Guerrero plays hero for Middleton

Jackson Guerrero enjoyed countless memorable moments as a three-year letterwinner on the football field.

Guerrero also had a myriad of unforgettable performances on the basketball court, where he lettered three years and was the Big Eight Conference’s Player of the Year this winter.

What Guerrero did on the baseball diamond on May 21, though, ranks near the top of his endless stream of athletic accomplishments.

Guerrero had the game-winning hit in Middleton’s 7-6 victory over visiting Janesville Craig. Guerrero also moved from shortstop to the pitching mound in the seventh inning, worked out of a messy jam and picked up the win when the Cardinals rallied in the bottom of the frame.

Winning pitcher. Game winning hit.

You don't see that every day.

“I mean, he's clutch,” Middleton manager Brent Jorgensen said of Guerrero, who has 10 varsity letters between football, basketball and baseball. “He's been clutch for us for years, so it was nothing new to see him deliver.”

Guerrero’s heroics helped Middleton complete a two-game sweep of Craig last week and win its fourth straight game overall. The Cardinals improved to 15-7 and 11-5 in the Big Eight Conference.

Middleton still sits in fourth place in the league, behind co-leaders Madison Memorial (13-3, 16-5) and Verona (13-3, 17-7) and third place Sun Prairie East (12-4, 16-6). After losing three straight Big Eight games earlier this month, though, the Cardinals seem to be peaking as the postseason nears.

“I think, in terms of actually winning conference I think that chance has probably passed,” said Jorgensen, whose team has just two conference games left. “We still have a chance to finish second, but you know, we've really kind of figured things out and started to turn it on. The last three weeks, or so, I feel like we're playing much better baseball. So we're making steps in the right direction.”

Guerrero was the biggest reason the Cardinals remained headed in the right direction against Craig (8-8, 11-9).

Middleton starter Joey Passaglia threw extremely well and left after 5 2/3 innings with the Cardinals leading, 4-2. Middleton added a run in the bottom of the sixth and headed to the seventh with a 5-2 lead, when all heck broke loose.

First, MHS reliever Carter Gebhard walked two Cougars and gave up a hit as Craig loaded the bases with nobody out. Jorgensen summoned reliever Zach Daniels, who walked the first batter he faced on four pitches, then allowed an RBI single to pinch hitter Joey Mikkelsen that pulled the Cougars within 5-4.

Craig still had the bases loaded and nobody out when Jorgensen called on Guerrero to try limiting the damage. Guerrero, best known as an all-conference shortstop, did exactly that.

Passaglia, a standout pitcher, third baseman and first baseman, replaced Guerrero at shortstop. It was Passaglia’s first game at short since a varsity reserve game during his sophomore season, and he was immediately thrown into the fire.

Craig’s next two batters hit balls to Passaglia, and while the first Cougar reached, Passaglia made a heady play on the second ball and fired home for a force out that kept the game tied, 5-5.

“I’ve always been on Jackson’s teams and he was always the shortstop,” Passaglia said of jumping into a relatively new position. “So I would either be pitching or at one of the hot corners. But Jackson’s helped me out in the field so many times during the years, so I just wanted to do the same for him.”

Jorgensen said Tristano Feyrer is usually his No. 2 shortstop, but on this night, Feyrer was the designated hitter for second baseman Aaron Muchacho. Passaglia was more than up to the challenge, though.

“Joey’s a really good athlete,” Jorgensen said. “He’s played a lot of baseball for us and he knew just where to go on that force play at home. So it was just one of those trust things where it was like, yep, we'll just trust them to do the right thing, make the right play, and for the most part, they did.”

Craig took a 6-5 lead when Guerrero threw a wild pitch and Mikkelsen scored the go-ahead run. The wild pitch actually bounced back toward Guerrero, and after making a nifty play to field the ball cleanly, he tagged Mikkelsen, but the ball popped out of his glove.

“I would have had him for sure,” Guerrero said. “I fielded it clean and dove, and I hit him, but then it came out.”

Guerrero did yeoman’s work to limit the damage from there, getting Brady Ausen to pop out to first baseman Madden Cleary and Jordan Yurs to ground out to Muchacho at second.

That kept Middleton within striking distance, trailing 6-5 heading to the bottom of the seventh.

“They hadn't put many good swings on the ball most of the games,” Guerrero said of the Cougars. “Then we had like three straight walks to start the inning, so I was thinking just make them hit the ball. I mean, our defense will make the play and that's what they did.”

Guerrero has been Middleton’s closer on a few occasions this season. And while Jorgensen loves having Guerrero’s glove at short, the Cardinals’ skipper also knows Guerrero is probably his best option to close out games moving forward.

“He's just different,” Jorgensen said of Guerrero. “I mean, he's got a little bit different movement on the ball, he throws a little bit harder than some of our other guys, he's got a really good curve ball. He throws strikes, he competes in the zone.

“He can do all of those things, and he's just such a good athlete out there. You kind of want to have him at shortstop, but you know, at the end of the game, how many balls are going to get hit to short? And the pitcher is going to have the ball in his hand every pitch. So I like him in that role.”

Jorgensen didn’t love the position his team was in heading to the bottom of the seventh, though. But Middleton, which entered the day 5-0 in one-run games this season, found a way prevail again.

Left fielder Eytan D'Onofrio led off the inning with a double to the gap in right center. D’Onofrio was in a full sprint from the moment the ball left his bat, and he beat right fielder Asher Schoonover’s throw to second by a half-step.

Leadoff batter Chase Rogers laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt that Mikkelsen — who was pitching — bobbled for a split second. That was all the time Rogers needed to beat the throw to first, which put runners on the corners.

Craig elected to walk catcher Brad Koeller to load the bases and set up a force at any base. The problem for the Cougars was that brought Guerrero to the plate.

“I was just going to try and get a sac fly and tie the game,” Guerrero said.

He did even better.

With the infield in, Guerrero sent a fastball back up the middle. D’Onofrio and the speedy Rogers both raced home, giving Middleton a thrilling, too-close-for-comfort 7-6 win.

That capped a night in which Guerrero went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and scored a run. And not only did Guerrero deliver the game-winning hit, he left as the winning pitcher.

“I've been doing pretty well recently, better than the start of the year,” Guerrero said. “I'm feeling pretty good at the plate, and that's like perfect timing.”

Most of the night had been close to perfect for MHS, before the chaotic seventh ensued.

Rogers led off the game with a first inning single and  scored on an RBI groundout by first baseman Tyler Vogt to give Middleton a 1-0 lead. After the Cougars tied things in the third, Middleton scored a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth and surged to a 4-1 lead.

Guerrero reached on an error in the fourth and later scored on a Passaglia sacrifice fly that gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. Then in the fifth, two Craig errors led to a pair of Middleton runs as the Cardinals stretched their advantage to 4-1.

Meanwhile, Passaglia was rolling along and allowed two earned runs, four hits and struck out seven before reaching the 100-pitch limit and exiting with two outs in the sixth.

“It was definitely a hot start,” Passaglia said of his outing. “I slowed down a little bit, but it was backed by great defense, and Brad (Koeller) had an awesome game behind the plate again. I mean, I really didn't need the strikeouts that I had because everyone was making plays for me. Couldn't ask for anything more.”

Jorgensen was also thrilled how Passaglia threw.

“He's just gotten a little bit better with each start, little by little throughout the year,” Jorgensen said. “We're still working a little bit on some of the first pitch strike type stuff.

“But same thing, he just competes. That's kind of who he is as a person, that’s the kind of player he is. He's never out, he's never down too much, and he just finds ways to bounce back and shine. He's got a lot of varsity games played in a lot of sports. So I’m really happy for him.”

None of the Cardinals were happy how the top half of the seventh inning unfolded. But all’s well that ends well — and on this night, Guerrero made sure things ended well.

“Yeah, pretty cool,” Jorgensen said of Guerrero’s heroics. “I mean, he came in and he pitched really well. Then he had a really big at bat.

“Jackson has come up big for us in so many situations, so I’m certainly not surprised. But it was great to see.”

• Middleton 2, Janesville Craig 1 — Junior pitcher Brody Kalscheur went the distance as the visiting Cardinals edged the Cougars on May 19.

Kalscheur allowed four hits, one run and threw strikes on 58 of 95 pitches (61.1%) in picking up the win.

Middleton managed just four hits, but found a way to score a pair of runs.

The Cardinals trailed, 1-0, in the third when Eytan D’Onofrio had a one-out single and moved to third when Chase Rogers reached on an error. One batter later, Rogers was picked off of second base, but D’Onofrio raced home with the tying run.

Middleton then scored the eventual game-winning run in the fifth when D’Onofrio was hit by a pitch with one out and moved to second on a groundout. Catcher Brad Koeller followed with a two-out, RBI single to left that plated D’Onofrio.

• On deck: Middleton hosted Janesville Parker Tuesday, then wraps up the regular season at Parker on Friday at 5 p.m.

May 21

Middleton 7, Janesville Craig 6

Craig …. 001 001 4 — 6 6 3

Middleton ……. 100 121 1 — 2 7 10

Pitchers (ip-h-r-er-so-bb) — JC: Easton Zastrow (5-6-4-3-0-0), Joey Mikkelsen (L) (1-4-3-1-1-1). M: Joey Passaglia (5.2-4-2-2-7-4), Carter Gebhard (0.1-1-3-3-0-2), Zach Daniels (0-1-1-1-0-1), Jackson Guerrero (W) (1-0-0-0-0-0) 

Leading hitters — M: Chase Rogers 2x4, Jackson Guerrero 2x4. 2B — Eytan D’Onofrio.

May 19

Middleton 2, Janesville Craig 1

Middleton …. 001 010 0 — 2 4 2

Craig …. 100 000 0 — 1 4 2

Pitchers (ip-h-r-er-so-bb) — M: Brody Kalscheur (W) (7-4-1-1-1-3). JC: Ethan Forrett (L) (5-3-2-1-4-1), Brady Ausen (2-1-0-0-2-1). 

Leading hitters — JC: Jordan Yurs 2x3.