Andrew Crum, Staff Writer
Brownsville Veterans Memorial’s Fred Villarreal has been masterful on the mound lately.
The senior right-hander continued that dominance with a no-hitter against Harlingen South, striking out 15 and leading the Chargers to an 8-0 victory over the Hawks in the District 32-6A baseball opener for both teams on Tuesday at Brownsville Veterans.
“It’s the first (district) game, we just had to make a statement,” Villarreal said. “All the credit to my defense, I know how much pressure there is in the last few innings. I’m glad we hit the ball well and scored a few, but all that matters is the win.”
The University of Houston commit was throwing hard all night long, his fastball still topping 90 mph in the seventh and final inning. Villarreal finished the complete-game shutout without walking a batter, but two runners reached on errors.
“One thing I’m impressed with with Fred is that he’s mentally tough,” Brownsville Veterans coach Eric Gonzalez said. “You’ll see him step off (the mound) when he needs to regroup and regain. He’s done a fantastic job.”
The Chargers’ offense got going early and often, but Villarreal didn’t need much help, twice throwing seven consecutive strikeouts during the game. He had at least two strikeouts in every inning expect for the first inning and struck out the side three times.
“I guess it was my fastball … they took hacks at them and missed,” Villarreal said of the pitch that seemed to give Harlingen South the most trouble. “I’m not stressed on the mound with one or two runs because I know what I can do and I’m glad it turned out to be a great night.”
Brownsville Veterans got on the board in the second inning against Harlingen South’s left-handed starting pitcher Robert Mejia. Noe Solis singled to lead off the inning, stole second base and later scored on a passed ball to give the Chargers a 1-0 lead. It would be all Villarreal would need, but Solis wasn’t done.
“Any time you’re facing a lefty that’s changing speeds, it’s always tough,” Gonzalez said of Mejia. “I’d rather face a guy throwing 90 than a lefty that has movement. We lucked out and they gave us an opportunity and the guys took advantage.”
In the third inning, Solis hit a double that scored another run and Alex Sayas added a RBI-single two batters later. The Chargers began the third with a pair of runs on a Harlingen South error for a 5-0 advantage.
Solis finished the game 4 for 4 with a double, two runs scored and two RBIs.
“I’ve been trying to get movement going on the bases,” Gonzalez said. “We got one guy picked off, but we got a few stolen bases and I think we rattled (Mejia) a little bit and he might have left some balls over the plate, so it worked out for us.”
Brownsville Veterans scraped together another run in the fourth inning on a single off the bat of David Anaya. Two innings later, the Chargers added a pair of insurance runs in the sixth inning with run-scoring singles from Solis and Baltazar Guzman.
Brownville Veterans had nine hits and drew seven walks while striking out just twice, but Harlingen South didn’t get its bats going against Villarreal.
“(Brownsville Veterans puts) a lot of pressure on you offensively, they got a lot of good hitters, so it’s really hard, you make one little mistake and they take advantage of it,” Harlingen South coach Tony Leal said. “I told (the team) to keep their heads up. We faced a very, very good pitcher and I thought our swings were better today than they’ve been in other games.”
Leal gave credit where credit was due after the first district game of the season.
“(Villarreal’s) a tremendous ball player and a tremendous kid,” he said. “That’s a tremendous team, you have to hand it to them. They’re a very good team and I hope they do well throughout the year and hopefully in the postseason. God bless them and I hope they do well.”
As for the Chargers, the defending district champions, the momentum from last season continues after opening with a victory.
“We’re excited where we’re at as a team,” Gonzalez said. “Hopefully we’ll keeping going.”
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.