SAN BENITO— The Los Fresnos Falcons avenged a first-round district loss by run-ruling the San Benito Greyhounds on Monday.
San Benito took the first game of the District 32-6A series in Los Fresnos. The Falcons gave the Greyhounds a taste of their own medicine, evening the series with a lopsided 11-1 win on enemy territory.
Los Fresnos sprinkled 13 hits across the diamond to clinch the victory in five innings.
“They finally put their heads on correctly and they’re approaching the game a lot better than what they were in the first round, doing a better job of being focused and things like that,” Falcons coach Rene Morales said. “We’re more focused at practice, hitting-wise. We’re putting new stations in, and they’re putting in the extra work.”
The Falcons got things started quickly with a three-spot in the first inning and added four runs in the second. Center fielder Germain Castillo showed his skills and knocked consecutive doubles to drive in three runs to aid the early lead.
“We really wanted this game because we knew the first game, we gave it to them. We came into this game thinking we were going to win,” Castillo said. “We just jumped on their first pitcher and started hitting the ball. I think our sticks just did it all today, and our pitching. My performance was great because I helped the team with runs and we got the win.”
Both teams’ starting pitchers had control issues that resulted in short outings.
Los Fresnos’ starter sat down the first two batters, then allowed two straight walks and a hit by pitch and was pulled after facing just five batters. Sidney Moore took over in relief and tossed 4 1/3 innings of no-hit baseball with six strikeouts and two walks.
“We’ve had a lot of injuries (to the pitching staff),” Morales said. “We’re just happy that kids are stepping up in relief. We’re trying to get the kids as ready as we can, and as soon as your number’s called you have to be ready to throw strikes and that’s what Sidney did tonight.”
Bryan Lopez took the mound for San Benito in the second and pitched well for 3 2/3 innings. The southpaw only issued two walks, but solid contact from Los Fresnos and some errors by the Greyhounds’ defense helped the Falcons rack up the runs.
“I told the kids today, ‘Los Fresnos is going to come with revenge because we got them in the first round, so be ready to play,’” Greyhounds coach Ramiro Partida said. “Great tradition, great coaching staff over there. We had to play perfect ball, and we didn’t. They hit the ball hard and they made the plays, and we didn’t. We had chances for some double plays, but we ended up only getting one out.”
Josh Munoz had three hits and Moore added two and one RBI for Los Fresnos. The Falcons rallied with two outs in the fifth to score two runs behind a double off the wall by catcher Jacob Sandoval and a run-scoring single from Moore to set up the run-rule chance.
San Benito’s lone run was unearned and scored on a throwing error in the third. Gabriel Sandoval reached on a walk and scored after Armando Hernandez’s bouncer wasn’t corralled by the Falcons.
The win puts Los Fresnos (14-4-2, 8-2) in second place in district with four games remaining. San Benito (10-9, 6-4) falls into a three-way tie for third.
Partida, the school’s athletic coordinator, recently took over the baseball program and wants the Greyhounds to be focused and enjoy the ride as they vie for a postseason berth.
“When I took over, the first thing I told them was to have fun. That’s the difference I’ve seen in the last three games, they’re having fun,” Partida said. “This game’s over with and we’re back to 0-0. We’re not worried about other teams, we’re worried about ourselves. It’s a tight race. You got to love 32-6A baseball, it’s awesome and we have a lot of great teams here.”
