By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
With just one returning starter, the San Benito Greyhounds are a work in progress this baseball season.
“We’re mostly a sophomore/junior team,” said San Benito coach Jimmy Young, who is in his second stint as coach after guiding the Greyhounds from 2008-09. “We want to be playing well at the right time and hopefully surprise some people.”
The lone returning starter is Gabriel Sandoval, a junior third baseman and right-handed pitcher.
Among the other top players for the Greyhounds at this point of the season are sophomore shortstop and right-handed pitcher Mauricio Padilla, sophomore catcher Armando Hernandez, junior left-handed pitcher and first baseman Brian Lopez and sophomore Nickolas Gonzales, a right-handed pitcher who will also spend time at first base and in the outfield.
The Greyhounds are 3-9 on the season. They went 2-2 in the La Joya Tournament and 1-4 in the Laredo Tournament. They opened District 32-6A competition on Tuesday at Harlingen High and suffered a 4-0 setback. In other 32-6A openers Tuesday, it was Brownsville Rivera over Brownsville Hanna 6-3 and Los Fresnos over Harlingen South 3-2.
Young said what he likes about his squad right now is its team chemistry and camaraderie.
“Getting better game by game is our goal,” Young said. “We want our guys to gain experience and be playing well at the right time.”
The next action for the Greyhounds is 1 p.m. today against Bishop in the 20th annual Mike Rodriguez Tournament in Pharr. The Greyhounds open tournament play at PSJA North.
THUMBS UP FOR BISD TOURNAMENT
The past week’s Brownsville ISD Softball Tournament was described as a success by two softball coaches from Brownsville — Greg “Boomer” Larson of Hanna and Joel Guzman of Rivera.
The three-day event attracted 20 teams with games played at four Brownsville high school fields.
Bryan High defeated Edinburg Vela 8-1 in Saturday’s championship game at Hanna.
“The tournament went very well,” Larson said. “All the Brownsville coaches helped out to make things run smoothly. The championship game between Bryan and Vela was very good.
“Our Hanna team had a good tournament, with the exception of losing (4-1 Thursday) to a tough Weslaco East team,” Larson added. “(Hanna’s) Jessica Zamudio and D.D. Guerrero were our standout hitters, while D.D., Camila Magaldi and Cammy Delgado handled the pitching duties.
“It was a good weekend and hopefully has us prepared for our District 32-6A games.”
District 32-6A competition starts at 6:30 p.m. Friday as the Lady Golden Eagles play host to Rivera. Other 32-6A openers at 6:30 p.m. Friday have San Benito at Harlingen High and Harlingen South at Los Fresnos.
Guzman said Rivera enjoyed a productive BISD Tournament as well.
“We went 4-1 in the tournament and we are sitting at a quiet 10-5 non-district record, perhaps Rivera’s best start in a long time,” Guzman said. “However, our district is arguably the toughest around and we will be tested game after game.
“Our only loss (of the tournament) came against Vela,” the Rivera coach added. “We were 0-0 headed into the third inning, but Vela’s bats came alive and we couldn’t contain them as we lost 12-2.”