DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
PALMVIEW — Behind an obscure pitching strategy and some timely clutch hitting, McAllen High nipped La Joya Palmview 5-4 on Tuesday to claim District 30-6A’s fourth and final baseball playoff spot.
McAllen High (16-6, 7-5 30-6A) could have still gotten into the postseason with a defeat and a McAllen Memorial loss at Mission High, but fortunately for the Bulldogs it didn’t have to come down to that.
The Mustangs took care of their own business with a 7-5 win, but ended up one game out of the final four.
“There was a sense of urgency. Huge,” said McHi senior catcher Fred Hover, who went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a stolen base. “We knew we could still lose and get in, but that’s no way to go about things. You never want your fate in someone else’s hands like that.
“We wanted this one really bad. We scratched and we clawed and we fought.”
It was Palmview’s first loss in 30-6A and just its third of the season. The Lobos (16-3-1, 11-1) had claimed their second straight district title a little more than a week ago and looked ready to run the table, leading McHi 3-0 into the fourth inning.
But the Bulldogs scored five runs on three hits in the fourth, all coming with two outs. Keola Zamora walked with the bases loaded, Hover drilled a two-run double and Justin Gonzalez capped things off with a two-run triple.
It was quite an outburst against sophomore Leo Perez, who had been cruising up to that point.
“We started hunting his fastball,” Hover said. “He was doing a good job mixing in his fastball and off-speed stuff and keeping guys off-balanced. But we battled late in counts, we stayed confident and we just tried hard to make something happen.”
Controversy reared its ugly head in the sixth inning when it looked like Palmview courtesy runner Victor Flores scored from third on a throwing error by the Bulldogs’ centerfielder. But umps ruled that Flores had left the base too early, and he was declared out.
That essentially left meaningless Carlos Puente’s run scored off an error in the seventh to cut Palmview’s deficit to one run.
“McAllen has a great coach and they play tough,” Palmview coach Rick Garcia said. “This is a wake-up call. We need to treat everybody like a playoff team. We were hoping to be the only team in the Valley to be undefeated in district. But McAllen is a good team and they did the job and we didn’t.
“I don’t like to lose going into the playoffs. Hopefully we can regroup. We’re district champs, back to back, been to the playoffs five of seven years. Now let’s see how we respond.”
McAllen High coach Eliseo Pompa used a different pitcher in each inning, starting senior Cody Smith and finishing with sophomore Victor Valdez, who struck out Eleazar Garcia with two on and two out in the seventh to close the Lobos’ hopes for a comeback.
Smith, Kike Rodriguez, Ram Maldonado, Nate Quintanilla, Roy Quintanilla, Rigo Sanchez and Valdez combined to hold the Lobos to four runs (three earned) on seven hits, striking out one and walking one.
It was a strategy Pompa had not used in a game, only scrimmages. The plan was to hit spots, throw off-speed and pitch outside, and the Bulldogs’ contingent was successful.
“We figured that if we get in (the playoffs), we’d have kids that had some work,” Pompa said. “We’re going to need pitching, and they got their work in. We told the kids to just play baseball. You never know what might happen.”
The Bulldogs threw everything at the Lobos with their season on the line, and it paid off.
“I told the guys we needed to play relaxed,” Pompa said. “The only pressure we had was the pressure we put on ourselves. Our kids played well and they were calm.
“It was time for us, really. We’ve lost five (district) games, four were by one run. It was time that things went our way.”