The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears are used to playing in the rain this season as they had just four days that were not April showers this past month and were expecting May to be blooming across the sandlot and turf fields.
On Friday in Ketchikan the Crimson Bears played a triple-header against the Kings as heavy rainfall had cancelled Thursday action on the Kings Norman Walker Field.
“The back-to-back-to-back format was a challenge as well but we have depth in our program that was able to step up to the challenge,” JDHS coach Luke Adams said. “And we were able to earn a win in two of the three games of this series.”
JDHS won the first game 10-0 as Crimson Bears junior Riley Fick threw the complete shortened five-inning game, allowing just one hit, walking five batters and striking out 11.
Fick allowed the lone hit to the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the first inning and then struck out the side. Fick would strike out the first two batters in the bottom of the second inning, then walk three straight batters before using four pitches to strike out a Kayhi batter and end the threat. Fick struck out one batter in the bottom of the third and walked two, but Crimson Bears junior shortstop Brandon Casperson fielded a ground ball to start a double play and end the threat. Fick would strike out two in the bottom of the fourth and one in the fifth. He threw 97 pitches, 56 for strikes.
The Crimson Bears backed up their pitcher as juniors Marcus and Madden Mendoza and sophomore Noah Lewis had two RBI each and Casperson, Lewis, Madden Mendoza, junior Nate Fick, junior Chris Andersen and sophomore Drew Cadigan-MacAdoo had one hit each.
JDHS dropped their second game 10-5, but won the third late nightcap 10-4 with senior Christian Nelson and Marcus Mendoza sharing the mound.
Nelson threw four innings, allowed three hits and three runs, walked four and struck out five. Mendoza relieved for three innings, allowed three hits and one run, walked three and struck out three.
Marcus Mendoza helped his own cause with three RBI and one run scored. N. Fick had two RBI and two runs scored. Madden Mendoza went 4-5 with one RBI and three runs scored. Lewis, Andersen and R. Fick had two hits each.
In the 10-5 loss junior Cayman Huff and sophomore Hunter Carte worked the mound. Huff went 4.1 innings, gave up 10 hits and 10 runs and struck out two, while Carte went 1.2 innings and allowed one hit.
R. Fick had two RBI, Casperson and junior Tyler Frisby one apiece. N. Fick went 3-4 at the plate and scored one run. Casperson, Lewis, Marcus Mendoza, senior JJ McCormick and Frisby had one hit each.
“Our pitchers did a great job this weekend and performed well,” JDHS’ coach Adams said. “The elements and conditions were challenging but we were able to stay focused and throw strikes…While the two wins are great, the loss is a good reminder to our players that we need to keep getting better each week and have a lot of parts of our game we need to improve.”
JDHS will host Ketchikan on May 16-17. The Crimson Bears are 2-4 in the Southeast Conference and 5-7 overall. Sitka is 6-0 SEC and 13-2-1 overall, Ketchikan is 1-5 SEC and 7-11 overall.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
