Mendes fans a dozen as Jesuit rolls Jefferson
Jesuit starting pitcher Wes Mendes recorded 12 strikeouts taking a no-hitter into the seventh, and AJ Nessler (right) homered as the Tigers defeated Jefferson.
By Rick Cantor
Staff writer
TAMPA – The last time Jesuit’s Wes Mendes threw a no-hitter was in little league.
“I threw a perfect game all strikeouts. I’m not sure if that counts,” joked the junior.
On Tuesday night, the southpaw, Vanderbilt commit came within two outs of his first as a high schooler, as Jesuit pounded out 11 hits in an 11-0 district win over Jefferson at Rene Martinez Field on Tuesday night.
Adding to his gleaming stat line were 12 strikeouts and just one walk before Jayden Vazquez rolled a single to right with one out in the bottom of the seventh.
“My mindset coming into the game was just to throw strikes and let my defense do the work for me,” said Mendes. “I’m a big fastball guy, but tonight the curveball was working a lot more than it usually does. I was attacking with the fastball and dropping in the curve for strikes.”
Jesuit (12-5, 1-0 in Class 5A-District 6) took advantage of some Jefferson (7-9, 1-3 in 5A-6) miscues early on.
In the top of the second inning, Josh Hines reached on an error and eventually scored on a single by Mikey Clifford (1-for-2, RBI, BB, run).
An inning later, Jake Kulikowski (4-for-5) started a two-out rally with a double off the wall in deep center. After an intentional walk to Mendes and a walk to Hines, Carter French hit a hard ground ball to second that took a tough hop but was ruled an error allowing a run to score. With the bases still loaded, Grant Jordan was plunked by a pitch providing the Tigers with their third unearned run of the game.
Jesuit continued to add runs in a variety of ways.
In the fourth inning DJ Pirela came home after a dropped third strike drew a throw to first base. The fifth inning saw senior and Pitt commit AJ Nessler sent home a run with a solid single, followed by Jack Martinez scoring on a passed ball.
In the seventh, Deuce Guggino and Christiano Flores came through with RBI singles and Nessler (2-for-5, 3 RBI) lined a hanging curve over right field fence for his second home run of the season.
“Every time Wes takes the bump, it takes a little pressure off of us,” said Nessler “We have been improving a lot at the plate. We have a gritty team and one through nine is a hard out. We had a big win last week at Calvary that gave us a lot of confidence.”
The Tigers are back in action tomorrow night against St. Pius X of Atlanta, while Jefferson looks to rebound at Blake on Thursday.
⚾⚾⚾⚾
(3) Jesuit 11
Jefferson 0
Jes 012|102|5 – |11|11|0
Jef 000|000|0 – |0|1|4
W – Mendes (5-0); L – Vazquez (0-1)
2B – Kulikowski (Jes); HR – Nessler (Jes). Records – Jes (12-5, 1-0 in 5A-6); Jef (7-9, 1-3 in 5A-6).
