HENRY MILLER | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
PHARR — Nate Quintanilla’s performance on Saturday would’ve made Babe Ruth proud. His afternoon will be talked about for years to come in McAllen High sports lore, and rightly so.
The senior catcher hit two home runs, made two stellar run-saving defensive plays and pitched the final two innings, shutting down the PSJA High Bears to earn the save as McHi defeated PSJA 3-1 in the third and deciding game of their Class 6A area round series. The Bears defeated the visiting Bulldogs 12-2 in six innings earlier in the day to force the tiebreaking game.
McHi will now play Laredo Alexander in the Class 6A Region IV quarterfinals next week. Time and site are yet to be determined. The Bulldogs came into the playoffs ranked No. 1 by Texas High School baseball.
Quintanilla, who during his first at-bat flied out with a long fly ball to the center-field wall in the first inning, turned on a Gonzalez fastball and sent it out over the left-center field fence in the top of the fourth to tie the game at 1.
Prior to the blast, PSJA had dominated every aspect of Saturday’s opener and led 1-0 in the elimination game. Pitcher Elian Gonzalez had a no-hitter going for the Bears through 3 2/3 innings before Quintanilla’s first blast.
“That put us right back in it,” McHi coach Eliseo Pompa said. “He stepped it up a lot today. He caught pretty much all three games, and then we asked him to come out and pitch. That’s quite an ordeal.”
The bottom of the fourth inning featured another intense moment as the Bears tried to respond. With Joel Pecino on first, Cesar Cantu doubled into the gap in left-center, and the ball rolled to the wall. McHi left fielder Robbie Maldonado threw the ball into Jorge Garcia, who pivoted and fired it to Quintanilla at home. Pecino tried to slide around the catcher, but Quintanilla stretched out and made the tag to stop the go-ahead run from scoring.
McHi sophomore starting pitcher Aaron Nixon said the home run was a game-changing moment, but the play at the plate was even bigger.
“I was right there, about two feet away,” said Nixon, who pitched five innings to earn the win, giving up just one run on seven hits, no walks and a hit batsman with eight strikeouts. “I usually feel the same during games, but that was electrifying. It was powerful. In the past two weeks, we’ve had a lot of fire-up moments.”
Quintanilla also blocked a ball in the dirt with Cantu on third to prevent PSJA scoring on a passed ball or wild pitch.
But Quintanilla was far from finished putting his stamp on the game. In the sixth inning, he pulled a Gonzalez curveball down the left-field line. When the ball left his bat, nobody in the outfield moved. The homer gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead.
“I had been seeing where his fastball had been going,” said Quintanilla, who had five home runs entering the series. “I was just trying to keep my composure. Then, he threw that curveball, and I hit it well. It picked everybody up. We knew we could do this.”
To finish what he started, Quintanilla got the call to put the game away on the mound. He did just that, retiring all six batters he faced, with three groundouts, one strikeout, one popout and the final fly ball to center field.
“We played a real bad game that first game,” Pompa said. “But we kept our composure, and we had times where they could’ve scored some runs. But we threw a lot of strikes, and we just kept on playing.”