By ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
EDINBURG — The Hanna Golden Eagles said goodbye to the 2018 baseball season in a 6-1 loss against Laredo Alexander on Saturday.
The setback eliminated the District 32-6A tri-champion Eagles from the Class 6A area playoffs as the District 29-6A champion Bulldogs swept the two teams’ best-of-three playoff series at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
Alexander defeated Hanna 8-2 in Friday’s series opener, also at the UTRGV ballpark.
Hanna closes its season with a 23-8-2 record, while Alexander advances to the coming week’s 6A regional quarterfinals with a 24-9 overall mark. The Bulldogs next face McAllen High or PSJA High.
“The deeper you get in the playoffs, the tougher the teams are going to be, and Laredo Alexander proved to be that type of team,” Hanna coach Jameson S. Wicks said. “Their pitching was (as strong) as advertised and they put the ball in play (when at the plate). This game is about executing and we couldn’t execute early (in Saturday’s Game 2). By the time we were able to execute, it was a little too late.
“Yes, some calls didn’t go our way, but that’s the game of baseball,” Wicks added. “At the end of the day, it’s still on us to do what we needed to do to prevent Alexander from doing the things it did. But there’s a lot to be said about the senior group we had on our ballclub this year. At one point in time we were 0-3 in district and we weren’t even sure we were going to make the playoffs. These guys had to climb and scratch, and we wound up as tri-champions with an 11-3 record (in 32-6A).
“It’s been a tough battle all season long and I’m very proud of this group. About the midpoint of district we started playing our game better and got on a little bit of a roll. That’s what got us here (to the area round of the postseason).”
Saturday’s damage began early.
The Bulldogs scored four runs in the top of the first inning, and after that, the Eagles could never really sustain any momentum to get them back in the game.
“When you run into a team that can pitch, hit and execute, and you don’t, it makes it very tough,” Wicks said.
Still, Alexander coach Fernando Lemus said it wasn’t easy.
“It was a tough-fought series,” the Bulldogs coach said. “Hats off to Brownsville Hanna and Coach Wicks. I’m just glad we escaped with a win (again Saturday).
“We finally hit the ball,” Lemus added. “I know we were slumping (at the plate) in the three previous games and our bats came alive (against Hanna). Our pitching has been there all year, so hopefully that continues. I think our guys did an excellent job of coming into this series by being prepared.”
In the top of the first, an RBI single to left field by Alexander’s T.C. Chavez made it 1-0. The next batter was Andres Santos and his bases-loaded double to deep left field brought home three more runs.
Leading by 4-0 after their initial at-bat, the Bulldogs added a run on another RBI single by Chavez in the top of the third and an RBI single to left field by Santos in the sixth to secure the victory they needed to move on to the next round of the playoffs.
Hanna’s lone run came on an RBI double to the left-field corner by Marco Sanchez in the bottom of the fourth. It brought home Cristian Gonzalez, who had reached base on a walk. But on the play, Sanchez was thrown out at third base while trying to stretch his double into a triple.
Each team had six hits.
Marcelo Perez, Chavez and Santos each went 2-for-3 for the Bulldogs with Santos recording four RBIs and Chavez had two.
For Hanna, Sanchez and Jay Medina both went 2-for-3, each with a single and a double as Sanchez plated his team’s only run.
Alexander right-hander Albert Gonzalez went the distance for the pitching victory. Along with allowing six hits, he struck out one batter and walked two.
Hanna starter Raul Perez threw the first three innings and took the loss. Marco Martinez relieved Perez to start the fourth. Martinez went the rest of the way. Together, they struck out four batters, walked four and gave up six hits.
Wicks said the Eagles are graduating 14 seniors and hope to have four experienced players back next school year.
“I was expressing to this group after the game how very proud I am of them,” the coach said. “We’re going to have future engineers, doctors and lawyers come out of this group. Our team GPA (grade-point average) is incredible. We have some really good students on the team.
“I told them that as much as we’d like to win a championship (in the playoffs), there are more important things, and these guys are taking care of those goals (regarding their educations). We have guys who will be playing NCAA Division I baseball, so it doesn’t stop here for some of them.
“We’re going to have excellent contributors to society from this group, and that’s why I’m so proud of them.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess