DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
PHARR — This season was supposed to be a rebuilding one for PSJA High. However, the Bears are simply reloading.
“I lost some really good talent from last year and we were going to be real young,” PSJA High coach Marco Guajardo said. “I knew we’d be inexperienced and we’d have bad games, but we’ve been playing well. These young kids, they know the game. It’s been a great surprise.”
These Bears, featuring five freshmen and four sophomores, are 14-5 and alone at the top of District 32-5A with a 6-1 record heading into Friday’s game against Edcouch-Elsa.
PSJA High has lost twice since Feb. 27.
The success may come as unexpected to Guajardo, but not players.
“I felt like we had a good team at the beginning,” junior Marc Castillo said. “We just had to grow. We have a bunch of young guys, but I’m impressed how they’ve come around and how they’ve stuck it out. They’re doing their job.”
Three of the five freshmen play significant roles: Trey Guajardo, Ariben Gutierrez and Ezequiel Marroquin.
Guajardo is the shortstop and team’s best hitter, batting .460 with 13 RBIs, three triples and a homer. Marroquin has emerged as a dominant arm on a stout staff with senior Andrew Castañeda and Castillo.
Marroquin, a right-hander who tops out at 86 miles per hour and boasts a wicked cutting curveball, is 3-0 with a 1.86 ERA and 35 strikeouts to eight walks in 26.1 innings.
“He makes us more dangerous, gives us more rest,” said Castañeda, the team’s ace. “Instead of having a week’s rest, we’re getting a week and a half, so we’re feeling fresh and ready to go every start.”
Gutierrez is not even 5-feet tall, but is a “firecracker,” per coach Guajardo, who has “the heart of a senior.” Gutierrez, who has played baseball since he was 4, has finished all 33 of his defensive chances and has a .414 on-base percentage.
“We’re all just trying to do our best, and us young guys feel like we’re prepared to help,” Gutierrez said.
Everything sounds good now, but it wasn’t always that way.
Coach Guajardo said it was a “touchy situation” bringing up a bunch of freshmen to varsity. Upperclassmen were complaining and team chemistry was threatened.
“But I said, ‘Look, I would not be bringing up freshmen if I didn’t think they were ready,’” Guajardo said. “These kids don’t play like freshmen and it shows.”
Guajardo said every player now understands his role and has accepted that Guajardo is, indeed, playing the best players.
“There were a lot of freshmen and only a couple returning seniors and 3-4 juniors,” said Castañeda, an invaluable mentor to the underclassmen since he, too, was a varsity baseball player as a freshman. “It was hard. But we took them under our wing and we showed them how to play and how to be aggressive. These young guys are an impressive bunch.”
During the season, players routinely hang out at each other’s houses, join together for barbecues or go on fishing trips as a team. Any animosity that may have been there no longer is.
“It’s been great,” Gutierrez said. “These guys, these upperclassmen, give us confidence. They’re always talking to us, supporting us. They’re helping us move on to the next play.
“All we want to do is contribute and help this team win. We feel we can go a long way.”