By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
ALICE — The Los Fresnos Falcons saw their 2017 baseball season slip away in Saturday afternoon’s 9-7 area-round playoff loss to San Antonio Southwest at the Alice Baseball Complex.
It was a tough one for the Falcons as they led 7-3 in the top of the fourth inning only to see the Dragons rally and tie it 7-7 with four runs in the bottom of the inning and then go ahead for good with two more tallies in the bottom of the sixth.
Coupled with Southwest’s 11-5 win over the Falcons on Friday night in Alice, Saturday’s triumph allowed the District 29-6A runner-up Dragons (24-7) to sweep the best-of-three series and move on to the coming week’s Class 6A regional quarterfinals to face Laredo United or Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High.
District 32-6A champion Los Fresnos, a team with a number of players returning next year, closed out the season at 22-5.
“It was a tough-fought game and we gave it everything we could,” Los Fresnos coach Rene Morales said. “They made a couple more plays than we did and scored two more runs than us. That was basically what it came down to.”
The Falcons went through four pitchers in trying to find someone to provide some stability on the mound, but no one could for any length of time. Committing three errors — a couple in the most untimely of moments — compared to one miscue for the Dragons, didn’t help matters, either. Still, the Falcons outhit the Dragons 11-7.
“The players gave me everything they had,” Morales said. “Our pitching struggled a little bit (Saturday). We had our opportunities, but we just didn’t come through in certain situations. These guys gave me seven innings and that’s all I could ask them to do.”
It was 3-3 after one inning before Los Fresnos made it 5-3 in the top of the third and then 7-3 in the top of the fourth inning.
But the Dragons would not be denied.
In the bottom of the fourth, a two-run single to deep center field by Southwest’s Eric Hernandez closed the gap to 7-5 before a pair of sacrifice plays — the first an infield put-out and the second a fly-out to left field — each plated a run from third to knot the score at 7.
In the bottom of the sixth, a Falcons’ infield fielding error enabled Southwest to go ahead 8-7 and a double to deep center field by Isaiah Zavala scored another run to make it 9-7.
Southwest coach Bobby Behnsch, now in his second year of guiding the Dragons, said his team has never before advanced to the third round of the playoffs, so it’s an exciting time for his ballclub and the fans.
“We’re in unchartered waters,” Behnsch said. “We’re playing with house money now.”
Prior to Saturday’s game, the Southwest coach told his team to expect a strong effort from the outset by the Falcons as they were facing elimination following Friday’s 11-5 loss.
“I knew Los Fresnos was going to come out swinging,” Behnsch said. “I told the boys at the very beginning that we had to weather the storm, and we did. We got hit by the first wave of the storm (when Los Fresnos scored three runs in the top of the first) and I just kept telling the guys to stay with our plan (and be patient). The boys continued on and continued on (until we got the win).”
Southwest’s Hernandez relieved starter Caine Agis in the sixth to earn the win. Teammate Luis Padilla came in for Hernandez in the seventh to earn the save, his 11th of the year and 20th over two seasons.
Hernandez, who played first base before relieving Agis, led the Dragons at the plate by going 3-for-4 with three RBIs. Teammate Elerie Rivera, the leadoff hitter, went 2-for-2.
For the Falcons, Miguel Gonzalez, Abel Rodriguez and Cristian Hernandez each had a pair of hits, including two RBIs for Hernandez. Joseph Munoz was 1-for-3 with two RBIs and teammate Hugo Sanchez was 1-for-3 with one RBI.