By ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
With a strong showing in bi-district, the Hanna Golden Eagles are moving on in the state baseball playoffs.
The Eagles defeated PSJA North 8-4 to sweep their Class 6A best-of-three bi-district series against the Raiders on Friday at Pye Memorial Field in Brownsville.
Light rain fell during the contest, but it never came down hard enough that halting the action became a question.
Playing on the road, Hanna downed PSJA North 9-5 in the series opener on Thursday, and with the two-game series sweep, the Eagles now await the winner of the bi-district series between District 30-6A fourth-place McAllen Rowe and District 29-6A champion Laredo Alexander.
The District 32-6A tri-champion Eagles (23-5-2), who drew the No. 2 playoff seed from their district for the postseason, will go against either Rowe or Alexander in an area-round matchup next week. PSJA North, the third-place team from District 31-6A, ended its season with an 18-11-1 record.
On Friday, the Eagles received solid efforts from Jacob Lozano at the plate and Noe Guerrero on the mound. Both are seniors.
Lozano, an outfielder, batted 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and four RBIs. Guerrero went the distance for the pitching victory. Even though he had some shaky moments, he finished strong with three strikeouts after giving up a leadoff hit in the top of the seventh to end things on a strong note for the Eagles.
Overall, Guerrero wound up with eight strikeouts while walking four batters. He gave up only three hits.
“That last inning I just came up (to the mound thinking) ‘I need a win for my team,’” Guerrero said. “We have a bunch of seniors on this squad, it’s our last year (and I didn’t want it to slip away).
“I thank God for helping me out today,” he added. “I was a little shaky because I hadn’t pitched in awhile, but I went through it and I stayed positive. I kept praying. The three strikeouts at the end just sealed the deal.”
With the score tied 2-2, Hanna came up with a four-run inning in the bottom of the fourth to go ahead for good, 6-2.
Lozano blasted a two-run double to deep left-center field in the bottom of the fourth to give his team its four-run lead. He also had an RBI double in the third inning and a run-scoring single in the sixth to make it 8-4.
“I was seeing the ball real well up there at the plate,” Lozano said. “I went up there just thinking, ‘Get base hits, get base hits and bring the runs home.’ I always do what my dad tells me to do and that’s get base hits. Getting timely hits is what baseball’s all about.
“This feels good for all my teammates,” Lozano added. “It’s amazing. We played a good team, but we came up better. It’s great to be moving on.”
In all, Hanna collected 13 hits. Along with Lozano, teammates Marco Sanchez and Lee Alonzo each batted 3-for-4. Sanchez had a pair of RBIs and Alonzo one. Jay Medina, Cristian Gonzalez, John Castro and Luis Fernandez each added a single for Hanna.
Hanna coach Jameson S. Wicks said his ballclub has been building momentum all season in order to have the kind of bi-district showing it displayed Thursday and Friday.
“We really attacked the baseball in this series,” Wicks said. “We were really aggressive (at the plate). We were really offensive (minded).
“This is what we’ve been working for the entire year and even before we started the season,” he added. “This is what we want to do. There’s an opportunity for us to continue in the playoffs and make a run at state.
“We have a goal of winning the state championship and it’s something we want to do every year. It’s up to these guys and they’re really believing in themselves. These boys have battled the entire year. The baseball gods have favored us and the ball has rolled our way. It’s been a really fun season.”