By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
It’s early in the baseball season, but Hanna has played well in tournaments and feels it is ready for District 32-6A play to start.
The Golden Eagles (4-2) played well in last weekend’s McAllen tournament and were able to play McAllen High, the tournament champion, close in a non-district game Tuesday. Hanna lost a tight 2-1 decision.
“I feel we’re ready,” Hanna coach Eddie Garcia said. “We can compete, it’s just a matter of keeping them level headed, keeping them honest. Making sure every day is a different day, whatever happened in the past, we just have to improve on our mistakes and I always try to keep them humble.”
Hanna heads to the La Hoya tournament this weekend before hitting the road to face San Benito in the district opener for both teams on Tuesday.
Garcia sees the tourney as a final tune up for the team ahead of the start of District 32-6A.
“We’ll see what happens this weekend,” he said. “We’ll get some good practice time, but our number-one focus is San Benito. They’re going to be tough, I know they are.”
CONFIDENT LOBOS
Lopez has also been pretty competitive in the early part of the season.
The Lobos (3-1-2) finished in sixth place during last weekend’s Port Isabel/Los Fresnos baseball tournament with their only loss coming at the hands of Los Fresnos in the fifth place game.
Lopez lost a bulk of its pitching staff, but has experience on the mound from sophomore Alex Olguin and senior Marky Ordonez that should aid them during district action.
“We’re realistic that this district is pretty competitive,” Lopez coach Victor Martinez said. “It’s a tough district, but I feel we’re well-equipped and should perform well.”
The Lobos will play in the Mike Rodriguez Tournament in Pharr this weekend before playing host to Los Fresnos on Tuesday.
DISTRICT OPENERS
The majority of the Metro-area will be playing its district opening games Tuesday as well.
As previously mentioned, Los Fresnos will be on the road at Lopez and Hanna will travel to San Benito to open the District 32-6A season.
Brownsville Veterans Memorial, the defending District 32-6A champion, hosts Harlingen South, and Rivera will hit the road to play Harlingen High.
In District 32-5A, defending champion Porter will travel to Donna North and Pace will take on visiting Mercedes.
Port Isabel will begin the District 32-4A portion of its schedule at home against Zapata.
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.