The similarities between Jake Malec and Nick Emanuel already were plenty peculiar before Wednesday.
Both are wildly talented catchers — Malec for Proctor, Emanuel for Esko — who hit, and hit powerfully, from the left side. Both have fathers who played college baseball at Minnesota Duluth, and both are prepping to quarterback their respective football teams as seniors this fall.
Malec became a starter for the Rails midway through his eighth-grade season, and hasn’t left the lineup since. This past spring, he used his smooth lefty swing to bat .431 and produced a .570 on-base percentage. When he wasn’t behind the plate, Malec was flummoxing opposing hitters from the pitching mound, where he posted a dominant 1.73 ERA and fanned 29 in 28.1 innings.