The Thunder Mountain High School Falcons baseball team ran into a Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears squad that seemed to have watched (insert any glorified baseball movie here) as inspiration to get onto the diamond Tuesday night at Adair-Kennedy Field.
JDHS put up 12 runs in the top of the sixth inning and stymied TMHS in the bottom half to win by a run-rule score of 21-1.
“Last night was better than the previous game we played TM,” JDHS coach Chad Bentz said. “We were more patient at the plate, attacked the strike zone a lot more on the mound and we made less overall mistakes.”
That previous game had been a TMHS 9-6 win on May 9.
Thunder Mountain senior first baseman TJ Womack tags out Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior base runner Kaleb Campbell (13) on a pickoff move from Falcons’ pitcher Anthony Anderson in the top of the fourth inning Tuesday at Adair-Kennedy Field. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)
“It was improvement and that is what we strive for every time we play or practice,” said Bentz. “We need to flush that game through just like we did the first time we lost to them and try to learn from the mistakes we did make and move forward. It’s beautiful out and a great day for some baseball.”
JDHS’ Eli Crupi, Bodhi Nelson, Joe Aline and Finn Kesey each had two runs batted in on the night, Lamar Blatnick, Landon Simonson, Christian Nelson and Reed Meier one each; Blatnick, Nelson, Aline and Kesey led the Crimson Bears with two hits each, Kaleb Campbell, Crupi, Simonson and Christian Nelson one each; Blatnick and Bodhi Nelson scored four runs apiece, Campbell and Simonson three apiece, Kesey two, Brandon Casperson, Aline and Meier one each.
Crupi started on the mound and went five innings, allowing four hits and one run while walking one batter and striking out eight. Simonson closed for the sixth inning and struck out one.
The Falcons Anthony Anderson went four innings, Kaden Quinto 1.2 and TJ Womack pitched the final out.
Quinto had one hit and one run scored, Madden Mendoza, Kasen Ludeman and Rory Hayes had one hit each.
“We need to make in-game adjustments on offense and defense,” TMHS coach Joe Tompkins said. “As a team we have to make less mental and physical errors. We know we can’t get behind in the counts. We have to expect the ball with every batter.”
The two teams will square off again tonight at 6:30 p.m. Falcons seniors Hayes, Carson Cummins, Womack and Nic Daniels will be celebrated before the first pitch.
The Falcons also had a three-game road swing at Sitka last weekend, losing by scores of 25-2 and 14-0 on Friday and topping the Wolves 12-6.
In the road win Quinto led with four RBI, Ludeman had two, Mendoza and Hayes one apiece; Quinto and Hayes had three hits apiece, Owen Woodruff, JJ McCormick, Liam Hart, Mendoza and Ludeman one each; Hart scored three runs, Quinto and McCormick two apiece, Hayden Aube, Brody Howell, Mendoza, Hayes and Woodruff one each.
• Contact reporter Klas Stolpe at Klas.Stolpe@juneauempire.com.
