BY BRYAN RAMOS | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — The Sharyland High Rattlers rolled to their fourth straight win in District 31-5A action by knocking off Mission Veterans 13-3 in six innings Tuesday at Mission Veterans High School.
The Rattlers didn’t need to walk off this time, as they did against Sharyland Pioneer and Rio Grande City during their streak. Instead, Sharyland High ripped off 12 consecutive runs during the final four innings to improve its record to 22-4 overall and 7-2 in district.
Sharyland High’s Abraham Alvarez went 1 for 4 at the plate, but his only hit was the game’s biggest as he blasted a home run over the left-field fence to put the Rattlers up 9-2 during the top of the fifth.
“It was amazing experience because my last three at-bats, I didn’t do good. So in the fourth, I just tried to make good contact and that’s what happened,” Alvarez said. “We’re never comfortable with the score; we’re always trying to get more and more runs.”
Alvarez led the Rattlers with three RBIs and got help from Chase Gerlach and Jose Contreras, who brought in two runs apiece.
Even though the scoreboard reflected a dominant Rattlers effort, coach Barton Bickerton wasn’t pleased with his team’s performance as they were aided by four unearned runs.
“Even though we scored a lot of runs, I didn’t think we looked good at all. It’s nice to win, but we got to play a lot better than that,” Bickerton said. “This is a (Mission Veterans) team that has a chance to make the playoffs. We’ve had two big weeks in a row, and that’s what it looked like to me.”
Sharyland pitcher Ivan Alvarez went all six innings for the Rattlers, giving up just one earned run. The defense was on point behind him as the Rattlers turned three double plays on the night.
Rattlers first baseman Martin Vazquez, who went 2 for 3 at the plate with two walks, three runs and one RBI, said their defense has been the key to their success.
“Our defense has been great and we need to keep working to continue hitting and hopefully win more games. We have to keep focused on the game and continue doing what we’ve been doing all season,” Vazquez said.
The Rattlers are now in a three-way tie atop District 31-5A with Sharyland Pioneer and Rio Grande City at 7-2, but a split with the Diamondbacks and a sweep over the other Rattlers gives Sharyland High an edge. Plus, RGC and Sharyland Pioneer still have two games to play against each other during the final week of district play.
“To get three of four against what I thought were the two best teams in the district (in Rio and Pioneer), we did our job,” Bickerton said. “We put ourselves in a position to where we control our own destiny. We win out, we’re district champs — no matter what they do. And that’s the only position we were looking to get into.”