High School Baseball: Robstown survives vs. Calallen to claim district title
ROBSTOWN — Robstown was faced with two early opportunities on Friday night against rival Calallen, and took advantage of both for runs that proved huge in the outcome of the game.
The Cotton Pickers had two on with no outs against the Wildcats in the third inning, a rare chance to not only take the lead but give themselves some cushion. A single by Esai Gonzalez followed by a run-scoring double play and a wild pitch produced three runs. Those three runs proved key as Calallen had the bases loaded in the seventh with the potential go-ahead at second base, but the Cotton Pickers survived for a dramatic 5-4 victory at Steve Castro Field.
The Cotton Pickers not only sweep their Northwest Nueces County rivals for the first time since 2006, but clinched a share of their first district title since 2018 and can claim the District 31-4A crowd outright with a win next Tuesday.
"(The runs) were huge, it gave us the momentum to take this game, get our pitchers comfortable," said Gonzalez, who was 2 for 3 with a run and RBI on the night. "It feels pretty good (to sweep Calallen). The games that we had last year were pretty tough and we just wanted to show what we were this year."
Robstown's defense, meanwhile, helped them work out of multiple jams as the Wildcats left 11 runners on base, as a 1-2-3 (catcher to pitcher to first base) double play ended the fourth and a pickoff play on a base running error ended the sixth. In both innings the Wildcats had runners in scoring position.
"We've been in tough games this whole season since our scrimmages," Robstown coach Elias Vasquez said. "We play a very tough schedule, we know it's going to prepare us in the end. We knew we'd be battle tested, but you don't know how many you are going to survive, thank God we survived this one."
Friday's highlights
The Cotton Pickers (15-9-1, 7-2) broke the ice with two runs in the second when Gilbert Garza drove in a run with a double to left-center and then he later scored on a wild pitch. Robstown added the three runs in the third but Wildcats relief pitcher Matt Lopez threw four scoreless innings to finish the game and keep the Pickers off the board. Calallen, meanwhile, had runners in scoring position in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, including the go-ahead run on second base in the seventh, but could only push two runs across until the sixth and seventh. Picker pitchers allowed seven walks but two of those baserunners scored and the Wildcats were 2 for 11 with runners in scoring postion.
Friday's stars
Along with Gonzalez, Garza was 1 for 3 with an RBI for the Cotton Pickers, who had six hits on the night. Jonathon Ovalle earned the win, pitching four-plus innings giving up two runs on five hits with four walks. Roque Serrano earned a save as he allowed two runs on one hit with five walks and two strikeouts. Calallen's Drayson Gamez finished the night 2 for 3 with a run and RBI, and Chase Lynch was 1 for 3 with a run and two RBI. Lopez, meanwhile, threw four scoreless innings with four strikeouts and one walk in relief.
They said it
Robstown's Esai Gonzalez on surviving the late charge from Calallen: "A lot of confidence, a lot of breathing so the pitchers could do their thing."
Robstown's Elias Vasquez on the Cotton Pickers scoring some early runs to grab momentum: "Man, I'll tell you what they are a tough ballclub, they are well coached. We changed a couple of things in practice, and it's been helping us the last couple of games, so that's something we've got to stick with. I was confident we were going to hit. I just didn't know and thank God we got the opportunity early."
Calallen coach Steve Chapman on the Wildcats' missed opportunities: "We had so many opportunities to score runs on them. I'm really disappointed that we didn't score eight or nine runs because of all the baserunners we had and all the opportunities we had."
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: High School Baseball: Robstown claims first district title since 2018
