It’s a crisp, breezy Friday night in April, and that can only mean one thing: baseball. With the stresses of school behind them, the excited players jog onto the lush, green turf of Wright Field as they prepare to take on another district rival. They hope their hard work and dedication put in during practice will pay off in the game.
The Jesuit baseball team rallied through another two weeks of games against district rivals W.T. White and Irving MacArthur, outscoring their opponents 34-2, earning four solid wins to keep them in contention for the district pennant. The wins proved to be important moving closer and closer to the playoffs, as the team looks to repeat its historic run at the state tournament last year. Both on the mound and in the batter’s box, the Rangers dominated the opposition, proving their superiority in their district, sitting with a 11-1 record for first place. Here’s a closer look at the past two weeks of games:
The first game saw the Rangers take on longtime rival W.T. White on Tuesday, April 12th at Wright Field. Behind junior Jacob Palisch’s standout performance on the mound, a one-hit complete game shut out, Jesuit took the victory 3-0. Palisch posted his fifth win of the season, striking out eight Longhorns in the process. Spring Hill commit Matt Horvath ’16 wowed the crowd with an impressive 3-for-3 performance, with 3 hits, one RBI, and one run scored. Pitcher JJ Montenegro ’17 was impressed by his fellow pitcher’s performance, stating, “Everyone played as a team that game, but Palisch’s slider was too dirty.”
Moving on, the Rangers then switched venues with the Longhorns, traveling to the nearby W.T. White baseball stadium on Friday, April 15th. This time, Jesuit’s offense exploded and produced a whopping fourteen runs on the way to an impressive 14-2 win over the Longhorns. Second baseman J.T. Mix ’17 had a standout performance, with two hits, a double, two runs scored, and two runs batted in. Star player Kyle Muller ’16 unsurprisingly launched another home run in the game as well. As pitcher, Montenegro picked up his fourth win, striking out seven batters in the process. When asked about the win, he remarked, “I felt good that game and I was able to mix up pitches well enough.”
The following week, the Rangers took on the Irving MacArthur Cardinals in a two-game series. First, on Tuesday, April 19th, Jesuit went to Irving to play the Cardinals, and annihlated the opposing team 14-0. University of Texas commit Muller had total control on the mound, only allowing one hit en route to a complete game shut out. Muller also led the team in the batter’s box with two hits and two RBIs, along with Jared Kengott ’16, who scored two runs and had two hits. The team lauded Muller for his leadership, as pitcher Heath VanKirk ’17 noted, “He leads by example and puts the team on his back,” while Montenegro simply said “He’s the ‘goat’.”
Finally, the Rangers faced MacArthur one more time back at Wright Field on Friday, April 22nd, and they once again demonstrated their defensive prowess by shutting out the Cardinals 3-0. Palisch again dominated on the mound, only allowing two hits while striking out nine, earning to his sixth win of the season. Despite his strong pitching performance, the highlight of the game was an amazing, jaw-dropping inside-the-park home run by Horvath, drawing a big cheer from both his teammates and the crowd due to his fast baserunning. VanKirk loved to see his teammate achieve that feat, commenting, “I’ve never been a part of a team that hit an inside-the-park homer, it was an amazing experience that I’ll always remember.”
As the Rangers finish the regular season and head into playoffs, be sure to check The Roundup for all baseball coverage!
