Denair High varsity baseball coach Mike Stucker is in his third year of overseeing a rebuild, and Thursday afternoon turned in what he believes was the best game he has managed in the purple, black and white uniforms to date.
Facing the Southern Athletic League-leading Gustine, who had pounded the Coyotes 10-0 in five innings on Tuesday to improve to 7-1 against conference opponents and 12-4 overall, the Coyotes erased an early 5-0 deficit and fended off a late rally to secure an 8-7 win.
The Coyotes are now 5-3 in league play and 6-5-1 overall, remaining in the hunt for the postseason, while the Reds got knocked down to second place.
Capping off Denair’s improbable comeback has been a staple of the program, four-year varsity catcher Lincoln Hart. The senior smacked a grounder down the left field line of Ron Cornell Field and sped around the bases for a go-ahead, bases-clearing triple in the sixth inning to give the Coyotes an 8-5 lead. The inning prior, junior left fielder Degan Butler drove in the tying run against starter Alex Quezada with an RBI single up the middle.
“I was ready for anything,” Hart said. “The new pitcher (Lucas Malone) was warming up and I saw him just throwing fastballs, so that’s what I was looking for, a meatball down the middle, and once the ball went over the bag and stayed fair, I was Lightning McQueen around the bases. I got to third in a heartbeat.”
A relentless Reds offense didn’t go quietly into the evening, chasing the starting pitcher, sophomore Noah Lundquist, from the game by reaching on an error, working a walk and loading the bases with an infield single to start the seventh inning. In relief with one out was little brother, freshman Tommy, who was on the losing end of Tuesday’s blowout. Quezada promptly hit a two-run single between the shortstop and third baseman, but Lundquist was able to control his emotions (and his fastball) to strike out the next two batters. He proceeded to get mobbed by his teammates on the mound.
“I was nervous,” admitted Tommy. “With the bases loaded, there’s a lot of pressure, and once the first guy got the hit, I didn’t think it would end well, to be honest.”
But he painted the corners with the fastball, and had help from Hart’s framing behind the plate.
Stucker said there was never a doubt that it would be the younger Lundquist coming in for the save attempt.
“Tommy is really our third guy in the rotation,” he said, also referring to the fact that ace Kaden Prine was unavailable this week due to a minor injury. “Tommy was the guy for the job because he throws strikes, he's really consistent throwing strikes. I knew if he went in there and throws strikes, the worst case scenario is he's going to make them hit the ball, put it in play and give the defense a chance to get somebody out.
“Being a freshman, I mean, what a position he's in now. Bases loaded, one out, he strikes out two guys against the best hitting team in the league — which Gustine is, by far — I'm really proud of him.”
The elder Lundquist similarly threw strikes in the first inning, but saw six batters reach on three fielding errors and three hits, jumping ahead 5-0 out of the gates. The Reds were then held scoreless until the dramatic seventh frame.
“That first inning, I was definitely trying too hard,” because I knew this was a big game,” the right-hander said. “I came into the dugout and had a talk with my defense and said, ‘Hey, I need you guys now. Let’s play clean out there and let’s go out and hit now.’ And they did. We picked each other up after that.”
Lundquist finished his outing striking out five and allowing three earned runs on three hits and a walk.
Meanwhile, junior Brayden Hart was the first to cut into the Gustine lead in the second inning, scoring Butler and Valente Rosales on an RBI single. Koby Cervantes capped off the rally by coming in to score on an error after being hit by a pitch. In the third, Rosales, who walked a swiped second, scored on another defensive miscue to make it a 5-4 game to set up Butler’s and Hart’s heroics.
“Ever since my freshman year, we have not been good,” Hart said with a laugh. “I knew this year was our year. We've had a lot of adversity, but this game just shows that we’ve turned a corner. And we get Kaden back next game, which is just huge, so we're ready to sweep the rest of the season. It’s huge momentum.”
The Coyotes will have a Tuesday-Thursday series against Waterford (2-6) next week, hosting the Wildcats first before traveling to their field. Game times are slated for 4 p.m. Those same days will be when the Reds face off with first-place Le Grand, who is 8-1 in SAL play, offering a unique opportunity for the Coyotes to make up ground if they were to beat up on each other and split the series.
“We’re right in the thick of it,” Stucker said. “It feels good to play meaningful baseball this time of the year.”
