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EDINBURG — Edinburg Vela entered Game 1 of its Region IV-6A quarterfinal playoff series against La Joya High as winners of 16 straight games.
The Coyotes put an end to the SaberCats’ streak with a 9-2 victory in Game 1 on Thursday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.
“I got to give it up to our guys. We’ve been working at it all week and the bats came alive today and I hope it continues tomorrow,” La Joya head coach Mario Flores said.
Game 2 is slated for 7 tonight at PSJA Southwest High School. Game 3, if necessary, will be played at 5 p.m. Saturday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in Edinburg.
The Coyotes (20-10-1, 11-5) started hot and ended even hotter with four runs scored during the first and second and five more during the sixth and seventh against the SaberCats (24-9, 13-3).
La Joya left-handed pitcher JC Gutierrez, a Texas Tech signee, was lights out throughout as he carried a one-hitter into the sixth. He finished with 11 strikeouts while allowing one earned run on three hits and one walk in 6.2 innings.
“A lot of people haven’t been giving JC a lot of credit. We hadn’t had the opportunity to see him this season, but he threw well tonight,” Vela head coach Jaime Perez said. “We did some things we haven’t done in two months — threw the ball around, kicked the ball around, didn’t throw as many strikes as I would like. But, hey, it’s baseball. It’s hard to not lose for two months. Every winning streak has to come to an end, but the good thing is we have tomorrow. We have to come out and play well, catch it, throw it and hit it. That’s the name of the game — give ourselves a chance and let the chips fall where they may.”
La Joya’s Alex Guajardo got things started with a leadoff double to open the game, followed by a walk by Eliab Gonzalez. J.R. Ramos brought them both in with a two-RBI double during the top of the first to take a 2-0 lead. The Coyotes added two more during the top of the second off an error and an RBI double by Nathan Perez.
“We know we have a strong team and a good core. We just needed to put up runs and JC was there to strikeout everybody,” Ramos said. “He’s our ace, so we knew he was going to do good for us. We just need to hit the ball, score some runs and we’ll be good.”
Guajardo hit a two-run single during the sixth and Ramos closed the game with his second two-run double to put La Joya up 9-2 during the seventh.
Vela finally broke through during the bottom of the sixth with RBI singles by Jayden Martinez and Nolan Salinas.
Ramos finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs and one run to lead La Joya. Guajardo went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and one run. Homer Muñoz also had one RBI.
The Coyotes look to close the series out tonight.
“We just need to believe in ourselves. It’s all in our heads. We just need to work with what we have and do what we do best — hit and score runs,” Ramos said.
