By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
That satisfying feeling of winning the first game decisively on the road during a best-of-three baseball playoff series belonged to the Edinburg Vela Sabercats on Friday night.
After triumphing 6-1 in Brownsville over Hanna, the Sabercats now know they’ll feel even better if they can take Saturday’s Game 2 or Game 3 at Vela to close out the Class 6A bi-district series in their favor and move on to next week’s area playoffs against Laredo Alexander or McAllen Rowe.
Game 2 is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday at Vela with Game 3, if needed, to start 30 minutes after Game 2.
Following Friday’s series-opening contest at Pye Memorial Field, District 31-6A third-place Vela improved to 17-6 while District 32-6A runner-up Hanna slipped to 15-9.
“We moved up from Class 5A to 6A this season, so a win like this is very big for our program,” said Vela coach Jaime Perez, whose ballclub advanced three rounds in the 5A playoffs a year ago. “We wanted to come out and make a statement that all of our success and victories at the 5A level wasn’t a fluke.
“That’s a very good team over there that is fundamentally sound,” added Perez, referring to Hanna. “We knew we had to play fundamentally sound in order to beat them.”
The Sabercats led 2-0 after two innings and 4-0 after five frames before adding two more scores in the top of the sixth. Hanna’s lone run came in the bottom of the seventh on a pinch-hit sacrifice by Cristian Holloway.
The Sabercats were sparked by the pitching of starter Andre Martinez, who went six innings and tossed a three-hitter with five strikeouts and six walks. Martinez opened the bottom of the seventh by giving up back-to-back walks and promptly was replaced by Nico Rodriguez, who finished the game.
The three hits Martinez allowed were singles by Raul Perez in the first, Lee Alonzo in the fifth and Jonathan Castro in the sixth.
It was a frustrating night for the Eagles, who had a base runner thrown out at the plate in the opening inning and came away empty-handed with bases loaded and two outs in the fifth.
Hanna starter Noe Guerrero lasted five innings, left trailing 4-0 and took the loss. He received relief help from Rolando Ramirez in the sixth and Jacob Lozano in the seventh.
Vela outhit the Eagles 8-3 with Rafael “R.J.” Ochoa leading the way by batting 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI single in the fifth. Also for Vela, Jonathan Navarro had an RBI double in the fourth and Ryan Rodriguez had an RBI single in the sixth, while Mathew De La Cruz plated a run on a sacrifice fly in the second.
Also for Vela, Matt Vela brought in a run on a fielder’s choice in the second and another Sabercat run was scored on a passed ball in the sixth.
“We had an opportunity to come out here, swing the bat and make the play in routine situations, and we did that tonight,” Vela coach Jaime Perez said. “The job (on the mound) that Andre did for us was huge. What he did sets up the table for us. Our program is built on pitching, defense and offense. Andre didn’t have his (complete) electricity tonight, but he was pretty darn good. We were able to win against a very good opponent.”