BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — In front of a capacity crowd at Edinburg Vela on Friday night, senior Aaron Galvan rose to the occasion and got his team a win.
The SaberCats beat the Harlingen High Cardinals 10-0 in six innings to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three Class 6A bi-district series.
Galvan pitched six shutout innings, striking out nine.
“I felt a little tight. The velocity that I wanted wasn’t there,” Galvan said. “I threw a couple balls and got out of the inning pretty fast. I made them swing at some bad pitches. Overall, I felt a little tight throughout the game. I never got comfortable. I was just trying to push my way through it.”
Not only was Galvan fighting through the stiffness, but he dealt with the elements, as well. A steady drizzle came down most of the evening, and Galvan relied on a rosin bag to help keep his hands dry.
“He competed tonight,” Vela coach Jaime Perez said. “He wasn’t quite as electric on the mound as he has been recently, but he competed and made pitches when he needed to. He’s our big-game guy.”
Galvan wasn’t just a threat on the mound. In the bottom of the first, Harlingen starter Justin Reta looked to have his nerves in check, striking out Vela’s Matthew de la Cruz on three pitches to start the inning. Galvan stepped into the box with two outs and blasted a home run to right-center field. That one run was already enough, but the spark allowed Vela to get going and throw up nine more runs before the night was done.
“That was huge. We had back-to-back strikeouts, and he comes up and hits a bomb,” Perez said. “That kind of deflated their momentum a little bit. That — in my opinion — set the tone a little bit. After that, we were able to barrel some balls up.”
In the second, junior first baseman Eric Martinez reached on a leadoff walk. Freshman catcher Jaime Perez Jr., son of coach Perez, hit a single to put runners at first and third. Junior third baseman Yulean Torrellas hit a triple that drove in both runners and busted the game wide open.
“That was a big inning for us,” the younger Perez said. “Once we got under their skin, they started to panic. They couldn’t throw any off-speed stuff for a strike, so it was all fastballs. We just started barreling up those fastballs and turning them into hits.”
Vela added three more in the third, highlighted by a leadoff solo shot to the opposite field from Rodriguez.
“He stands tall and lets his hands do the work,” coach Perez said. “He’s a big, strong kid at 6-2, 200 pounds. He’s a big boy. He barreled one up, and it got out of here.”
Rodriguez hit the dinger on the first pitch
“They had been pitching me fastball away on the first pitch,” Rodriguez said. “So, I was thinking fastball first pitch. I just let my hands go through, and the ball went out to left field.”
The SaberCats added one in the fifth and closed it out in the sixth with an RBI single from junior shortstop Ramsey Amador.
The series resumes at 3 p.m. today at Harlingen High School. Game 3 would be played 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2, should a Game 3 be necessary.
“(To 10-run them in Game 1) is a big statement, and it gives us a lot of confidence going into Game 2,” Rodriguez said. “Seeing how we did tonight gave us a lot of confidence.”
Four years ago, Galvan was a freshman, and he was on the team that won Vela’s first ever bi-district title in baseball. Now, as a senior, he led Vela to its first ever district title.
“Over the last four years, I’ve grown up a lot,” Galvan said. “This team has grown up a lot. Coach Perez has tightened up on us, knowing the talent that we have. I couldn’t be any more grateful for what he has done for this team and this program. He’s a great coach, and we believe in him.”
On Friday, Galvan was the spark that ignited the SaberCats with his first-inning bomb.
“That home run really boosted us,” Galvan’s catcher Perez said. “He is the heart of our team, and he gets us going. Whenever we need something, he gets it done. He’s the man.”