By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Brownsville Veterans Memorial has a talented, experienced team and its eager to repeat last year’s success.
The Chargers have a new coach this season in Eric Gonzalez, but they haven’t missed a beat. They have played very well in early season tournaments and hope to defend their district title from a year ago.
“These guys are working hard,” Gonzalez said. “They’ve bought into the team chemistry and things are looking good for us.”
Opening with an 8-0 win in District 32-6A over Harlingen South on Tuesday was a good start.
“That’s what it is, it’s momentum,” Gonzalez said of earning a win in the district opener. “The guys need to know the hard work is paying off and their skills are paying off.”
Brownsville Veterans (8-2 overall, 1-0 in district) will take a quick break from district play to compete in the Harlingen tournament starting today and continuing through Saturday. The Chargers resume their District 32-6A schedule on the road against Rivera next Tuesday.
With the team’s chemistry coming together under the first-year coach, Gonzalez said he hopes it continues throughout the season.
“They play great together and hopefully we can just keep it going,” he said. “That’s the hard part: keeping it going.”
INJURY WOES
St. Joseph Academy had some good talent returning to the diamond before the start of the season, however, some of those players haven’t seen the field very often.
The Bloodhounds have been bitten by the injury bug and are still looking for their first win.
St. Joseph (0-8, 0-0) has had to piece together a lineup at times with inexperience from some of their backups.
“We’ve been plagued with injuries,” St. Joseph coach Christian Putegnat said. “We’ve yet to have the team that I should have together. That’s been rough, the injuries have hurt us.”
Those injuries include the Bloodhounds’ top pitcher, who has a leg injury.
But St. Joseph is pushing through, and they still have a month before the start of its district schedule.
The Bloodhounds play a non-district game against Lopez on Friday and await play against San Antonio Antonian, San Antonio Central Catholic and San Antonio St. Anthony’s beginning April 9. The top two teams advance to the playoffs.
Besides getting healthy, St. Joseph looks to play a complete game.
“We need to be able to finish a game,” Putegnat said. “We need to be able to close a game out.”
PITCHING PROWESS
Pitchers around the Metro-area appear to already be in midseason form.
On Tuesday, Porter’s starting pitcher Felix Ledezma earned the win with a 12-strikeout outing against Donna North in a 6-1 victory during the District 32-5A opener for both teams. Ledezma allowed just five hits and walked one.
Brownsville Veterans starting pitcher Fred Villarreal threw a no-hitter and struck out 15 in the Chargers’ victory over Harlingen South. He was perfect until Brownsville Veterans’ committed two fielding errors in the top of the seventh frame.
During his previous outing, Villarreal had a perfect game through five innings and eight strikeouts during a shortened tournament game.
“It’s early right now, we’re not even in the middle of the season, it’s not even hot. When we’re playing in 94-, 95-degree weather, it might get even better for him,” the Chargers coach said. “We’re excited where we’re at as a team and hopefully we’ll keeping going.”
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.