By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
After a scoreless game through four innings, one bad inning for St. Joseph Academy was the difference against Raymondville.
The Bloodhounds gave up four runs in the fifth inning and didn’t have enough offense to come back in a 5-2 loss to the Bearkats in a non-district game Saturday at St. Joseph.
St. Joseph starter Arturo Trevino was cruising through four innings, throwing a no-hit shutout, but fatigue started to set in during the fifth inning and Raymondville finally broke through to get all the runs it needed. But the Bearkats had to hold off the Bloodhounds during their final at-bat with two runners on and two outs and the winning run at the plate.
“He was still throwing well, but starting to leave some of his pitches up,” St. Joseph Academy coach Steven Najera said of Trevino. “He was a little bit gassed. We had one inning where they scored four, but overall I was happy with our performance. We wanted to make a good showing and I think we did.
“Our defense played well, but it’s eliminating those costly errors … we only had a couple, but they were with runners on base. Those are the little things we have to do.”
Trevino and Raymondville starter Nathaniel Garcia had a duel going through the first four innings, neither allowing much to the opponents offense until the Bearkats struck first.
Raymondville broke the scoreless tie getting three runs on a wild pitch and passed balls and an RBI single by Darren Ramirez to take a 4-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning.
“We started a little tired, but we were able to warm up and our freshmen and everyone came through,” Raymondville coach Judson Savage said. “First pitch strikes are key and then great defense behind (Garcia).”
Trevino went 4 2/3 innings, allowed four runs on just two hits, walked three and struck out four in the loss for the Bloodhounds.
St. Joseph got one back in the bottom half of the inning after a throwing error allowed Eric Stachowiak to score.
The Bloodhounds cut the deficit in half in the sixth inning on a two-out RBI single by Stachowiak.
The Bearkats picked up an insurance run in the seventh inning on an RBI single by Derick Ramirez to extend their lead to 5-2.
St. Joseph had a chance in the bottom half with two on and two out, but Raymondville pitcher Noe Zambrano escaped the jam getting a groundout to end the rally and the game.
“We’re working on cutting down our strikeouts,” Najera said. “We had a couple key strikeouts in situations with runners on base.
“We have to put the ball in play more.”
Garcia went six innings, allowed two runs on five hits, walked four and struck out four to get the win. Zambrano pitched the final inning and gave up a hit and a walk, but got two strikeouts and out of a jam with the tying run at the plate to earn the save for the Bearkats.
With his team on a roll this week, Savage hopes they can continue the momentum throughout District 32-4A.
“I’ve got a young team, I started a freshman on the mound (Saturday),” he said. “We started district 1-0 with a 10-inning win over Port Isabel. I think we’re prepared to get back into district next week and hopefully get to 2-0.”
Despite the loss, Najera feels his team is going in the right direction.
“I like the approach we had, but we just have to keep our heads up,” he said. “They’re grinding in practice and working on getting better and the fruits of their labor is starting to pay off. We’re just missing that one key hit with runners on base … that was the difference (Saturday). (Raymondville) had the key hit with runners in scoring position and that’s what I stress. When we move runners over when he have guys in scoring position I need someone to step up and get that one key hit to make the difference.”
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.