By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
LOS FRESNOS — One bad inning for Los Fresnos was the difference against Sharyland High.
The Falcons struggled on the mound and on defense and allowed seven runs during the third inning, but had a chance in their last at-bat. That rally fell short as the Rattlers held on for a 9-6 victory in the championship game of the Port Isabel/Los Fresnos baseball tournament Saturday.
“They put the ball in play and we walked a couple guys … they hit the ball when they had to,” Los Fresnos coach Rene Morales said. “They came up with some clutch hits. That ended up being a big inning and their approach at the plate was very good.
“That opened up the game.”
Los Fresnos (3-1) trailed 9-2 in the seventh inning and sent four runs across the plate after a three-run home run by Cristian Hernandez and an RBI single by Victor Loa. With two outs, the Falcons loaded the bases, but a fly out ended their rally as Sharyland High (5-0) remained unbeaten to start the season and took home the title of the annual baseball tournament.
“That’s all you can ask for,” Morales said. “We had a chance to win at the end, a couple clutch hits and that’s what we’re looking for and hopefully we can do the same thing in district when district comes around. If we get in a situation like that, the kids already know how to act and we’ll go from there.”
Hernandez gave Los Fresnos the first lead of the game, 1-0, in the second inning with an RBI single to center.
The Rattlers got it going in the third inning. They drew five walks and had three hits, including a two-run double by Lalo Salinas and an RBI double by Pepe Contreras and took advantage of a few errors to score seven runs and take a 7-1 edge and knocked out Falcons’ starter Hugo Sanchez in the process.
Sanchez was roughed up in 2 1/3 innings, allowed five runs on two hits, walked four and struck out two in a loss.
“The way we play, we’re trying to get on base anyway we can and take strikes,” Sharyland High coach Barton Bickerton said. “Once the kid gets in a little bit of trouble on the mound, that’s the way we like to play … we came up with some big hits when we needed to.”
Los Fresnos got one back in the bottom of the third after back-to-back doubles by George Villafranca and Joseph Munoz as Villafranca scored to cut the deficit to 7-2.
The Falcons’ pitching continued to struggle in the fifth inning as the Rattlers scored two more runs via wild pitches to extend the lead to 9-2.
Los Fresnos rallied in the seventh, but it wasn’t enough as Sharyland High held on for the victory.
The Rattlers starter Ivan Alvarez kept the Falcons off-balanced through 6 1/3 innings. He allowed two runs on five hits, walked three, struck out six and hit a batsman to earn the win.
“Due to the weather, we wanted to throw the lefties in and the righties away and (Ivan) performed perfectly,” Bickerton said. “He struggled with fastballs up, but he made a correction and kept the ball down and kept them off-balanced.”
Bickerton said one of his team’s goals was to win one of the three tournaments to start the season. Mission accomplished.
“We really just wanted to get at-bats and if we won the thing, then great,” he said. “They’ve showed a lot of improvement since the scrimmages. Los Fresnos is a really good team … we got lucky and jumped on them early and that was a good thing. We haven’t played anyone as good, so this really helped us.”
Contreras had three hits, including an RBI double, reached on an error and scored a run for Sharyland High.
Hernandez was 2 for 2, a home run, a pair of walks, a run scored and four RBIs for the Falcons.
Los Fresnos was dealt its first loss of the year because jit struggled in a few areas. Morales wasn’t worried, especially against a talented team like Sharyland High, but knows his team has work to do.
“I told them we have to get better every day,” he said. “Everyone has something to work on this weekend and we’ll go from there. I told them I was proud of them and we have to be ready to go back to work on Monday.”
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.