High school baseball: Judge gets payback in preseason win over Olympus

SALT LAKE CITY — After being no-hit and losing 10-0 at Olympus last Friday, the Judge Memorial Bulldogs earned a little payback on Monday afternoon.

This time, the Bulldogs were the ones doing the blowing out, as they registered a 12-2 victory over Olympus in five innings.

After playing Olympus (1-2) for the second time in four days and after being no-hit, Judge Memorial head coach Tony Mendez was asked if his team had more energy coming in looking for revenge.

“That was part of it, and it was our home field. We take a lot of pride in defending our home and not letting anybody come in here and beat us,” said Mendez.

Judge's bats were hot from the first pitch of the game, as the Bulldogs scored three runs early on in the first inning, two off a wild pitch and one on an Olympus error.

The Bulldog bats continued their offensive onslaught in the bottom of the third, scoring six runs to go up 9-0. It started out with one of shortstop Tanner Riley’s two hits on the day, followed by a Bulldog sacrifice bunt and a Xavier Vasquez RBI single to put Judge up 4-0. The next batter, Alec Losee, had an RBI sac-bunt to put the Bulldogs up 5-0.

A couple of batters later first baseman Mikey Saltas stepped up to the plate and promptly drove the ball into the outfield for a two-out, two-run double as the Bulldogs led 7-0. Following a Titan pitching change as Judge Memorial had batted around, Riley stepped to the plate again and hit a high pop fly just over the Titan first basemen’s reach, scoring two more to make it 9-0 at the end of three innings.

“We just executed. We had runners on, and we advanced them and scored them. We just executed; that’s all it was,” said Mendez about his team’s third-inning outburst.

In the top of the fourth the Titans scored two runs on a double down the left-field line by first baseman Jason Bess, cutting the Bulldogs' lead to 9-2.

That’s all the Titans would get on the day, however, as Bulldog starting pitcher Anthony Randazzo shut them down. He pitched four innings of three-hit baseball while only allowing two runs and two walks with five strikeouts.

“We felt like we needed to redeem ourselves, and put the bat on the ball, and come out here and play a good game,” said Randazzo about his pitching performance in the team’s payback victory. “I was just trying to throw strikes and let them hit the ball and let my fielders handle it, 'cause they got my back.”

The victory was the first in the young season for Judge Memorial (1-1).

“It’s definitely exciting and we’re going to build off it and we’re going to go out and get a lot more hopefully," Randazzo said.