BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
ROMA — Last year, McAllen High dispatched of Laredo Alexander with relative ease in the third round of the playoffs. McHi won 6-1 in Game 1 before putting the series to bed with a 13-1 win in Game 2.
Friday’s starting pitcher for Alexander, senior Marcelo Perez, doesn’t remember a thing from that series.
“Nothing. What’s in the past is in the past,” Perez said. “It would be nice to get some revenge.”
Perez did his part, taking the bump in Game 1 and pitching a gem. Perez’s complete game was on track to be a no-hitter through five innings.
“This start was unbelievable,” Alexander coach Fernando Lemus said. “(Perez) has been one of our workhorses all year. We expect nothing less from him.”
In the end, he gave up two hits, allowing one run to cross while striking out nine. Perez’s stellar night led Alexander to a 3-1 win in Game 1 of a best-of-three regional quarterfinal series.
“We ran into a pitcher who was on tonight,” McHi coach Eliseo Pompa said. “At the same time, we made a lot of mistakes that we shouldn’t make.”
“He is a hell of a pitcher,” McAllen High senior starter Abanny Garcia said. “He’s a TCU commit. He pounds the strike zone with 92-94 (mph). He’s a great competitor.”
Marcelo came close to completing the no-hitter, but McHi sophomore shortstop Aaron Nixon led off the sixth with a bloop single that fell just in front of the Alexander right fielder, Paco Hernandez. Bulldogs senior center fielder Robbie Maldonado rewarded Nixon by hitting a double that allowed Nixon to score standing up.
“It was big for the momentum,” Garcia said. “We didn’t want that no-hitter, and then to get the run, too, that was big heading into tomorrow.”
Laredo jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second after a peculiar circumstance. Alexander designated hitter Andres Santos hit a tall pop fly that was coming down just behind the pitcher’s mound on the first-base side. Pompa said McHi instructs its pitchers to avoid pop-ups like that, so Garcia vacated the area. But Garcia had the best line on the ball, and no one else from McHi was able to get to the ball in time, so it dropped in for a hit with two outs in the inning. Things started to snowball from there, as Alexander sandwiched two singles around a walk, with the second single coming from shortstop Joel Hinojosa. Hinojosa’s rope drove in two runs.
“I try not to think about the errors, but unfortunately, these errors caused runs,” Garcia said. “I could have caught that ball, especially with the wind pushing in. I saw the ball clearly go to the second basemen, and then it just kept pushing, pushing, pushing toward me.”
Perez drove in Alexander’s third run on a sacrifice fly in the fifth.
Garcia allowed three runs on seven hits with nine strikeouts.
“Abanny pitched a heck of a ballgame,” Pompa said. “We just have to do a better job of playing defense behind him.”
Losing Game 1 was disheartening for McHi, but the Bulldogs know the series is far from over, and Garcia believes counting McHi out would be premature.
“They can’t contain our offense all three games,” Garcia said. “We are looking forward to coming back and getting our bats going.”