ROY HESS | Staff Writer
PORT ISABEL — Martin Vasquez probably surprised his teammates on the Sharyland High baseball team, and quite possibly himself, by smashing a pair of home runs to spark the Rattlers to Saturday’s championship of the 19th annual Port Isabel-Los Fresnos Invitational Tournament.
With Vasquez, a junior first baseman, batting 2-for-3 with five RBIs thanks to his two over-the-wall dingers, Sharyland High defeated Los Fresnos 12-2 in five innings for the tournament title. The Rattlers’ Abraham Alvarez added a solo homer and batted 2-for-2 with two RBIs to also highlight the win.
The championship game was played at Port Isabel.
“We haven’t been a long-ball hitting team, but we had three (homers) today, and of course, Martin had two of them, so that definitely stood out,” Sharyland High coach Bart Bickerton said. “Those were some pretty big shots.”
The win improved the Rattlers to 5-0 on the season. Los Fresnos slipped to 4-1.
Vasquez, who is playing his second season on the varsity squad, said the last time he had a multiple-homer game like Saturday’s was in youth league competition.
“It’s pretty cool to do something like that,” said Vasquez, who was named the tournament MVP. “It’s something special. You just try hard, and that’s all. It feels pretty good.
“This is a good win for us, but we need to keep working hard,” Vasquez added. “This is a great team win.”
The Rattlers were the home team. They led 3-0 after one inning, 6-2 after two frames, 7-2 after three and 11-2 after four before adding their 12th run on a sacrifice fly to deep center field to end the game on the 10-run rule in the bottom of the fifth with two outs.
“Sharyland hit the ball well and put a lot of pressure on us, so they deserved to win,” Falcons coach Rene Morales said. “They were a lot better team than we were today.”
Vasquez clouted a two-run homer over the left-field wall during the bottom of the second to make it 6-2. He added a three-run shot over the same left-field wall during the fourth to give his team a 10-2 advantage.
Alvarez led off the bottom of the third and hit a solo shot over the left-field wall. His homer made it 7-2. He smashed the first pitch he saw from a Los Fresnos reliever who had just entered the game.
“I’m pretty sure Los Fresnos didn’t use their better pitchers in this game, but we were fortunate that we could go with our ace,” Bickerton said. “We were in a good position (as far as our pitching), and we planned it out pretty well. We didn’t have to use any of our other pitchers, so we were in good shape.”
Going the distance for the win for the Rattlers was Andy Lozano, who finished with five strikeouts and no walks. He gave up seven hits.
Javier Gutierrez, the first of three Los Fresnos pitchers, took the loss.
The Rattlers collected 10 hits. Besides Vasquez and Alvarez, other Rattlers with a pair of hits were Saul Soto and Randy Garcia.
No. 9 batter Carlos Perez was the only one with two hits for the Falcons.
Joining Vasquez on the all-tournament team were Kike Cienfuegos and Juan Lopez of Sharyland High, Johnny Cadengo and Isaac Franco of Los Fresnos, and Joey Ramirez of Donna North.
Donna North defeated Roma 5-3 in the third-place game earlier Saturday.
In the tournament semifinals Friday, Sharyland High beat Donna North 12-3 and Los Fresnos downed Roma 9-0.