Aug 14, 2022 3 min read

Maybe a few years from now, Jaxon Jenkins might go on to other things in life.

But on this cloudy Sunday afternoon, he turned in a pitching performance that was, in a word, memorable.

Jenkins, a right-handed pitcher for Bay County, Mich., struck out 11, did not walk anyone and allowed Puerto Rico, historically one of the best hitting teams in the Pony League World Series, to just two hits and none after the second inning.

Jenkins led Bay County to a 3-1 victory and eliminated Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington Park.

The win sends Bay County to another elimination game today at 10 a.m. against Hagerstown, which is coming off a 13-12 loss to Johnstown Saturday night.

“The curve has been my out pitch,” Jenkins said. “I wasn’t thinking about (Puerto Rico’s reputation). I was just thinking about the next batter.”

The only thing that could stop Jenkins was the 95-pitch count imposed by the national baseball rules. He was two shy of that after the second out in the seventh inning. So he was able to finish the game and did so with a strikeout, his 11th.

“Jaxon is a heck of a pitcher. I can’t say enough about him,” said Bay County manager Craig Revette. “He gave up two hits and both of them came in the second inning against Puerto Rico, which is a really good team.”

Bay County opened the scoring in the second inning, plating three runs.

Catcher Jack Wetters singled to right and was pinched run for by Charlie Maze. Andrew Shufelt doubled to right, sending Maze to third. Ryan Brey walked to load the bases.

A wild pitch allowed Shufelt to score. Ben Briggs bounced one back to the pitcher, who threw home to erase Maze. Aiden Revette sent a grounder to shortstop, which was misplayed, allowing Briggs and Brey to score to make it 3-0.

Puerto Rico cut the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the second with a drive over the right field fence by John Lopez.

San Jose, 11-0

As he talked with his team after Saturday’s loss to Mexico, one could tell Shane Hall was upset.

The manager of the San Jose team in the Pony League World Series knew his players could give a better effort and he vowed they would.

Mission accomplished.

The West Zone champion collected 12 hits and scored 11 times to defeat London, United Kingdom, 11-0, in a five-inning Mercy Rule game.

The Mercy Rule goes into effect when a team is leading by 10 or more runs after five innings.

San Jose, Calif., next plays Washington County today at 12:30 p.m.

“The kids were fired up after (Saturday’s) loss,” said Hall. “We’ve had the same thing happen to us in the zone tournament. We got (beat) in the first game and came back strong. The same thing happened to us here.”

San Jose scored three runs in the first inning, three in the second inning, a run in the third and four more runs in the fourth.

Catcher Enrique Sotelo led the attack with two singles and four RBI. Ethan Williams had a single, two RBI and two runs scored. Tommy Moran and Toby Torres each scored two runs

Three San Jose pitchers held London, the European Zone champion, to just two hits.

“I’m really proud of the way these guys came back,” said Hall. “Now, we have another tough one against Washington.”