LAREDO — During La Joya High’s Region IV-6A area round playoff matchup against San Antonio Stevens on Saturday, senior Mario Salinas called time to pause his at-bat.
“What do you want me to do?” Salinas asked La Joya head coach Mario Flores.
“You tell me what you want to do,” Flores responded.
Salinas didn’t hesitate to answer.
“He told me, ‘Hit and run,’ and he did it. He was so confident today, I haven’t seen him that confident in a while and I’m proud of him,” Flores said. “He really stepped up.”
Salinas’ 4-for-5, five-RBI day led the Coyotes to a 10-4 win over S.A. Stevens at Veterans Field in Laredo to give La Joya a 2-0 sweep in their best-of-three playoff series.
The Coyotes (22-2, 16-0)have swept their first two opponents this postseason and are moving on to the regional quarterfinals. They’ll face the winner of Harlingen High and Eagle Pass’ best-of-three area-round series.
“We’re feeling really good, really strong. We have great pitchers and our bats are awake right now,” Salinas said. “Anything close, I’m swinging at. I’m trying to make the defense work all the time, trying to put it in play. That’s been my mentality throughout the season and in the playoffs.”
The Coyotes piled up 18 hits as they refused to be denied at the plate. La Joya was in control with a 10-1 lead during the sixth inning.
Senior Angel Solis started for the Coyotes and nearly delivered a complete-game performance, pitching 6.2 innings while allowing five hits, five walks and two earned runs. He struck out seven.
“I just wanted to come out on the mound and throw strikes. These guys could hit, but I know we play good defense and I had confidence in them,” Solis said.
Solis helped his cause with a two-run home run during the top of the fifth inning.
“People don’t know how truly good we are on offense. People talk about our pitching, but our batting is good too,” Solis said. “We’ve been scoring over four runs every game and proving people wrong about our bats.”
Alan Delgado tied Salinas with a team-high four hits and three runs. Salvador Lopez finished 3-for-4 with one RBI, one run and one walk, while Hugo Cantu and J.C. Gutierrez each drove in one run.
“I know these kids, the seniors especially. They want to rewrite history and put La Joya baseball on the map like we used to be before the split (from one school to three), and they’re doing it. I’m proud of them,” Flores said.
