BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
GRULLA — Grulla senior pitcher Luis Martinez took the mound to open the District 32-4A season Tuesday and did what an opening night pitcher is supposed to do.
Martinez, a UTRGV commit, tossed 7 innings of three-hit ball to lead the Gators to a 3-2 win over Hidalgo.
“He’s our ace, and we are going to go with him,” Grulla coach Joel Ozuna Jr. said. “The defense helped him. They did what they had to do. He made them put the ball in play. There is no reason for us to doubt. The players believe in him, he believes in himself and he believes in his defense. That’s how we were able to get it done, just believing in ourselves.”
Martinez struck out nine and allowed two runs, both unearned.
Both runs came from errors by sophomore catcher Ruey Salinas. Salinas had several balls slip past him in his first varsity start behind the plate. Several injuries and graduations have forced Ozuna to play many new faces this season.
Salinas, though, was a key on offense, redeeming some of his mistakes with timely hitting.
In the bottom of the fourth, Salinas stepped into the batter’s box with two runners on and two outs. Salinas dug in and started to grind out the at-bat. Hidalgo pitcher Raul Ortiz threw pitch after pitch, but Salinas kept fouling them off. Finally, on the eighth pitch, Salinas hit a hot shot right at third base. The third baseman, Martin Cortez, was unable to react and was struck in the head with the ball. Cortez stayed down after the play and had to leave the game. Grulla scored on Salinas’ hit, but left the bases loaded to end the inning.
“(Salinas) fought off about seven or eight pitches,” Ozuna said. “He did what he had to do. He shortened up his swing and put the pressure on their defense to come out and have to make the out. Fortunately for us, it had a bad bounce and we took it from there.”
Hidalgo didn’t just lose Cortez. Starting pitcher Samuel Jimenez got rolling early, striking out four of the first six batters and allowing only one hit in the first two innings. But on the last pitch of warm-ups before the bottom of the third inning, he landed awkwardly and fell to the ground. He was in pain and had to leave the game.
“He was warming up and his knee buckled on his follow through,” Hidalgo coach Karlos Carrasco said. “That wasn’t good, but we had to adjust. Raul came in, and without complaining or anything, he warmed up, and he got in the game and he did a good job for us.”
Ortiz removed the catcher’s gear and came in to finish the game.
Hidalgo doesn’t play again until March 14, giving the team some time to treat and deal with the injuries sustained Tuesday.
For Grulla, this win is the start of what the Gators hope can be an exciting season.
“It’s good. It’s an accomplishment,” Martinez said. “It shows that hard work pays off. It puts us on top of the leaderboard and we are the team to beat now. … They are a good team, but we had the heart to win. We overcame our errors, shook it off and hit the ball well.”