By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Just as Lopez has done all year, no deficit is too great and it proved it again against Rio Grande City.
After the Lobos tied the game in the sixth inning, freshman Jesus Villafranca came up clutch in the bottom of the seventh with a two-out RBI single as the Lobos earned a 4-3 walk-off victory over the Rattlers in Game 1 of a Class 5A bi-district series Thursday at Lopez.
“He’s a freshman, but he doesn’t play like a freshman,” Alex Olguin said. “As soon as I walked, I said, ‘that’s game.’ Jesus has been coming up clutch all year, so I just knew.
“We have to take the same attitude and same drive and take
it to Rio Grande City.” The Lobos were down 3-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning and got a run on an error and another on a fielder’s choice by Robert Guerra to tie the game at 3.
One inning later, Sebastian Benavidez reached on an error and promptly stole second base. The next two hitters stuck out and Alex Olguin came to the plate. He was given the intentional walk and Villafranca came to bat. He answered with his biggest hit of the season, a sharp single to left field that scored Benavidez and Lopez took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series with Game 2 on the road tonight in Rio Grande City.
“The kids never let down … they kept fighting and we got some quality at-bats and came up in the clutch,” Lopez coach Victor Martinez said. “We’ve worked with that all year long … we’ve worked with Jesus on the mental approach. The ability to hit, get good quality at-bats is always there, but the mental part is staying in control and he was successful.”
The Lobos took the early 1-0 lead in the second inning with an RBI single by Jose Rodriguez and it seemed like that was all Olguin would need.
In the third inning, Olguin made his first mistake as Marc Perez hit a two-run home run to left field that gave Rio Grande City a 2-1 lead.
The Rattlers added a run in the sixth inning on a Lopez error to push it to 3-1. But the Lobos promptly tied the game in the bottom half of the inning to tie it at 3 and set up the dramatics for the final inning.
“Not making that routine play, that was huge,” Rio Grande City coach Roque Cortinas said of an error in the sixth inning. “If we make the routine plays, we’re okay, we made a couple errors and that killed us. Baldo threw his butt off for us, but that’s what hurts when you give them six outs an inning, it was hard to him to keep getting outs.
“(Olguin) did a great job, he seemed to get stronger as the day went on … my hats off to him.”
Olguin got the win after going the distance and he allowed three runs on two hits, walked three and struck out seven for Lopez.
Baldo Perez took the loss going 6 2/3 innings and allowed four runs on five hits, walked two and struck out 11, but a pair of errors in the final two innings were the detriment for Rio Grande City.
Despite the setback, Cortinas isn’t worried with a chance to even the series on his home turf.
“It’s not over,” he said. “We go back home (today) and I like my chances at home and try to make it to Saturday. We’ll take it one game at a time. If we hit the ball a little bit better, we’ll be alright.”
Martinez and Lopez aren’t ready to celebrate either. But it has the advantage and will try to finish it off today.
“We have to take one game at a time,” he said. “We have to regroup and get ready to work again (today) and try to seal the deal. We can’t get too ahead of ourselves. We still need to win (one more game to win) the series, so we can’t get too excited.”
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.