By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Hanna’s Noe Guerrero used his right arm to help carry the load for the Golden Eagles on the mound again this season.
Guerrero helped Hanna win 19 games with a 6-3 mark in 12 appearances and a 1.40 ERA in 70 innings with 84 strikeouts and just 14 walks as opponents hit just .204 against him.
The senior led his squad back to the area round of the playoffs after helping the Eagles earn a share of the District 32-6A title.
Guerrero earned the distinction as the top pitcher in the district for the second straight season and repeats as The Brownsville Herald’s All-Metro Baseball Pitcher of the Year.
“It feels great to get it two years in a row and all that hard work I put in has paid off,” he said. “God helped me and my family and my team, my coaches.”
The senior hurler tried to replicate the things he did last season and it worked just fine.
“Whatever I did last year I wanted to do this year because it worked, I didn’t want to change anything,” Guerrero said. “If I did change something, it was the amount of weight when I worked out or the distance on long toss, the velocity training, that’s what changed.”
It was fun to watch for coach Jameson Wicks in his first year at the helm at Hanna.
“I know on paper the teams we played were better (this season),” he said. “There was a lot more parity in the district, so the competition was greater and in the tournaments, too. I’ve seen a lot of players like Noe … I have 13 years of coaching experience and I’ve seen a lot of kids like him and he’s not even close to his ceiling.”
Guerrero also made an impact playing in the outfield as well as the plate, something he hadn’t done much in the past three years because he was primarily a pitcher. The senior had a perfect fielding percentage and hit .347 with 26 hits, including three doubles, three triples, scored 18 runs and drove in 14 runs.
Guerrero has already committed to Texas Southern University and its NCAA Division I program and will continue his baseball career this fall at the next level.
With his future set before the season started, he quickly realized he was ready to compete at a higher level and it carried throughout his senior season.
“Playing good teams in tournaments and in the beginning of the year, it helped me build my confidence that I can compete against these teams and how good they’ll be in college,” Guerrero said. “If I doing good here maybe I can do good in college, too.”
Wicks tried to make sure that his team was just as tough mentally.
“He’s young and very gifted and the biggest thing I tried to implement with him and the boys was going into each game one pitch at a time and changing their mental aspect,” the Hanna coach said. “Because they’re talented enough, sometimes they may not have had the confidence they felt like they needed and they saw that day in and out.”
Guerrero saw the difference with a new coach during his final season, but also reflected on how hard he worked to get there.
“We had a good bond, especially chemistry wise than the past three years and I give props to coach for that,” he said. “It felt good every day, every practice, every game was fun, we were working hard. The past four years, I’ve been working my tail off, after and before practice to get here (to this point).”
Wicks is now anxiously waiting to see what his talented hurler can do at the next level.
“He knows he’s going to be better,” he said of Guerrero experiencing baseball at the collegiate level. “I can’t wait to see how much he flourishes. He’s had a lot of success and some shortcomings (this season) but he’ll learn from all of it.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.