DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
CALALLEN — Facing its fifth elimination game of these playoffs on Friday, Mission Veterans Memorial’s baseball team never wavered. Never looked down.
That’s easy to do when a talent like Noel Vela takes the mound.
The sophomore left-hander pitched a complete game and allowed three runs on four hits while striking out 12 and walking eight in lifting the Patriots to a 6-3 win in Game 2 of their Class 5A regional semifinals at Calallen.
The win evened the best-of-three series after Georgetown took Game 1 13-1 on Thursday. Game 3 is at 11 a.m. today at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.
The Patriots improved to 5-0 in elimination games this postseason. Vela has pitched in three of them.
“These games are intense, for sure,” said Vela, who improved to 11-2. “But they’re fun. It’s cool.
“Being given that trust to pitch these games, I love it.”
The Patriots (27-9) jumped on the Eagles (23-11) early, scoring five runs in the first two innings to take an early 5-0 lead. By the second inning, Mission Vets had surpassed Game 1’s hit total of two, finishing with seven, and forced the Eagles to go two deep into their bullpen.
The Patriots scored four of the runs in the second inning, three coming via walks.
“We took advantage of strikes in the zone,” outfielder Ruben Cavazos said. “We know their pitchers like to throw a lot of first-pitch strikes and let their defense play, so we capitalized. We swung early and we executed.”
From there, Vela did the rest. With his two-seam fastball in top shape, he painted the corners nicely. The Eagles only got to him in the fifth inning, when they scored three runs and Vela walked four hitters, but otherwise hardly threatened.
“That’s Noel,” Mission Vets coach Casey Smith said. “That’s been Noel all year long. He guts it out. He’s improved on his control, which has made him more effective. It’s still something he can work on, but he battles out very well.”
Vela admitted he began tiring in the fifth inning. But the stakes and responsibility, he said, pushed him through.
“Yeah, I was pretty tired,” he said. “I got behind a lot in the count and started walking people. I had to stay positive and make good pitches.”
Smith said the Patriots did nothing differently in Game 2 than Game 1, other than play harder. His players agreed.
“We came out with a lot of fire, a lot of intensity,” Cavazos said. “(Game 1), we made a couple mistakes early and we just let it get the best of us. Every game’s a new day, we’ve been in this situation before, and we just played our hearts out.”
And now looms another Game 3, another opportunity to add another chapter to a storybook season for the Patriots.
“We’re pretty confident,” Vela said. “We’ve been here before. We know we have a chance, and that’s big for any team.”