whirling his arm around, and sending the ball flying toward the plate and into the catcher’s mitt at almost ninety miles per hour. The opposing batter, with no time to think, mindlessly swings the bat, hoping for contact, but to not avail. The umpire yells “steeeeeeerrrrike 3!” and the crowd goes wild as the rest of the team sprints out of the dugout to congratulate the pitcher on throwing a no-hitter.
The Jesuit Rangers baseball teams opened up the district campaign by annihilating both Skyline and Sunset in every game they played over the course of the last two weeks of March. The district series were highlighted by the jaw-dropping pitching, as two pitchers threw no-hitters and then another threw a two-hit complete game shutout. The pitchers couldn’t have done it without the Rangers’ fiery bats, combining for a total of forty runs over four games. Here is a closer look of the opening district games against Sunset and Skyline:
On Friday, March 18th, the Rangers, fresh off of preseason tournaments, were ready to begin their run back to the playoffs, facing Sunset at Mercy Street Field. The Rangers came ready to play, scoring seven runs, highlighted by senior standout Kyle Muller’s two-run home run and senior Jared Kengott’s stellar performance going 3 for 4 with an RBI and two runs. However, the real highlight of the game came from pitcher JJ Montenegro ’17, who struck out eleven en route to an impressive no-hitter. Montenegro was proud of his ability to stay fresh and focused during the game commenting, “I knew getting ahead of the count would allow me to be able to mix up my pitches more to throw off batters, and I thought I did a sufficient enough job in doing so.”
The Rangers were back at it again the next night on March 19th, this time in front of a home crowd at Wright Field. Just when the fans thought last night’s no-hit performance was a special experience, they got to witness the Rangers play their best game all season, with the spotlight on the University of Texas commit Kyle Muller’s fifteen-strikeout no-hit performance, an unbelievable performance considering the no-hitter the night before. Jesuit’s batters certainly played an important role in the victory, scoring a whopping fourteen runs, complemented by Muller’s strong performance at the plate as well, hitting a double and a triple for two RBI. Despite the blowout win, pitcher Nic Colombo ’17 praised the Bisons’ hitting strength saying, “Sunset has some great bats in the lineup.”
With a pair of strong wins to start the season, Jesuit took on Skyline on Tuesday, March 22nd at Skyline High school. The Rangers were able to pull away a win, but only by a margin of three runs, winning 5-2. Stanford commit Jacob Palisch ’17 had a strong performance on the mound, striking out eight en route to his third win of the season. The Rangers’ bats provided some relief especially through Matt Horvath ’16, going 2-3 with a run and Kengott’s two hits and two runs. Junior pitcher Heath VanKirk gave his thoughts on the close game saying, “The team was just having a bad night, particularly in the batting category, but we pulled it together and will learn from our mistakes in the future.”
On Thursday night, March 24th, Jesuit once again wowed the crowd at Wright Field with an impressive 14-0 win, making up for the lack of runs scored two nights before. The star of the night was once again pitcher Montenegro, throwing a two-hit complete game shutout and fanning ten Raiders. However, he couldn’t have done it without senior catcher Bryce Bonner’s impressive performance at the plate, going 3-3 with a triple, three hits, and a whopping five RBI.
Commenting on the team’s success and district goals JJ Montenegro noted, “We have had some time playing together now and the chemistry is starting to intensify which is leading to our offense coming together. We know that we aren’t last year’s team so we have to do the little things rights and everyone has to do their part by knowing their role.”
As the Rangers begin to hunker down into the depths of district play, be sure to keep up with The Roundup for all baseball coverage!
