By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Teams from the Rio Grande Valley are ready to compete in the 15th annual Port Isabel baseball tournament.
Starting today and continuing through Saturday, 16 teams will vie for the title of champion with Los Fresnos and Port Isabel playing host to the games. The championship is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. Saturday at Los Fresnos.
“It means a lot, it’s our 15th year (of the tournament),” Port Isabel coach Robert Holland said. “I actually had a team call me (Tuesday) to ask if there were any spots left, and another team from Houston called, too. I told them, ‘I’m sorry, if someone drops out, I’ll call you’. It’s good though, it’s starting to get back to what we want it to be.”
Port Isabel and PSJA Southwest begin tournament play today at 9 a.m. on the Tarpons field. They’ll be followed by Edinburg Economedes-Lyford, Lopez-La Feria, and Zapata-Corpus Christi London.
At Los Fresnos, the Falcons face Progreso at 9 a.m. on their home field, followed by Rio Hondo-Donna, La Joya Lincoln-Edcouch-Elsa and Tuloso-Midway-Raymondville.
Los Fresnos is the defending champion after defeating Tuloso-Midway in last year’s final.
When the tournament started, there were only eight teams, but it has since expanded to double the numbers of teams and the need for Los Fresnos to play host to games as well. But Holland doesn’t see the tournament expanding beyond its size in the future.
“It would be too hard with only two fields,” he said about the expansion to more teams, plus the extended travel time between venues. “We don’t want to go to a round robin format. Too many games and our tournament is always cold, so it’s hard on the (pitchers’) arms.”
Teams like Lopez hope to use the tournament to get off to a good start to the season.
“Everybody enters the tournament to win, but we have to stay focused on our team goals,” Lopez coach Victor Martinez said. “Our goals are to make playoffs, and to get there we have to win district games and that’s what matters. We want to make sure we’re taking steps forward to meet our goals.”
The Tarpons haven’t won their tournament in about five years, but every year they compete, which is all Holland can ask for.
“We just want to compete, and every year we compete,” he said. “That’s what we’re looking for, come out healthy and compete. The kids realize they can play (against the competition), and we just need to improve every outing. Right now we’ve got kids fighting for spots, so this is what this is for. During the preseason, earn a spot. When it gets to district, it’s the best nine that will play at the varsity level.”
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.