<\/p>\n
Holding nothing back Saturday afternoon while pitching the final inning of a decorated multisport career, Jasen Engel dared the opposing 7-8-9 hitters to catch up to his fastball \u2013 still popping catcher Travis Beeson\u2019s mitt as hard as it had when he\u2019d swiftly retired Ignacio\u2019s 1-2-3 sticks four frames earlier.<\/p>\n
His first two offerings were slightly off-target as he reloosened his right arm after Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s lengthy at-bat in the top of the fifth produced three runs, two of them from Engel\u2019s bat, with his legs logging the third.<\/p>\n
His next \u2013 and last \u2013 nine deliveries: Strike, strike, strike to Bobcat designated hitter Bryce Finn. Strike, strike, strike to catcher Lawrence Toledo. Strike, strike, strike to first baseman\/relief pitcher Adam House.<\/p>\n
An immaculate inning, more or less, to cap a 14-1 nonleague road win and the Panthers\u2019 2018 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I threw a few balls today,\u201d grinned Engel, who followed up his 57-pitch, perfect-game performance against the Bobcats (4-15, 1-6 2A\/1A San Juan Basin) back on April 26 with a 70-pitch no-hitter. He also went 3-for-4 offensively \u2013 including a three-run, opposite-field homer to right off Ignacio senior Kai Roubideaux (L; 3.1 IP, 6 H, 9 R, 7 ER, 4 BB, 7 K) in the fourth \u2013 scored three runs and plated five.<\/p>\n
Junior Cordell Baer, batting right behind Engel in the visitors\u2019 order, finished 3-for-3 with a homer, triple, walk and ground-rule double, three runs scored and as many driven in. Bidding for a rare \u201creverse\u201d cycle, his long ball to left with senior Cutter Matthews (0-1, BB, R) and Engel aboard gave Montezuma-Cortez (4-12, 1-9 3A Intermountain) a quick 3-0 lead in the top of the first.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just there,\u201d he said. \u201cRight in my zone, and I just swung at it \u2026 and it went all the way out!\u201d<\/p>\n
Beeson then walked against Roubideaux, and courtesy runner Ernie Padilla (0-0, 2 R) promptly took second on a wild pitch to Andrew Medina (0-2, 2 BB), reached third via a passed ball on Toledo, then scored on a delayed double-steal when Medina, who\u2019d walked, swiped second and drew Toledo\u2019s throw.<\/p>\n
Roubideaux settled down to strike out DH Brandon McMillian (1-4, RBI) and Kolby Waltman, but irreparable damage was done, and the Panthers weren\u2019t to be caught. Beeson (1-2, 2 BB) bashed a ground-rule double in the top of the third, plating Baer after his triple, and then scored on a McMillan single to right to put M-CHS up 6-0. And highlighted by Engel\u2019s blast, the guests put up a decisive 5-spot in the top of the fourth.<\/p>\n
Starting in left field with the home team\u2019s roster decimated by various absences, Ignacio\u2019s Cesar Pedregon \u2013 whose fourth-inning misplay of a two-out McMillian fly allowed both Baer and Beeson to score \u2013 managed to draw a second-inning walk but was stranded when Engel fanned Finn.<\/p>\n
The only other offensive production the Bobcats could muster on a lackluster Senior Day was when senior Marcus Chapman, pressed into duty at shortstop rather than his regular first-base role, skied a third-inning pitch to left, where Waltman couldn\u2019t make the grab \u2013 allowing Chapman to scoot ahead to second base.<\/p>\n
Ian Weinreich then bounced a pitch at reserve shortstop Ty Blackmer \u2013 Matthews had been ejected for disputing a called third strike, ending the top of the second inning \u2013 who was unable to make a clean throw to Medina, allowing both Weinreich to reach, and Chapman to sprint home for the unearned run.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re averaging a lot more than that,\u201d Baer said, of the two errors, \u201cso it was a good, well-rounded day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNext year, we\u2019ll have a little motivation. We\u2019ve got to get back to where we were last year \u2013 we were a winning team \u2013 and this year wasn\u2019t what we wanted,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been struggling the whole year, and it\u2019s good to end it like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Engel and Baer combined to go 6-for-7 in the rout, cracking five extra-base hits, scoring six runs and racking up a devastating eight RBI in the season finale.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the outfield when we were praying, I told everyone to have fun \u2013 it was the last game of the year,\u201d said Baer. \u201cMe and Jasen, we\u2019ve been playing sports for three years together now, and \u2026 it\u2019s just kind of a bond. We knew that we had to step up, be big in the lineup, and we did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Engel, junior Baer each homer in 14-1 road romp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[36,346,594],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-99915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-sports","tag-track-and-field"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99915"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=99915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}