By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
PORT ISABEL — Jesse Escareno’s infield grounder with the bases scored the winning run for Corpus Christi Tuloso-Midway as the Warriors defeated Edinburg Economedes 10-0 in six innings and won the 15th annual Port Isabel-Los Fresnos baseball tournament Saturday.
Tuloso-Midway got its bats going early and often, banging out eight hits, including a two-run home run by Caleb Rozypal and a solo shot by Nathan Freitag. The Warriors drew nine walks and only struck out four times to help put their runs on the board.
“We preach being aggressive in the strike zone and be patiently aggressive,” Tuloso-Midway coach David Marsello said. “You have to put the ball in play, because at the varsity level things are going to happen. We focus on putting guys on, moving them over and getting them in.”
Economedes had its chances during the early innings but stranded runners on second and third in the first inning and had the bases loaded in the second inning. But Tuloso-Midway senior pitcher Joseph Perez held them in check.
Perez went six innings. He allowed no runs, gave up three hits and walked five, and he struck out five for the Warriors.
“(Perez) is a senior pitcher, so he’s been through the grind enough,” Marsello said. “He’s had to step up a little bit this year , and he did that today. He’s a bulldog. He gets himself in a hole, and he has to work himself out.
“We preach pitching and defense, and that’s what we’re going to hang our hat on.”
The Jaguars had used several pitchers throughout the tournament and needed to save some of their arms with a non-district game Monday and the Weslaco tournament next weekend.
Tuloso-Midway certainly didn’t make it easy on the Jaguars’ pitchers; hitting them solidly during the cold, rain drizzled game.
Freitag singled and later scored during the first inning and hit his solo home run in the second to put the Warriors up 2-0.
Rozypal doubled to lead off the third inning and scored on a single by Casey Kapa, who score later in the inning on a passed ball to give Tuloso-Midway a 4-0 lead.
Freitag walked during the fourth inning and scored another run. Two batters later, Mason Hellums singled and scored on Rozypal’s two-run shot to give the Warriors a 7-0 advantage.
Tuloso-Midway added another run during the fifth inning with a sacrifice fly by Freitag to make it 8-0. The Warriors finished the game off in the sixth inning. Hellums led off the inning with a double and a pinch runner, Ryan Rubio, scored on a passed ball. With the bases loaded, Escareno end it with an infield base hit to bring in Rozypal.
Despite the finale, Economedes coach Rigo Sanchez said his squad played a great tournament and hopes to improve next year.
“I’m excited for the kids that came out and played, they gave it all they had,” he said. “We improved from last year. Last year we got third place, and this year we got second place. I told these kids our goal next year is to get that first-place trophy.”
Sanchez said players on his team had no reason to hang their heads against Tuloso-Midway.
“We played a good program that’s going to go to the playoffs, they’re experienced kids,” he said. “We have to keep working, keep fighting. We have a goal ahead of us, we just have to learn from this and build from this.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.