By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Lopez trailed early, but kept swinging the bats against Edcouch-Elsa.
The Lobos scored four runs in the fifth inning to erase a three-run deficit and held off the Yellowjackets 7-6 in a District 32-5A game Tuesday at Lopez.
“This team is very special, this team does not give up,” Lopez coach Victor Martinez said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the last out or we have a couple innings left in the game, this team always fights to the end. This is a special group of kids. They’ve grown and they believe in the system and we’re moving forward one pitch at a time.”
Trailing 6-3 in the fifth, Lopez got the spark it needed on offense. Alex Olguin reached on an error to start the inning and scored on an RBI triple by Jesus De Leon. Robert Guerra and Ivan Banuelos each had an RBI single and another run scored on an error to give the Lobos a 7-6 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
“Errors. We played terrible, that’s the bottom line,” Edcouch-Elsa coach Ryan Garza said of his team’s defensive breakdown in the fifth inning. “We have to put our selfishness aside and play for the team. That’s what it’s got to be.”
Edcouch-Elsa threatened in the seventh inning with a one-out double by Marin Rodriguez that knocked out Olguin. De Leon came in for relief, but walked the next two hitters to load the bases. De Leon redeemed himself with two straight strikeouts to earn the save and seal the win for Lopez, who is now 5-1 in District 32-5A. Edcouch-Elsa lost its second straight and is 3-3 in district play.
De Leon was 3 for 4 at the plate with a triple, a run scored and an RBI. He held on for the save in 2/3 innings of work, gave up no runs on no hits, walked two and struck out two.
“I had confidence in my team, I had to come in clutch and just throw strikes,” De Leon said. “We have to be humble and (hopefully) keep on winning games.”
Olguin earned the win after he went 6 1/3 innings and allowed six runs on 12 hits, walked one and struck out seven and had a hit batsman.
“(Jesus) looks up to Alex a lot and he’s followed in his footsteps, he’s like a little brother to Alex and it’s great to have those kinds of kids,” Martinez said. “They can do it all … they can get quality at-bats, get on the mound and throw strikes, those (kids) are hard to find. They work together and it’s showing this year, (Jesus is) batting really high and performing well on the mound.”
Edcouch-Elsa had its offense going early and got on the board quickly with three runs in the first inning. Joseph Gonzalez brought in a run with a double to left field and Derick Valdez added a two-run single to make it 3-0.
The Yellowjackets added two more runs in the second inning with a two-run single by Rodriguez to take a 5-0 edge.
Lopez got a few runs back in the third inning. Olguin had an RBI single to right field and later scored on a wild pitch. Later in the inning, Guerra drove in another run on a single to right, but the Lobos still trailed 5-3.
Edcouch-Elsa added another run in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Gonzalez to extend its lead to 6-3.
Lopez got its offense going in the fifth to take the lead and held on late for the district victory.
The Yellowjackets starting pitcher Ben Rangel took the loss after going six innings and he allowed seven runs on eight hits, walked none and struck out seven.
It was a disappointing loss for Edcouch-Elsa who lost its second straight one-run game.
“We have to forget about this game and move forward,” Garza said. “We need to get back on the bus and get ready for practice (today).”
The win puts Lopez in sole possession of second place in District 32-5A, but Martinez didn’t want to dwell on that.
“It’s an awesome feeling, but we really don’t talk about our record,” he said. “We won (Tuesday) and we’ll celebrate with each other, but we move on to the next day, we have to get back to work.
“We try to knock it down one game at a time and that’s the mentality we have.”
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.