By ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Sometimes, a baseball team wins a crucial game that comes in handy later.
The Los Fresnos Falcons are hoping that’s the case after capturing a key 2-0 victory at Rivera on Tuesday in a matchup between two of District 32-6A’s top teams in the hunt for the district title as the regular season winds down.
The Los Fresnos victory gives the Falcons and the Raiders identical 8-3 marks in the district standings with three more 32-6A games to play. If Weslaco High won Tuesday, the Panthers took over sole possession of the district lead at 9-2. If not, there’s now a three-way tie for first place.
Regardless, the 32-6A race looks as though it will go down to the very final night of conference action.
The Raiders (17-7 overall) and Falcons (19-7) meet in a rematch at 6:30 p.m. Friday in Los Fresnos, so it doesn’t get any easier for either ballclub.
“Right now, we’re a hard team to beat because we’re clicking,” said Los Fresnos’ Joseph Munoz, a senior leadoff hitter who blasted an RBI triple to deep center field in the top of the third inning and came home from third on the same play due to an errant throw by the Raiders for a 2-0 lead. “All we needed (against Rivera) was one big hit. It gave us some energy.
“This was a very important win, but we still have to come out to practice this week like nothing happened,” Munoz added. “We’ve still got to keep bracing our shoulders (for more work).”
Munoz was happy to provide some fireworks at the plate for his team.
“The ball felt good going off the barrel (of the bat on that triple),” he said. “I thought it was going to be a sac fly, but the ball kept on carrying (and going deeper), and I ended up at home.”
Los Fresnos left-hander Victor Montemayor, also a senior, went the distance on the mound for the victory. He threw 103 pitches and finished with five strikeouts, one walk and one hit batsman while scattering five hits.
“I felt real confident out there (on the mound) because I had a real good defense to back me up,” Montemayor said. “Our defense really helped us. Without such good defense, we wouldn’t have been able to pull off this win. We had a couple runs come in that helped us, too. Hopefully we can beat Rivera again on Friday.”
Rivera’s Danny Alvear went six innings and took the loss. He was relieved by Diego Gonzalez in the seventh.
The defending 32-6A champion Falcons finished with only three hits. Besides Munoz’s triple, teammates George Villafranca and J.J. Sanchez each had a single.
Mike Gomez led Rivera by batting 2-for-4 with a pair of singles. Also for Rivera, Johnny Balli had a double while Alan Eguia and Raul Rosales each added a single.
The Raiders had runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the sixth, but the Falcons were able to get out of the inning without allowing a run.
Los Fresnos coach Rene Morales said a loss Tuesday would have been a serious blow to the Falcons’ goal of repeating as district champs. Los Fresnos was coming off last Friday’s disappointing 8-7 setback on a squeeze play in extra innings against Harlingen High.
“It was a battle between two great teams with us and Rivera and we were just fortunate that we got a hit and scored two runs (on the play),” Morales said. “Rivera had some chances early and we just kind of shut them down. We battled back and got those two runs (and it wound up being the difference).
“Victor had all three of his pitches working — fastball, change-up and curveball,” Morales added. “He mixed it up pretty good and kept Rivera off-balance all night.
“We have to play Weslaco next week, but we have to get the one on Friday (against Rivera) first before we start thinking about anything else.”