BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — Edinburg Vela junior Eric Martinez clobbered two home runs on Friday during the ECISD All-American Baseball Tournament.
“They were very exciting to come back after yesterday, where I had a foul ball home run,” Martinez said. “I was trying to bounce back, and it showed with this game.”
“We have been waiting for that guy to come through for us,” Vela coach Jaime Perez said. “Last year, he struggled quite a bit, but I’ll tell you what, we have been working really hard one-on-one in the tunnel, live batting practice, trying to get his hands right and his eyes right. It is starting to pay off a little bit.”
Martinez rededicated himself to the game after struggling gin 2017. He traveled to play in up-state tournaments during the offseason, and he focused on improving his hitting.
“Eric can swing the bat really well,” junior shortstop Ramsey Amador said. “He just hits the ball, and it goes out. He has a lot of power. … This game was perfect for him. Eric had a little bit of trouble swinging the bat and not seeing the pitches well. But I believe that him hitting these two home runs will build a lot of confidence for him.”
On Friday, Martinez was the designated hitter against Corpus Christi Ray, but he is also trying to earn a spot at first base.
“Fortunately, we have three first basemen battling for the starting job,” Perez said. “We are rotating them through tournament play. It is good for us to see them all back to back. We all take turns. We haven’t played the same first baseman two games in a row.”
That competition has become a bit of a theme throughout the Vela clubhouse.
The SaberCats have multiple players competing for time at first, third base, shortstop and catcher.
DROP THE SIGN OR GET IN LINE
Senior Adam Alviso and freshman Jaime Perez Jr., Coach Perez’s son, both have the talent to play catcher for Vela, but only one will get the shot to play at 7 p.m. Tuesday, when the SaberCats start their district season at Edinburg North.
“We have a two-man rotation right now,” the elder Perez said. “We are trying to find out who will be the starter.
“As a head baseball coach, trying to coach your son, it’s really tough, but my assistants do a good job of keeping up on him and critiquing and working with him and stuff like that.”
“It’s good so far, but it is different,” Perez Jr. said. “There are a lot of critics, and you can’t really slack off. You have to work 10 times harder than anybody else, because he’s my father, and people are going to say stuff. So I can’t slack off. I have to go 100 percent every day.”
For now, the elder Perez is coy about the battle: “We will see what happens on Tuesday.”
Coach Perez isn’t the only one having a hard time handicapping the race.
“Both of them are very good catchers,” Amador said. “It’s good that there are two good catchers — it’s a lot of competition. They are both brothers, and whoever works out best will take the spot. But they are both good, and they can both help this team.”
For Vela, the catcher spot has an added significance after last year. R.J. Ochoa held down the position last season, and he was a stalwart defensive catcher. He was also a boon on offense, hitting .437 with 25 RBIs and 12 doubles.
Alviso, the Northeast Texas Community College commit, and Ochoa were very close. They went to the same catching coach, and they worked together during practices.
Alviso has been in the early stages of developing a similar relationship with Perez Jr.
“Lately in practice, it’s just me and him working together,” Alviso said. “I take care of him, and he takes care of me. I teach him a lot of things he doesn’t know. He’s been progressing a lot. He’s really good behind the plate. He comes through. He’s a good player. He’s going to be big when he is a senior, I can promise you that.”
“I learn from him,” Perez Jr. said of Alviso. “I listen to him and respect him. … I still have four more years, so I am really just trying to learn from him and go from there.”
A recent development has allowed for both players to get time behind the dish. Alviso pitched for just the second time in his career during Vela’s game against Ray.
“We ran out of pitchers last week, so coach gave me a shot,” Alviso said of his first start against Corpus Christi Moody. “I ended up taking advantage of it and showing him I can do what I can do, and he gave me another one today.”
Perez Jr. was the backstop for both of Alviso’s starts.
“He knows that my ball won’t hit the dirt as much,” Alviso said. “He has a lot of trust in my movement of the ball. He has a lot of trust in me, because we work together as catchers, so we got to know each other that way first.”
Alviso throws out of a sidearm delivery that he says works better than when started pitching overhand at age 12.
“My coach in the summer, Coach Barrera, he liked the way my ball moved a lot in the sidearm,” Alviso said. “He said I could be dangerous out of that sidearm, so I gave it a shot. I had a lot of control and a lot of accuracy, so I kept working on it.”
GROWING PAINS
Amador, a UTRGV commit, has had a superlative start to his year. Despite dealing with an injury, he has found ways to produce for the SaberCats.
“He’s been hot at the plate,” Martinez said. “Yesterday, he hit a home run against San Benito. He also had a good shot up the middle for a big base hit.”
Amador had a solid sophomore campaign, but he believed he could achieve more, so as soon as the season was over, he set out to up his game.
“I put in tons of work. I played a lot of summer ball,” Amador said. “I was focused on my mechanics. I had a lot of trouble with my mechanics last year. My ball was running away from me.”
Amador said he rarely had a day off this summer, and if he did, he found a way to work out or get practice in, even if he was in Houston or San Antonio.
He also grew into a big frame that shows a lot of potential. Amador is 6-foot-4 and about 205 pounds.
“He looks good right now,” Perez said. “He is doing well.”
Amador said he is feeling healthy after an arm injury hampered him earlier this year.
“Ramsey has gotten better,” Martinez said. “He is more consistent in his hitting. He has become more fluid in his throwing and fielding. He’s grown from last year.”
Amador and the rest of the SaberCats are excited about their hot start to the season, but they know the hard part is still to come.
“I trust my teammates,” Amador said. “They are all good hitters. They put the ball in play, giving me the chance to come up with runners on.”