SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR | TJ GARCIA
SAN JUAN — PSJA High Bears pitcher Cheke Marroquin threw a two-hit shutout while striking out six to silence the visiting Weslaco High Panthers 4-0 and give the Bears a Game 1 victory Thursday night.
Marroquin, a right-hander, faced just three batters over the minimum as he threw only 79 pitches and walked no Panthers. If not for three PSJA errors, Marroquin may have had a perfect game. He had a no-hitter through six innings before surrendering two hits in the top of the seventh.
Still, his performance, along with second baseman Juan Zambrano’s two doubles and two runs scored, was efficient enough to grab a one-game lead in the Class 6A best-of-three bi-district series. Game 2 is set for 7 p.m. today in Weslaco.
“I was feeling pretty confident, especially with the defense. We had a couple of errors, but we came back,” Marroquin said. “I got down after I lost the no-hitter, but I came back stronger and closed it out.”
Marroquin added that he felt stronger as the game went along. He kept his arm warm in the dugout by throwing the ball around between innings, he said.
Not like he had much time. The game moved at a quick pace, as the teams combined for seven hits. PSJA’s bats only cobbled together five hits off Weslaco High starter Rico Avila. In addition to Marroquin’s pitching, Weslaco was hurt by some costly and untimely errors.
With the game scoreless in the bottom of the first, Zambrano doubled to the left-field wall. PSJA’s next batter, Ariben Gutierrez, slapped a grounder to short, but the throw was errant to first, allowing Zambrano to score. Gutierrez advanced to second and then scored after two more batters grounded out.
In the third, Zambrano led off with another double off the left-field wall — he had only four doubles during the entire regular season, batting .360 — and he scored a few batters later to hand the Bears a 3-0 edge. With two outs in the third, pitcher Avila hit Devon DeLeon, and a fielding error allowed Vincente Castillo to reach first. The Bears’ Trey Guajardo followed with a single to score DeLeon.
Up 4-0, Marroquin kept working and produced enough magic for the victory.
“Cheke was just on fire, and when he gets a performance like that, the hitters know that we can just get a few runs, and we’re going to win this game,” said PSJA coach Marco Guajardo. “He was on a roll, and that was the biggest thing tonight.”
Guajardo was coy about who he’d throw today, saying there might be a surprise.