The Baseball Coaches Association of the Rio Grande Valley will host an Underclassman Showcase next week, giving high school players from the 2025, 2026 and 2027 classes an opportunity to display their skills in front of college baseball coaches.

The BCARGV Underclassman Showcase is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Wednesday, June 19 at Weslaco High School.

College coaches from UTRGV, Texas A&M International, Our Lady of the Lake and the University of Houston-Victoria in Victoria will be on hand.

The pro-style showcase includes 60’s, defensive velocity/evaluation, batting practice and bullpens. Player evaluations that will be sent to each participating athlete.

For more information, contact Harlingen South baseball head coach Bryan Aughney at [email protected].

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The Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association announced its 2024 all-state teams Monday, with several Rio Grande Valley standouts earning statewide recognition for their play this past season.

CLASS 6A

Four RGV products were voted to the THSBCA 6A all-state second team, led by a pair of La Joya High Coyotes in senior catcher Homer Munoz and senior shortstop Lucas Zambrano.

Los Fresnos junior Joaquin Cavazos was named to the all-state second team at pitcher, and Weslaco High senior first baseman Ryan Everitt earned all-state second team honors at first base.

CLASS 5A

The RGV was well-represented on the THSBCA 5A all-state teams from top to bottom, with nine players earning honors.

A trio was named to the Class 5A all-state elite team in Sharyland Pioneer senior shortstop Andy Chapa, Brownsville Veterans senior shortstop and pitcher Carlos Garza, and Sharyland High senior outfielder and pitcher Alejandro Islas.

The THSBCA 5A all-state second team included McAllen Memorial junior pitcher David An, Rio Grande City senior infielder Paul Bazan Jr. and Brownsville Veterans senior catcher Oscar Rodriguez.

La Joya Palmview junior second baseman and pitcher Mateo Garcia, Rio Grande City sophomore catcher Deandre Rodriguez and Edcouch-Elsa senior second baseman Alec Salazar rounded out the Class 5A honors on the all-state third team.

SUB-5A

Port Isabel senior catcher Tristan Garcia was the RGV’s lone selection to the THSBCA Class 4A all-state third team, and Rio Hondo sophomore first baseman and pitcher Christopher Galvan was a THSBCA Class 3A all-state third team honoree.

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JOURDANTON — McAllen Memorial spent the 2024 season proving doubters wrong, first by earning a playoff spot, then winning four consecutive postseason series to reach its first regional final in program history.

The Mustangs’ magical postseason run came to an end in an 8-0 loss in Game 2 of its Region IV-5A Final best-of-three series against Leander Rouse on Saturday at Jourdanton High School as the Raiders won the series 2-0.

McAllen Memorial finishes its season 26-16 overall, while Leander Rouse (34-9-1) advances to next week’s UIL Class 5A State Tournament in Round Rock.

“That’s a great team over there and we couldn’t afford to make many mistakes,” Memorial head coach Roque Cortinas said. “Bottom line is we didn’t hit the ball. Even though (Manuel) Villa did a great job keeping us close, we can’t win without any runs. We tip our hat to them; they’re a great team. It doesn’t take away from what we’ve done this year. I’m super proud of my boys for making history at our school.”

McAllen Memorial had its back against the wall entering Game 2 but senior right-handed pitcher and UTRGV signee Manuel Villa and the Mustangs’ defense had it going early.

Rouse finally broke through in the bottom of the third on an RBI double by Oscar Salazar and tacked on another run on a passed ball in the bottom of the fourth.

Villa finished with two earned runs off six hits and one walk with two strikeouts in four innings.

The Raiders were just getting started, however, as they scored three runs in both the fifth and sixth innings to make it an 8-0 game.

“Overall, I’m very proud of every single person here from the players to the coaches and trainers. We couldn’t have done it without everyone’s effort,” Villa said. “Even though we fell today against a very talented team and they deserve it, I’m proud of every single one of us and I’m not going to be sad because we did something that had never been done before and we should be proud of that.”

Leander Rouse had a senior-heavy squad and it showed across the two games of the series. 

The Mustangs only mustered four hits in the series — two in Game 1 and another two in Game 2 on Saturday. Gael Aguirre hit a single to right field in the top of the third and Kane Coy doubled down the third base line in the top of the sixth. 

While the season may be over, this McAllen Memorial baseball team changed the way they’re perceived by earning its spot in the playoffs and becoming the Rio Grande Valley’s last team standing in the 2024 postseason with a regional final appearance. With a junior and sophomore-heavy squad, the future is bright in Mustang Country.

“A lot of the core is back. You can kind of tell the young team we have, but I think this is going to be a tremendous step in helping them move forward and learning to play in games like these,” Cortinas said. “To come back next year and have that experience, I think that’s how you build a program.”

Photo Gallery: McAllen Memorial’s season comes to an end during Regional final series

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SAN ANTONIO — The McAllen Memorial Mustangs saw Game 1 of their best-of-three Region IV-5A final series slip away in a 10-1 loss against Leander Rouse on Friday at North East Stadium in San Antonio.

Game 2 between McAllen Memorial (26-16) and Leander Rouse (34-9-1) is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday  at Jourdanton High School in Jourdanton. Game 3, if necessary, will follow 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2.

The Mustangs drew first blood in the bottom of the first after Jose Rivera reached on a dropped third strike, advanced to second and scored off an Emilio Preza double to deep right-center for a 1-0 lead.

That was all the scoring the Mustangs managed, however, as they finished with two hits in the game, with Rivera claiming the other.

Leander Rouse broke open the game with a five-run third inning and four-run fifth to take full control in Game 1. The Mustangs aided the Raiders with four errors in seven innings.

“They’re a very good team, very balanced. We made some mistakes that cost us in the big inning that they scored five runs,” Memorial head coach Roque Cortinas said. “We knew we’re going to meet some good baseball teams this late in the postseason, so we’ll see what happens (today).”

Rouse’s Andrew Sanchez led the Raiders with 3-for-4 hitting and three RBI. Pitcher Gavin Silva allowed one earned run off two hits and one walk while striking out eight.

McAllen Memorial has now lost four games this postseason. After each of their previous losses, the Mustangs have bounced back with a win in the very next game. In order to keep its postseason run alive, McAllen Memorial must do so again in Game 2 against Leander Rouse to force a Game 3.

“We have to stay up and stay as positive as we can. We’ve been here before,” Cortinas said. “We’re having fun, doing something not a lot of people expected, so we’re going to stay fighting until the very end.”

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McALLEN — Prior to the 2024 season, McAllen Memorial baseball hadn’t qualified for the playoffs in 12 years, hadn’t won a playoff series in 27 years and never advanced past the third round of the state playoffs in the school’s 44-year history.

Now the Mustangs, who have been on a magical run through the 2024 postseason, are two wins away from earning a spot at the UIL state baseball tournament.

McAllen Memorial (26-14) is set to square off against the Leander Rouse Raiders (33-9-1) in the Region IV-5A final with a berth to the state tourney on the line.

Game 1 of the best-of-three series between the Mustangs and Raiders is set for 7 p.m. today at North East Sports Park in San Antonio. The series will shift South for Games 2 and 3, if necessary, starting at 5 p.m. Saturday at Jourdanton High School in Jourdanton.

“‘Why Not Us?’ is the mentality we’ve had all season,” McAllen Memorial head coach Roque Cortinas said. “We talk about it, ‘We got nothing to lose. Nobody expects us to be here, so let’s go out there and have fun, and just play baseball.’”

That loose mentality the Mustangs have played with has resulted in the school’s deepest postseason run in program history from a team nobody predicted would even make the playoffs.

“It’s been kind of easy with our mindset. People didn’t believe in us, we had nothing to lose — just go in, play your heart out and leave everything on the field,” senior right fielder Jacob Sanchez said.

The Mustangs, who swept Brownsville Porter to open the playoffs, have had to grind out three-game series victories in Rounds 2-4 against Coastal bend power Corpus Christi Veterans, crosstown rival McAllen High and most recently Kerrville Tivy, which eliminated the top-ranked team in the state, Boerne-Champion, just a week before Memorial ended Tivy’s season in last weekend’s regional semifinal series.

The Mustangs are working together to find ways to win. It hasn’t been one player or even a handful, it’s been the entire team doing whatever’s needed whenever their number is called.

“I think everyone has worked as a team. Nobody is playing selfish right now,” junior left-handed pitcher David An said.“Everyone’s putting the team first, and everyone is benefiting the team somehow, someway.”

From playing a position they haven’t all year, pinch-running in a big moment, stepping on to the mound to keep the fight going for a few more innings or making their varsity debut in a playoff game, the Mustangs have answered the bell time and time again this postseason.

“We’ve thrown guys that haven’t thrown much all year long, and they’ve come in and won playoff games for us. It’s theplayoffs — we don’t know what’s going to happen — we’re short-handed at the end of two games and you have to come inand do whatever’s asked, and you have to step up,” Cortinas said. “It’s just about being prepared. Preparation breeds confidence, and if you’re prepared there’s no reason we can’t throw you out there to get the job done.”

Now, the Mustangs meet a Leander Rouse team that is no stranger to the fifth round of the state playoffs.

The Raiders will be making their third regional final appearance during the past four seasons and reached the statetournament in 2021. Rouse enters Round 5 as the eighth-ranked team in Class 5A, according to the Texas High SchoolBaseball Coaches Association poll.

“We tell the boys, ‘We all practice the same, we all have the same opportunity — baseball is baseball,’” Cortinas said. “They have experience and have been there before, but that doesn’t mean we don’t deserve to be there. We’re kind of going into itlike we have in every other series — I think we were underdogs against Corpus Christi Vets. Tivy had beaten Boerne-Champion, which was the No. 1 team in the state. Once you get to this point, a lot of it is on the mental part of it. We’re going in there, we don’t know much about them, but we feel if we can go and play Mustangs baseball like we’ve been doing, hard-nosed baseball, it kind of takes care of itself in the end.”

While Memorial will be the underdog on paper, it’s a role the Mustangs have embraced during their historic playoff run, and they’re not done yet.

“Who doesn’t like an underdog story?” senior catcher Lukas Cabrera said.

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CORPUS CHRISTI — The clock may have struck midnight during McAllen Memorial’s Game 3 marathon against Kerrville Tivy but the Cinderella-esque Mustangs’ weren’t out of magic just yet.

McAllen Memorial won an extra-inning Game 3 thriller that ended on a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth to defeat Kerrville Tivy 8-7 on Saturday at Cabaniss Field in a contest that lasted four and ½ hours and finished at 1:30 a.m.

Memorial won Game 1 of the Region IV-5A Semifinal best-of-three series 8-2 on Thursday, with Tivy winning Game 2 early Saturday evening by a score of 9-7 to force the decisive Game 3.

The series win sends the Mustangs (26-13) to the Region IV-5A Final for the first time in program history. Memorial will face Leander Rouse (33-9-1) in Round 5, also known as the Elite 8, with game details to be announced. 

Kerrville Tivy, who had a great postseason run themselves as the fourth seed from District 26-5A, finishes its season 21-21 overall.

“This was amazing. We’re super excited for the boys to be able to handle this — we were kind of dying there at the end and it kind of came down to who wanted it more,” Memorial head coach Roque Cortinas said. “It honestly feels kind of like one of those Cinderella stories. We barely got in the playoffs; I think if we would have lost one game at the end, we wouldn’t have made the playoffs. We sneak in and we just get on a roll after that, just playing ball — it’s awesome to watch.”

Memorial’s magic was on display in Game 3 in the bottom of the seventh by erasing a one-run deficit to force extra innings and again in the bottom of the ninth as the Mustangs closed the show in walk-off fashion.

The top of the Memorial order was due up in the bottom of the ninth with the game locked at 7-7. Left fielder Erik Serrano drew a five-pitch walk, shortstop Jose Rivera singled on a hard hit grounder to left field and third baseman Emilio Preza followed with a four-pitch walk to load the bases with no outs and clean up hitter and first baseman Eloy Lozano at the plate. A Tivy pitching change didn’t make a difference as Lozano drew the walk-off RBI on a bases-loaded four-pitch walk to score Serrano and secure the Mustangs Game 3 victory.

“My mentality going up there was to be a smart player and be a team player. Take til you get a strike and if you don’t get a strike, you get a walk and that wins us the game,” Lozano said. “It’s an overwhelming amount of joy.”

Trailing 7-6 and down to their last three outs in the bottom of the seventh, the Mustangs had to find a way to push one across. Memorial put runners on first and second with two outs on walks by designated hitter Gael Aguirre and Rivera. Preza hit a grounder to third base that was fielded by Tivy’s Jayden Harrington, who then tagged Memorial pinch runner Etziel Gonzalez on his way to third before the ball fell out of Harrington’s glove, resulting in all three runners safe with two outs.

Lozano stepped into the batter’s box and bounced a grounder off the turf high towards third base which allowed Gonzalez to come across to tie the game at 7-7.

Memorial center fielder Kane Coy, who pitched earlier in the day in Game 2, threw 3 ⅔ innings of shutout ball to earn the Game 3 win, allowing four walks and one hit while striking out three.

“I’m so proud of that guy. I just told him right now, ‘that’s all you,’” Cortinas said about Coy. “He’s dying, two games, pitched in the first game, played outfield — that’s all heart.”

“We’ve done so much to even get here and to think we’re getting another week is just a privilege. I’m just excited I’m doing it with my family, doing it with my team,” Coy said.

Second baseman Daniel Flores led the Mustangs offensively with 2-for-4 hitting, one RBI, one run and a walk in Game 3. Lozano drove in two on the RBI single in the bottom of the seventh and bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth. Coy and Gonzalez finished with one RBI apiece in Game 3.

Game 2, which started at 5 p.m., was a back-and-forth affair between the Mustangs and Antlers.

There were four lead changes through the first four innings with Tivy ahead 5-3 entering the top of the sixth. The Antlers then put together a four-run frame to extend its lead to 9-3.

McAllen Memorial cut that advantage in half on a three-run home run by Flores in the bottom of the sixth to make it 9-6 and another run scored on an error in the bottom of the seventh to make it a 9-7 game, sending the series into Game 3.

Coy went 1-for-3 with two RBI and a stolen base in Game 2, while Flores finished 1-for-3 with a 3-run home run, two run scored and one walk. Serrano had two hits, Preza went 1-for-3 with one RBI and a walk, and Rivera went 1-for-2 with one run and two walks.

Now, after winning three Game 3s in-a-row and advancing farther than any McAllen Memorial baseball team has gone before, the Mustangs will play next week for a spot at the UIL Class 5A State Tournament.

“It’s an absolute privilege to get to play in the Elite 8. We’re looking forward to next week,” Coy said. “We’re striving to go to the state championship.”

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LAREDO — La Joya High’s second regional semifinal appearance in three seasons ended in a sweep at the hands of San Antonio Johnson as the Jaguars won Game 2, 10-0, on Friday at Veterans Field in Laredo.

The Coyotes (23-16) dropped Game 1 of the Region IV-6A semifinal on Friday by a score of 7-4. The Jaguars advance to next week’s regional final to face the winner of San Antonio O’Connor and San Antonio Reagan.

“Johnson is a tough team. I’m proud of my guys and the way they fought to get here,” La Joya head coach Mario Flores said. “We got a great group of seniors that are going to be missed. La Joya baseball is La Joya baseball and we’re going to continue to succeed. We have a good group coming up and we’re looking forward to getting back here and over the hump.”

Johnson scored one run in the bottom of the first but La Joya pitcher Santiago Tijerina was able to hold the Jaguars over the next four innings.

The Jaguars then strung together seven hits to score five runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a commanding 7-0 lead after five full innings.

La Joya was limited to just four hits in the game off Johnson starter Derek Maples. Isaac Sayavedra led the Coyotes with two hits in Game 2. Roel Garcia and Ivan Marron had one hit apiece.

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CORPUS CHRISTI — McAllen Memorial may be playing in its first regional semifinal in program history but the Mustangs played like an experienced group in an 8-2 Game 1 victory over Kerrville Tivy on Thursday at Cabaniss Field in Corpus Christi.

Junior left-handed pitcher David An, a Houston commit, threw 6 1/3 innings of no-hit ball allowing two runs, one earned, off four walks with 11 strikeouts. Sophomore lefty RJ Rios closed the game with a strikeout and popup to preserve the no-hitter.

The Mustangs lead their Region IV-5A semifinal series 1-0 against the Antlers and will have two opportunities to punch their ticket to Round 5 on Saturday.

Game 2 between Memorial and Tivy is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday at Cabaniss Stadium. Game 3 will be played 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2, if necessary.

“David An was amazing. Like we said, if we can score a couple of runs off them, I think we have good pitching to hold them and we did just that,” Memorial head coach Roque Cortinas said.

Tivy scored its runs off an error and RBI groundout in the second and a balk with runners on the corners in the third. That was all the offense Tivy would muster, however, as An had it going against the Antlers.

“I knew we were going against another tough pitcher, but I believed that we could hit and I trusted my defense and my offense,” An said. “They backed me up a lot. I was on today, I felt good, and it was just a team-win.”

Memorial held a 3-2 lead before exploding offensively with a five-run fifth inning to take full control.

The Mustangs loaded the bases with no outs and proceeded to score on a Daniel Flores walk, a Lukas Cabrera single, a Kane Coy two-run single and a passed ball to pull ahead 8-2.

Coy finished 1-for-3 with three RBI, Cabrera went 2-for-3 with two RBI and one walk, while Flores and Erik Serrano drove in one run apiece.

“We got our bats going early and it showed with those eight runs. We had our defense to follow behind David and he pitched a hell of a game,” Coy said.

Memorial will have two shots to win the series Saturday in Games 2 and 3, if necessary.

“We just have to keep the same routine. We’ll have some light practice tomorrow, try to stay focused for Saturday, not get too high for tonight, but I like our chances,” Cortinas said.

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