By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Brownsville Veterans Memorial starting pitcher Luis Acosta keeps getting better as the season goes on.
Acosta threw a complete-game shutout, and the Chargers’ offense scored in bunches to earn a 9-0 win over Hanna in District 32-6A baseball action Tuesday.
“I was just hitting my spots, throwing strikes, getting my breaking pitches in for strikes,” he said. “I couldn’t have done it without our defense. This week after our loss to (Harlingen) South, we kind of woke up and worked harder.”
The senior scattered five hits, walked two and struck out nine, and kept Hanna (10-7, 6-4) off-balance and off the scoreboard.
“Today, he threw real smooth,” Brownsville Veterans coach Joey Benavides said. “Luis is the kind of kid that builds throughout the year,he gets stronger as he throws. He did a real good job tonight.”
Brownsville Veterans (15-1-2, 9-1) struck first during the third inning. A Hanna error kept the inning going for the Chargers and, with two outs and bases loaded, David Anaya delivered a double to give the Chargers a 3-0 lead.
“We knew we had to play no-error defense,” Hanna coach Eddie Garcia said. “We’re going to make pitches,they’re going to hit the ball. If we’re in position to make the play, we better make the play. There’s no way we can give them four or five outs, they’re too damn good.”
The Golden Eagles had a good chance to break through during the fourth inning. Effrain Martinez walked to lead off the inning, and a double by Lee Alonzo put runners in scoring position with no outs. But Acosta struck out the side to end the threat.
Brownsville Veterans added three more runs during the bottom half of the inning, one on a bases-loaded walk and two more on a Hanna error on a popup to give them a 6-0 advantage.
“It’s the nature of the beast,” Garcia said. “You make errors, you’re going to pay for it.”
The Chargers started off the fifth inning with a single by Anaya and a double by Jorge Montelongo to chase Eagles starter Noe Guerrero. The runners scored on back-to-back sacrifice flies to give Brownsville Veterans an 8-0 lead.
Guerrero pitched four innings, allowed eight runs on six hits, walked one and struck out one.
During the sixth inning, the Chargers added another run on a single by Anaya to take a 9-0 lead. Anaya was 3 for 4 with a double, run scored and four RBIs.
Benavides said they’ve been stressing better hitting in practice.
“We’re trying to get the kids to take quality at-bats,” he said. “Get up there and look at good pitches, make the pitcher pitch and put the bat on the ball. Not swinging and chasing bad pitches, not helping the pitcher out and helping themselvesout.”
Offensive production is especially important in the postseason.
“That’s what we have to do to get ready for the playoffs,” Benavides said. “I believe we’re a playoff team, and in order to be a playoff team, we have to hit the ball.”
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.