DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
During a game against a rival opponent last season, Roma pitcher Jon Michael Roberson, then a freshman, was cruising early.
But the opposing coach wasn’t buying it.
“The guy was yelling from third base all the way across the field to his dugout about how Jon would get tired,” recalled Roma coach Roque Cortinas. “‘He’ll just tire. He won’t make it!’ That kind of stuff. He tried to get Jon riled up.”
The coach ended up being right. After pitching three shutout innings, Roberson fatigued in the fourth and was removed.
“I told Jon, ‘Look, I want you to remember what that Coach said,’” Cortinas said. “‘Next year, you’re going to prove him wrong.’ I hear all the time how he’s too young, he’s too small. But all he’s done is prove them wrong.”
Roberson went through growing pains as a freshman on varsity in 2014. But that has only paved the way for a standout sophomore campaign.
It was exactly what Cortinas desired when he threw the 5-foot-7 right-hander into the fire. There would be no careful, hand-holding assimilation to varsity ball for Roberson.
“It gave me a lot of experience,” Roberson said of being a perennial playoff club’s No. 2 pitcher and closer as a freshman. “I knew I had to grow up quick. I adjusted well. Coming in as a reliever in tight games helped me out. I learned I do pretty well in tight situations. So now I relax.”
And this season, against that same opposing coach?
“Jon threw two complete games,” Cortinas boasts. “And I guarantee that Coach won’t be talking about him like that again.”
A move like Cortinas’, ushering in a kid right out of middle school to the varsity level, is a high-risk, high-reward maneuver. But Cortinas knew what he had in Roberson, and last week the 16-year-old returned the trust.
Now the Gladiators’ ace as a sophomore, Roberson pitched a complete-game, six-hit contest against Brownsville Porter in their one-game Class 5A bi-district play-off to advance the Gladiators to the area round of the playoffs for the first time in Cortinas’ 11 years at the helm.
Now they look to add to that mark tonight, with another one-game play-off, this time an area round tilt against Castroville Medina Valley in Laredo.
“We’re ready to go and play,” Roberson said. “It’s the same mentality. One game, but take it easy. Don’t try and do too much.”
Learning to stay in control has been Roberson’s M.O. this season. As a freshman, even a simple base hit would grind on Roberson. His head would drop. He would start pacing the mound.
“He was the type where if anything went wrong, boom,” Cortinas said. “You could see him collapse. It was a matter of him growing up quicker. He had to pitch his game and just let it go.”
Roberson listened and changed. He went from 6-4 with a 5.44 ERA and 1.42 strikeouts per walk last season to 4-4 with a 1.47 ERA and 3.17 strikeouts per walk this year.
The difference, he said, came between the ears.
“Last year, when something wouldn’t go my way, I’d get frustrated,” Roberson said. “I’d start throwing balls and walking people. This year I’ve learned to work with it. Work pitch by pitch and keep going.”
While Cortinas, a former college player at University of Texas-Brownsville and Texas A&M-Kingsville, worked on Roberson’s make-up, pitching coach Jorge Garza worked on the young man’s technique.
This season, Roberson has worked on a slider and introduced a changeup to accommodate a fastball that tops out at 85 miles per hour, five miles more than last season. Garza and Roberson have also worked to simplify the game.
Roberson will watch a player’s swing. If it’s long, he will pitch inside. A short swing means to pitch outside.
He will also pay attention to stance. A hitter scooting up at the plate means to throw inside. If they move back, he’ll throw outside.
Big hitters that pull the ball away means Roberson should pitch outside away, with some off-speed stuff. A slow swing means overpowering them with a fastball.
“The outside pitches really help me,” Roberson said. “I’ll mix it up. I think that frustrates them.”
It’s no coincidence that Roberson’s game has prospered after a full offseason of baseball work. In middle school, he was a multi-sport athlete. But since entering high school, he has stuck just with baseball.
“He knows baseball is his ticket,” Cortinas said.
Under Cortinas’ summer program last year, Roberson ran a lot of mileage with some sprints. He lifted weights, not heavy but middle-to-light weights with a lot of reps to boost endurance.
As a result, there is no more talk about Roberson eventually tiring during games. He has started eight games this season, and has pitched the entirety of all eight.
“We almost had to start from scratch and build up,” Cortinas said. “Going through an offseason where it was specifically geared toward baseball training was huge. And when he came back this year, he came back a totally different kid.”
Roberson knew he would be the team’s ace this season. So, he worked at it. He trained on his own, following Cortinas’ program to the ‘T.’ He ran, he lifted, he threw. Then he threw some more, lifted some more, ran some more.
It’s why when he’s asked if he’s surprised by his quick success, there is a hint of defensiveness in Roberson’s voice.
“It’s not a surprise,” he said. “If you work for it and you train, it will all pay off. It’s expected. If you didn’t work for it and you do well, then, yeah, that may be a surprise.
“But I worked for this.”
And all that work is proving a lot of people wrong.