By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Brownsville Veterans Memorial started strong, but had to hold off Pace in the final inning.
The Chargers’ Cristian Holloway came through at the plate and on the mound and got a strong outing from starter Justin Anaya in the 4-3 victory over the Vikings in the District 32-5A opener for both teams Tuesday at Brownsville Veterans.
“It feels really good that I can come in clutch for the team and produce,” Holloway said. “We played good defense, so that helps a lot. I just had to stay confident (on the mound) … I knew I had to throw fastballs and get him out.”
Holloway had a clutch two-run single in the fourth inning that gave Brownsville Veterans (1-0 in District 32-5A) a 4-0 cushion and proved to be the difference. Pace (0-1) tried to rally in the seventh inning with a two-out, three-run triple by Angel Lopez, but Holloway came in for relief and got the final out with a strikeout to end the game and seal the win.
“(Cristian) came in clutch both times,” Brownsville Veterans coach Albert Rodriguez said. “Nine out of 10 times he’s going to throw the first strike and strike him out. He had a great approach at the plate … he had a great hit, it was clutch.”
Holloway was 1 for 2 with a walk and two RBIs at the plate and pitched the final 1/3 of an inning with a strikeout.
The Chargers took an early lead with a pair of RBI singles in the second inning. After Anaya singled to start the inning, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch, Jesus Lozano hit a shot to right field to give his team a 1-0 lead. Two batters later, Javier Hinojosa connected with a pitch to left field that scored Lozano for a 2-0 advantage.
Two innings later, Holloway drove in a pair of runs on a sharp single up the middle to give Brownsville Veterans a 4-0 edge and that would knock out Vikings starter Chris Rodriguez, who went four innings, allowed four runs on six hits, walked two and struck out six in the loss.
“We had a lot of bad outings defensively,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of errors and I told them we have to play solid D and make the routine plays. Our pitching is going to be there, but we have to score and score often. That’s what we did (Tuesday).”
Anaya was strong, going 5 2/3 innings, allowed no runs on just one hit, walked one and struck out 11 to earn the win.
Pace struggled at the plate during the first six innings, but got its offense going and loaded the bases with two outs before Lopez came through with the clutch hit to cut the deficit to a run. Unfortunately for the Vikings, Holloway came in and shut the door with a strikeout to earn the save.
“Just like our last two games last year, they go down to the wire and the same thing (Tuesday),” Pace coach Roy Rodriguez said. “We were expecting a fight to the end. I told the kids to keep fighting and that’s what we did … we made it a game. Unfortunately, we didn’t take care of business to start the game; we couldn’t generate hits, get runners on base. We fell behind and when you have good pitching like they do, it’s tough to bounce back.”
Lopez was 2 for 4 with the triple and three RBIs for Pace.
Close games have been a frustration for the Vikings going back to last season. They know they need to find a way to be on the other side and win.
“I’m proud of the kids, we’ve worked really hard and that’s all I’m expecting them to do … go down fighting every inning and we did that,” Roy Rodriguez said. “That’s been our thorn in the side. We start off slow and make a run at the end, but we have to start from the get-go. We can’t wait to turn it up against a good ball club, that’s something we’ll have to work at.”
For the Chargers, it’s another good start to District 32-5A and they hope it ends that way as well.
“It means a lot (to win),” Albert Rodriguez said. “We have to polish the things we need to polish. It’s a great win for us and give us momentum and hopefully we’ll keep going in the right direction.”
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.