By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
EUGENE, Ore.– Joe Mendazona battled back from an torn Meniscus that he suffered during football season with his surgery a day before Halloween.
A few months of rehab later and slowly getting back into his groove, Mendazona took to the mound for the Panthers final game of the year.
Through the rain, the wind, the sun, he attacked Thurston’s batters with aggression.
To a surprise to no one that’s a Central supporter of what the junior was capable of come games end.
“I wanted to say unbelievable, but I’m not. The way that he plays the game is incredible. I’m so fortunate to coach him and coach this team,” said Central Head Coach Ben Kramer. “He put on a display on why he is who he is as a baseball player. He’s incredibly competitive. All the work the he put in coming back from an injury in the Fall was leading up to this day and it’s a beautiful thing when it all works out that way.”
The Central faithful made the trek from Independence to Eugene from the game. And it felt like it was a duplicate of when they won it all in 2019.
Mendazona and his defense were dealing like Ruben Cedillo, Brendan Lesmeister and Eli Garcia and their defense did six years ago.
The offense, eerie similar to that squad. It was another fast start to the Title Game for the Panthers. While it wasn’t the 11-run outburst that they had in 2019, scoring seven runs in the Title Game proved enough for the 7-0 victory.
And it’s interesting. Last year, they didn’t make the playoffs and this year, their last in 5A, they put their foot down and went to work that led to Saturday’s success.
“All the guys love each other, we have great practices and it feels like a dream,” said Santi Alacron, who had 2RBI’s and two hits on the day. “We wanted to win every game. We were an underdog and no one thought we were going to win, but we showed them up and we came and competed.”
Mendazona didn’t let off the gas. There was some fatigue late during the sixth inning, but Mendazona buckled down to get out of two walks in that inning before turning a three-up and down inning to close out a no-hitter.
Yeah. A No-Hitter. The fourth-ever in a State Title Game.
Mendazona also added 14-strikeouts in the victory as well as Central closed out the season 24-7. Capping an incredible run that saw them entering the postseason as the sixth-seed.
“It was awesome. I was nervous going into this, but that’s what fuels me. I’m going to come in and compete however I can and give what I got for the guys behind me,” Mendazona said of his performance.
“Last year, missing playoffs, we came in this year with a giant fire on our ends and we never stopped. The fire continued to grow and once we got here, it was insane.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
