By ANDREW CRUM | The Brownsville Herald
SAN JUAN — After a tough day at the plate and down to his last strike in his last at-bat with two outs, Los Fresnos’ George Villafranca made up for it against Edinburg Vela.
With the Falcons trailing by a run in the final inning, Villafranca hit a two-run home run to give the Falcons a 5-4 victory over the Sabercats in Game 1 of a Class 6A regional quarterfinal series Thursday at PJSA High.
“I got more confident and more confident and I fouled off a few and said I know I can hit this guy,” Villafranca said. “I stayed composed, I waited for the right pitch and it went. Now that we’re up one, all we have to do is keep up with the momentum. A lot of people doubted us … people don’t think we’re going to win, but we want to prove them wrong.
“I believe in my team and I know they believe in me, otherwise I wouldn’t have hit that.”
The senior outfielder had flied out and struck out twice before he found his pitch and put it over the left field fence to give Los Fresnos (27-9) a lead and it held on to take Game 1 and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series over Vela (25-5) and end their 17-game winning streak. Game 2 is tonight at 7 p.m. at Los Fresnos.
“It was very big, (Villafranca) had a couple strikeouts early in the game and he came up clutch in that last at-bat,” Los Fresnos coach Rene Morales said of Villafranca’s last-inning heroics. “That’s baseball … it was a clutch hit and it was a great game.”
Los Fresnos quickly got going in the first inning. The Falcons scored a pair of runs, one on an errant throw and another on an RBI single by Hugo Sanchez to lead 2-0.
Vela got one back in the bottom half of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Aaron Galvan to cut the deficit in half.
The Sabercats tied it at 2 in the fourth inning with a solo home run by Eric Martinez.
The Falcons retook the lead in the fifth inning on another RBI single by Sanchez to make it 3-2.
Vela retook the lead in the sixth inning when Martinez drove in two runs with a single to left with the bases loaded and it took a 4-3 advantage.
Los Fresnos started the seventh inning with a strikeout before JJ Sanchez drew a walk. JJ Sanchez stole second and advanced to third on a ground ball out. Villafranca was down to his final strike before he connected and gave the Falcons a lead that they wouldn’t relinquish and an important win to start the series.
“We made a bad pitch and we catch that (foul) ball, who knows what happens,” Edinburg Vela coach Jaime Perez said of a foul ball Villafranca hit that dropped in foul territory on the third base side before he hit the home run. “He got an extra pitch and it cost us, but baseball’s like that. You give someone life and usually they make you pay.
“The baseball gods weren’t with us, but it is what it is.”
Senior Victor Montemayor earned the win for the Falcons after going six innings and he allowed four runs on six hits, walked two and struck out five. Cristian Hernandez earned the save; he gave up a hit, but closed the door with three strikeouts in one inning of work.
Galvan went six inning and allowed three runs on four hits, walked six and struck out nine, but took the no-decision and Andre Martinez took the loss for Vela after he allowed two runs on a hit, walked one and struck out two and had a hit batsman.
Perez compared the series to two prizefighters and his team took the first punch.
“It’s two of the top teams in the Valley duking it out in the third round,” he said. “It’s two good clubs and that’s the bottom line, they’re where they’re at for a reason and we’re at where we’re at for a reason. Our backs are against the wall, but we’re resilient and we’ll be all right. The seniors have to understand what’s at stake, now we’re going to their park with our backs against the wall and we have to force them to come back here on Saturday.”
Once again the seniors came through for Los Fresnos and they aren’t finished yet.
“The seniors don’t want the season to finish and they’re playing hard, giving us everything,” Morales said. “They keep battling, they keep fighting and keep believing what were asking them to do and want to keep going. We’re going to do the same thing we’ve been doing (today). Get ready to go mentally, physically and let’s go, (today’s) going to be another great ballgame like (last night) and we’ll see.”
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.