By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Brownsville Veterans Memorial needed an extra inning to get by Porter in a tense District 32-5A game.
The Chargers pinch-hitter Lorenzo Hernandez was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in the winning run in a 3-2, eight-inning district triumph over the Cowboys on Friday at Brownsville Veterans.
“My coaches are confident in me and I didn’t want to let them down,” Hernandez said. “I knew I had to put the ball in play or let the pitcher walk me. I knew I could have ducked, but I didn’t want to risk it … I just wanted to help out the team and get the win.”
After Porter tied the game at 2 in the seventh and Brownsville Veterans failed to score in the bottom half, the game headed to extra innings. The Cowboys couldn’t put any runs across and the Chargers had another chance.
Jesus Kaar started the eighth with a single to left field. After a ground out and a passed ball, Kaar moved to third base. Cristian Holloway and Justin Anaya were promptly walked intentionally to load the bases with Hernandez coming up as a pitch hitter. He stayed poised and on a 3-1 count was hit by a pitch that scored Kaar to earn the victory.
“(Hernandez) hits the ball so hard in practice,” Brownsville Veterans coach Albert Rodriguez said. “I told him in practice you earn your trophies and during the game you’re going to go collect them. I told him, I know you’re nervous, but don’t be go collect your trophy. He gave me a big Colgate smile and he went up and that happened.”
Unfortunately for Porter its gamble didn’t work.
“We were trying for a force out, but also not having to face those two guys,” Porter coach Oscar Cortez said. “We wanted to pitch to (Hernandez) instead and it didn’t work out in our favor … that’s baseball.”
The win keeps Brownsville Veterans a perfect 5-0 in District 32-5A and Porter falls to 1-4 in district play.
It was a back-and-forth game all evening.
It was scoreless until the fourth inning when Porter broke through with an RBI double by Erick Luiton that scored Saddam Cantu, who started the inning with a walk, and took a 1-0 lead.
Brownsville Veterans erased the deficit in the bottom half of the inning with two runs acrossthe plate on an error and a 2-1 edge.
The Chargers’ defense helped that out of a few jams and saved a couple runs throughout the game, but the offense was misfiring at times.
“Fortunately for us our pitching was there, our defense was solid,” Rodriguez said. “It was a terrible outing for us offensively. We told the kids to enjoy the victory, but this isn’t one we want. Everyone is going to bring their ‘A’ game against us, they are going to give us their best and we have to bring our best day in and out.
“I felt we didn’t do that (Friday).”
The Cowboys threatened during the next two innings, but came up empty. With one last chance in the seventh, Porter started with a single by Cruz Reyna and Cantu drew awalk. A sacrifice bunt moved the runners up and Luiton pulled off a suicide squeeze to bring home the tying run.
Justin Anaya earned the win after pitching two innings in relief and allowed no runs on one hit,walked none and struck out one for Brownsville Veterans.
Cesar Lartigue took the loss for Porter after pitching 2/3 of an inning and allowed one run on one hit, walked two intentionally, struck out one and had a hits batsman.
Another close game in district for the Cowboys doesn’t go in their favor. But Cortez is optimistic going forward.
“It’s another year wherethings haven’t gone our way,” he said. “Most of the guys aren’t experienced. We have a lot of first year varsity players, but I’ve told them they still have to come out and perform, the pressure is on the whole team. I think we need (a couple breaks) and I think they’ll come our way. It’s a tough loss, but things are going to come our way.”
Despite the extra-inning, walk-off win, Rodriguez wasn’t pleased with his offense and knows it needs to find some consistency.
“We are making the playson defense, but on offense we have to keep our foot down and keep pushing,” he said. “We have to turn the engine on and keep going. That’s the nature of the game, sometimes you’re going to come out flat and we have to overcome adversity.
“A win is a win and thankfully the baseball gods were on our side.”
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.