By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
MISSION — A marathon day of baseball ended better for the Kingsville King Brahmas than for the Port Isabel Tarpons.
The Class 4A best-of-three bi-district series between the two teams went the distance and a little more Saturday at Sharyland High with Kingsville winning Game 3 4-2 to keep its season alive and move on in the playoffs, while Port Isabel’s campaign came to an all-too-soon finish.
“It was hard (to lose Game 3),” Tarpons coach Robert Holland said. “We didn’t hit the ball as well as we did in the second game. Our pitcher (Antonio Garza) did well, but Kingsville just seemed to find the (open) holes (in the defense), and we didn’t. But that’s baseball. Our guys competed and I was proud — like we always are — of them. The guys battled, but it’s tough to lose. Somebody’s got to do it, and unfortunately, it was us.”
In Game 3, the Brahmas went on top 2-0 with a pair of runs in the top of the second inning, highlighted by Nick Avelar’s RBI triple.
The Tarpons rallied for a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth. The first one came on an RBI double by Mark Martinez and the second run was scored due to a throwing error on the Kingsville shortstop.
In the top of the sixth for Kingsville, back-to-back singles and a hit batsman loaded the bases before a passed ball allowed the Brahmas’ third run to score from third. A Tarpons error in the top of the seventh gave Kingsville another run to make it 4-2.
Saturday’s action began at 1 p.m. and the teams didn’t leave the ballpark until around 7:30 p.m.
“Me, my (young) children, the coaches and our players — they love baseball,” Brahmas coach Jeremy Wheeler said. “They could stay out there forever, so it really didn’t bother us a whole lot because we could stay and play all day and all night. It’s all we do.”
GAME 2: PORT ISABEL 8, KINGSVILLE KING 6
Earlier in the day, the District 32-4A co-champion Tarpons (18-6-1) evened the series at one win each by taking the Game 2 8-6 in nine innings, but the District 31-4A fourth-place Brahmas (16-10) were the ballclub that found success when it mattered most in Game 3.
Kingsville had taken the early advantage by winning the series opener 4-1 on Friday.
In Game 2, the Tarpons led 3-0 after three innings, but Kingsville erupted for a four-run fourth inning to go up 4-3. An RBI single by Port Isabel’s Jose Martinez in the top of the seventh enabled the Tarpons to tie it at 4 and send the contest to extra innings.
Port Isabel recorded four runs in the top of the ninth to lead 8-4 before the Brahmas came back with a pair of tallies in the bottom of the frame, but it was not enough to catch the Tarpons, and after a 30-minute break, the series went on to a Game 3.
“My pitcher (Mike Carrales) threw strikes (in Game 3) and got ahead in the count,” Wheeler said. “We got enough hits (and that helped). We didn’t do exactly what we should have done (by scoring more runs) because when you have 13 hits, you’d expect more runs, but we got enough runs to win it. That’s a good team over there (in Port Isabel).”
The Brahmas now advance to the coming week’s area round of the 4A playoffs to face Devine or Jourdanton.