BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
ROMA — Last year, Laredo Alexander’s Paco Hernandez watched his team get eliminated by McAllen High.
This year, Hernandez was the difference in the rematch, smoking a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning to lead Alexander to a 2-1 win and a trip to the fourth round of the playoffs for the fourth time in five years.
The only time Alexander has fallen short of the fourth round in the last five seasons was last year, when McHi eliminated them.
“It was amazing,” Hernandez said of Saturday’s win. “I sent my seniors to the fourth round. They have been asking for it since the beginning of the postseason.
“I wanted to get revenge from last year. I knew I had to show up today, and I did.”
McAllen High took Game 2 on Saturday 11-0 to force the deciding Game 3. But the McHi bats went cold at the beginning of Game 3, stranding junior center fielder Rigo Moreno after a double to start the game. McHi never recaptured the spark from Game 2, and Alexander took Game 3 to end McHi’s season (30-5-1, 12-0).
Hernandez didn’t just deliver the winning hit — he also got the start on the mound.
“He’s an incredible sophomore for us,” Alexander coach Fernando Lemus said. “It had actually been eight weeks since his last start. He’s been in my ear wanting to start. I told him, ‘Game 3, with the season on the line, at one point or another, we will turn to you.’ Today, he rose to the occasion.”
Hernandez went seven innings, allowing five hits and one run while striking out two.
McHi’s lone run in Game 3 came on a solo shot from Moreno.
“We just couldn’t get those key hits with men on base,” McHi coach Eliseo Pompa said. “I think we had men on base in almost every inning. If we can’t put the ball in play, we aren’t going to score any runs. They are a good defensive ball club. They are not going to make too many errors.”
Senior Robbie Maldonado started for McHi in Game 3. He has been limited all year with a shoulder injury, but he fought through the pain to give the team everything he had left in the final game of his McHi career. He went five innings, allowing three hits and striking out five.
Maldonado pitched himself into some early jams, but he found a way out unscathed.
In the first, Maldonado faced a bases-loaded situation with one out, but he worked the count full before delivering a two-seamer outside that fanned the Alexander hitter. Against the next batter, Maldonado repeated the same process for back-to-back punch-outs to end the inning.
In the second, the situation was similar: bases loaded with one out. This time, sophomore right fielder Jacob Vela provided the wizardry, tracking down a pop-up and positioning his body so he could throw the ball home as quickly as possible. His throw beat the Alexander runner and ended the inning.
McHi has utilized a variety of freshmen and sophomores this year and is set to return a talented core next season.
“I think the experience is always valuable,” Pompa said. “We return a lot of good kids back, but we also lose a lot of really good seniors. They are going to be hard to replace.”
On Saturday, freshman Chris Bernal Jr. caught the most important inning of McHi’s season. In Game 2, sophomore Hector Garcia blasted a solo shot. Sophomore Aaron Nixon contributed with his bat and his arm in Game 2. Nixon pitched a complete-game shutout, striking out 11 while scattering four hits.
“This team is going to be really good next year,” Maldonado said. “They got a lot of experience this year, and they should do well.”
“We are ready for next year,” Hector Garcia said. “We are really going to miss the seniors. But, we will be back next year, and we will be ready for whatever happens.”