By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
Los Fresnos wanted the bats to come alive after a quiet outing Friday night, and they sure did during Saturday’s championship game.
The Falcons scattered 10 hits in a 10-5 victory over Brownsville Porter to clinch the Los Fresnos-Port Isabel tournament title. Los Fresnos junior and tournament MVP Germain Castillo recorded two hits in the contest, including a solo bomb over the left field wall during the first inning.
“It’s special since it’s my first home run as a high school player. It was one of my favorite pitches, inside and high, and I took it for a ride. Right off the bat I felt it,” Castillo said. “The whole tournament we hadn’t really been hitting, and today we showed our offense a lot more and I think that’s what helped us.”
Castillo’s home run was the only Los Fresnos hit through the first two innings, but then the offense woke up. The Falcons started the third with five straight hits to put five runs on the board with some help from three Porter errors.
Cowboys starting pitcher junior Cristo Sauceda sat down the first two batters he faced in the fourth, but then he gave up two hits and two free bases with a walk and a hit batter to allow three more runs to score.
Sophomore Leobardo Garcia, who earned an all-tournament selection, took the mound in relief and quickly gave up two runs on a balk and a throwing error by Porter’s catcher. Los Fresnos batted through the lineup in the inning and got three hits to open the lead to 10-2.
Los Fresnos starting pitcher freshman Joshua Munoz kept the Cowboys hitless through the first three innings, collecting three strikeouts. Two Falcons errors put runners on base in the first and third, but nothing came of the miscues.
Munoz started to struggle with control in the fourth, and with two outs issued his first walk of the game to load the bases. Porter’s freshman second baseman, Juan Segoviano, ripped a double into the left-center gap to score two runners before Los Fresnos catcher junior Jacob Sandoval threw out a runner trying for third.
“When you get into the fourth game it’s just about whoever can throw. It was one of those things where we were just hoping a couple guys could hold their own,” Los Fresnos coach Rene Morales said. “(Joshua) did a good job, threw strikes and that’s all we asked him to do. He gave us a couple of innings, and then we went with staff.”
Senior Jakob Medina entered in relief during the fifth inning. Two Falcons errors put runners on base, but junior second baseman Jose Cervantes recovered after committing one of the errors to throw out a runner at third to end the threat.
Medina’s night ended after he walked the first two batters of the sixth. Senior Carlos Perez took the mound for Los Fresnos and issued another walk to load the bases with Cowboys. All-tournament selectee senior Gustavo Garza sent a double into left field to score two, then a throwing error scored the final run of the night for Porter before a 6-3 groundout ended the Cowboys’ comeback.
Despite the loss, Porter coach Oscar Cortez was proud of his team’s weekend.
“Everybody was expecting a championship game between Los Fresnos and Sharyland (High), and we spoiled it for them,” Cortez said. “This is my fifth year as a head coach and this was the first championship game we were in at a tournament, so it means a lot to the kids. This is a different team. This is a team that wants to fight, and they don’t give up.”
Perez and junior Victor Loa also were presented with all-tournament awards in the postgame awards ceremony.