1 UP, 2 DOWN
HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE — Even with a pitch count well over 100, Michael Mendez finished with a flourish — and pitched Hot Springs Village to an elusive first win.
Mendez struck out the side in the seventh innings, getting the last strike on his 133rd pitch, to nail down a 5- 3 win over Sheridan ( Junior) in a second- round 2012 Baseball Bash American Legion game Friday night at Paul Bewie Boys & Girls Club.
The left- handed Jessieville High School graduate worked around a one- out walk by striking out Garrett Williams looking and Caleb Hollinger, Sheridan’s No. 3 hitter, swinging to give Class AA HS Village its first win after nine losses. He said fatigue was no factor.
“I thought I got better as I got toward the end,” said Mendez, who threw one inning Thursday night against the Texarkana, Texas, Indians.
“He just threw a lot of strikes,” HSV coach Justin Gregory said, “and I thought he was throwing harder in the late innings.”
Mendez allowed two earned runs, four hits, walked four and had 11 strikeouts. He also struck out the side in the third, and had one strikeout each in the first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth.
The Southern Arkansas University signee threw “mostly fastballs,” but he crossed up Williams after walking Chase Davis with one out in the seventh.
“It was a changeup, outside and low,” Mendez said.
Mendez also led HS Village at the plate, going 3- for- 3 and driving in two runs. His first- inning double gave HSV a 1- 0 lead, and his fifth- inning single made it 53. The latter was a low line drive that reached the right- center field fence, Colby Spoon scoring from first but Mendez settling for one base after tripping.
The Sentinel- Record’s
high school all- Garland County team Batter of the Year ( see Page 2B), singled and scored in a two- run third.
“He kills the ball,” Gregory said. “He’s probably one of the best bad- ball hitters I’ve ever seen. He crushes bad pitches.”
The perfect game at bat made Mendez 14 of his last 17, and he said he is hitting “better than I ever have. I put my backs back more so I can see the ball longer.
Tyler Dauber had HSV’s other RBI on a ground ball in the fifth that scored catcher Hunter Mayfield. Spoon scored three times, going 1- for- 1 with a walk and getting hit by a pitch batting in front of Mendez.
“He was on base all night,” Gregory said of Spoon, one of three Junior- team players in the starting lineup because of absences. “He got a hit and got Mendez to drive him in.”
Spoon also made a diving catch in center field, Mendez’s position when not pitching, and fellow fill- in Patrick Murphy contributed a bunt single in the fourth, moving Mayfield to third after Dillon Brown’s single.
“The most impressive thing about ( the win) is we had a lot of kids out. We ( played) a lot of kids who play Junior ball,” Gregory said. “Every one of those ( 2012) ninth- graders stepped up.”
“We had a lot of Juniors playing,” Mendez said. “They did good.”
Spoon walked in the third ahead of Mendez’s single, and both scored when Sheridan pitcher Cole Bradford ( 4 1/ 3 innings, three earned runs) fielded Tyler Robertson’s swinging bunt and threw wildly to first.
Sheridan, which defeated the Texarkana, Texas, Tigers 11- 5 earlier Friday, scored on an error in the fourth, but Mayfield picked off John Strange to help keep the lead at two. Dauber’s RBI made it 4- 1.
on a liner to left center.