By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Good pitching and getting timely hits will win a lot of baseball games.
Hanna had several offensive opportunities and Noe Guerrero pitched six strong innings as the Golden Eagles defeated Lopez 8-2 in District 32-6A baseball action Tuesday.
Guerrero went six innings, allowing one run while scattering four hits and a walk, and struck out three in the win for Hanna.
“My freshman (Guerrero) did well,” Hanna coach Eddie Garcia said. “His pitch count was low, and he was golden hitting spots and we were playing good defense. He’s not going to overpower or strike out 10 people, but he hits his spots, (got several groundouts), and that’s all we can ask for.
“Let your guys work behind you. That’s why we preach defense and he did well for us.”
It took a couple innings, but the Eagles got their bats going during the third inning. Ryan Casas had a RBI single and later scored on a single from Cesar Saldana to put the Eagles up 2-0.
Hanna put four more runs across the plate during the fourth inning courtesy of five walks and a pair of hits, including a two-run single by Israel Lombarri. The Eagles knocked out Lopez starter Jose Serino in the process, as he left after pitching to three batters to load the bases in the inning.
Serino went three innings, allowed five runs on four hits, walked three and struck out three for the Lobos in the loss.
“(Our hitting was) not as good as I wanted, it’s got to come around a little bit.” Garcia said. “Our timing was off in the first few innings. But eventually we broke off a run, and little by little we got some timely hits and opened it up a little bit.”
Lopez got on the board during the fifth inning on an errant throw by the Eagles’ catcher on an attempted pickoff. The Lobos hit the ball hard all night but didn’t find many open spots in the Eagles’ defense.
“We were right on it, but we couldn’t find the holes. We were just hitting right at people,” Lopez coach Victor Martinez said. “We were hitting the ball, but tonight the ball didn’t fall for our side and that’s part of baseball.”
Two innings later, Hanna added a pair of runs on a wild pitch and a single from Efrain Martinez to take an 8-1 lead.
Lopez added a run during the bottom of the seventh inning on a passed ball but didn’t get anything else as Hanna sealed the victory with a groundout.
Martinezsaid his squad didn’t take advantage of its opportunities at the plate.
“The balls just didn’t drop, that hurt us, but we had our chances,” he said. “We left a couple runners on base. If you aren’t clutch, you can’t expect to win if you’re not getting that timely hitting.”
Garcia was happy to get the win but said his team needs to be more consistent.
“The score might seem like a blowout, but it wasn’t,” he said. “We just have to finish. I think we need that edge to finish strong. Once we can do that, we’ll become a better ballclub.”
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.