With his team holding a precarious lead in the final inning, Juneau-Douglas High School catcher Michael Cesar’s glove and arm helped seal a 3-2 win against Thunder Mountain High School on Monday night at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park.
After helping make two outs at home, Cesar caught Falcons shortstop Owen Mendoza in between second and third base, leading to a game-ending tag from third baseman Luke Mallinger.
“He’s one of the hardest working kids I know and to come in in the seventh inning with that drive to put away a kid that is being way too aggressive, that’s what you expect out of Michael,” Mallinger said.
Only three runs were scored through the first five innings as starting pitchers Donavin McCurley, of JDHS, and Bobby Cox, of TMHS, excelled on the mound. Cox struck out seven, walked five and scattered two hits.
“Bobby pitched a great game,” JDHS coach Chad Bentz said. “Good pitching beats good hitting but I thought as a whole we were just a little timid and not as aggressive as we were this past weekend. But those games happen.”
McCurley struck out eight batters in 6 and 1/3 innings and gave up just one run after TMHS loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the fourth inning.
Trailing 3-1, the Falcons tried rallying in the top of the seventh.
With runners on first and second with no outs, sophomore Gabe Storie roped the ball to center fielder Erik Kelly. The senior fielded the ball from the dirt and made an incredible throw to home. The ball reached Cesar with just enough time for him to apply the tag on a sliding Cameron Eppers.
“He always likes to show off that arm,” Mallinger quipped.
The drama didn’t end there, though.
The next batter, Mendoza, scored pinch runner Jacob Tapia on a single to right field, making it 3-2.
Kelly replaced McCurley at pitcher, and after throwing a wild pitch, ran home to tag out Storie stealing third base.
“I just wish I could’ve slid,” Storie said. “At least put in more effort to run home and not have hesitated at third.”
Then, with just Mendoza left on base, Cesar caught him in a pickle, leading to the Mallinger tag at third base.
“We know we can beat this team, but we just had more errors than they did, more mistakes,” Storie said.
Luis Mojica scored in the third and fifth innings after drawing leadoff walks. Mendoza scored the lone Falcons run in the fourth inning on Bryson Echiverri’s sacrifice fly to left field. Kasey Watts scored in the sixth inning on a passed ball.
The two squads play each other again next Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Adair-Kennedy.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports at @akempiresports.
