Jessieville eyes good regional tourney seed
A senior’s pitching helped keep Jessieville’s baseball season alive. The Lions turn to a junior and sophomore for a favorable regional- tournament seed.
Junior Chase Anderson goes against regular- season champion and tournament host Glen Rose in the Class 3A- 5 semifinals today at 11 a. m., the winner advancing to today’s 6 p. m. final.
Anderson got the decision in Jessieville’s 3- 2 defeat of Cutter Morning Star on Wednesday, pitching two innings in relief of sophomore Johnny Chambers and with the Lions scoring in the eighth inning.
“That was just a side pen for him, so he’ll be ready for Saturday,” coach Jamie Saveall said after Michael Mendez pitched a complete game in Thursday’s 8- 1 quarterfinal win over Fountain Lake.
Chambers went six innings against CMS, leaving softthrowing sophomore Josh Mitchell as Saveall’s first relief choice against Glen Rose, which had a bye to the semifinals.
“He’s got a good change- up. He can baffle people for a while,” Saveall said. “If we can get Chase through five innings and bring Josh in behind, that’s what we’re looking at.”
Mitchell played a key hitting role Thursday, going 4- for- 5 from the leadoff spot and starting Jessieville’s tworun rally in the fifth inning with a oneout double to deep left field. Mitchell, moved from well down in the batting order after Fountain Lake walked Anderson and Mendez three times each in an 8- 4 regular- season win over the Lions, and Anderson scored on Greg Noles’ bases- loaded single.
“When we moved ( Mitchell) up to the top of the order, that’s what we wanted him to do,” Saveall said.
Noles’ clutch hit, part of a 3- for3 performance, came after Fountain Lake intentionally walked Mendez with runners on first and second.
“It changes things a little bit when you have to load the bases to put somebody on,” Saveall said.
Noles moved from leadoff to the clean- up spot in the revamped lineup, Saveall saying the senior second baseman seemed to pressure himself to drive in runs.
“( Thursday) I thought you could tell he loosened up and squared the ball up,” Saveall said.
Mendez allowed a first- inning run on a walk and Cody Fortner’s RBI single, then tossed six scoreless innings. He allowed one hit from the second through the sixth, and pitched out of a bases- loaded, no- out jam in the seventh.
“He changed speeds real good,” Saveall said. “I though he probably could have thrown his curveball a little bit more, but he did a good job with his change- up.”
Mendez said “I just kept throwing the way I know how to throw.”
The 10- strikeout, five- hitter ( two walks) extended his career as a fouryear starter and one of Garland County’s top hitters
“I’m glad we won,” Mendez said. “I want to keep playing. It’s my senior year. I don’t want to stop.”
*** Jessieville ( 14- 7), the tournament’s No. 5 seed, ended an encouraging season for Fountain Lake, which finished fourth in 3A- 5 in Justin Gregory’s first
year as the Cobras’ first official head baseball coach.
“I’m proud of them,” Gregory said. “They came from nothing to something. You’ve got to give them credit for sticking around. I’m hard to deal with sometimes, the way we practice and the demands we put on them. I think we’ll have a good program in a couple of years.”