DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
Coming into this season, Edinburg North coach Damian Gonzalez knew he had good pitchers. And because he knew he had good pitching, he knew he had a district championship-caliber team.
The Cougars are in line to accomplish the latter because they have the former. Junior Giancarlo Servin has been the team’s ace as one of the best pitchers in the Rio Grande Valley, but a big boon has been senior Frankie Rivas.
Rivas is 3-0 with a 3.13 ERA in five appearances and has allowed just 21 hits and nine walks in 22.1 innings.
“We always knew he could pitch,” Gonzalez said. “He’s a tall, lanky kid who hides the ball well, very deceptive. He’s crafty. He knows he’s not one of those guys who will blow the ball by people. But he spots his pitches, he mixes arm angles and knows what the ball will do when the ball’s coming from three-quarters or over the top. He’s perfected what he does.”
Rivas has given the Cougars a capable No. 2. Though he only pitched seven innings in three games last season, he has emerged as a no-doubter at the top of the rotation. That’s in line with Servin, as Alex Canul and Sam Garza ate up most of the innings for North in 2015.
Servin, Rivas, freshman Marc Esquivel and sophomore Abram Lopez have had to grow up, and do so quickly, to keep the Cougars competing at the top of District 31-6A, where they currently reside with an 8-0 record.
“We knew we have good pitchers,” Gonzalez said. “They didn’t have the experience. It was a matter of them catching up, getting innings in tournaments. It was a gradual process evaluating our pitching, seeing guys in different situations and seeing what they can do.”
NEED FOR SPEED
Speed is a luxury for Edinburg Vela.
Through 18 games, the SaberCats have 65 stolen bases. That is due in large part to lead-off hitter Elijah Reyna and No. 2 hitter Johnny Davila. Reyna has 18 stolen bases and Davila has 16. Four other SaberCats have five stolen bases each.
“It’s something we do,” coach Jaime Perez said. “We spend a lot of time working on it. It opens up games for us, and teams know if those guys get on, we’re going to go. These boys have a lot of natural instinct.”
To be a good base-running team, Lopez has players focus on opposing pitchers’ slide steps, kicks, and how/if they hold runners. SaberCat coaches put stopwatches on opposing’ pitchers’ time in throwing to the plate, and study which pitchers throw fastballs on breaking-ball counts.
“It’s an accumulation of a lot of things,” Perez said. ““We have to be creative sometimes. For example, Mission Veterans does a good job of pitch selection and holding you. They pound away hard on hitters’ counts. It’s the game itself that dictates what we do. We just try to put a lot of pressure on teams.”
DÉJÀ VU FOR RAIDERS
PSJA North is in a similar position as it was this time last season: in charge of its own destiny.
The Raiders are 3-5 in District 31-6A, a half-game behind Edinburg Economedes for the fourth and final playoff spot with four games left in the district season.
Last season, PSJA North finished 6-6 in district to take the last playoff spot in 31-6A. That would require a 3-1 close to this district season.
“We can turn around and play like a playoff-contention team, and then we have mental mistakes. That’s cost us,” PSJA North coach Rene Soza said. “There are good teams in this district, good pitchers. Hopefully we can take these next few games.”
Soza has been frustrated with inconsistency, even more so because there are not a lot of new faces on this year’s roster.
“We’ve stressed it more than enough that they’re the ones in control,” Soza said. “We didn’t change a lot of the players. There’s a sophomore here and a freshman there. But these are the same players running in the same mistakes over and over.”
The cure, Soza said, is a change in attitude.
“The main thing is to get them in the game mentally and them having fun,” he said. “It’s a mentality. We have to finish off games. It is what it is. It’s hard to change, but we have to see where having fun takes us.”