Sinton sweeps past Somerset to begin title defense
SINTON — Through two playoff games, the Sinton baseball team showed no lack of focus and again reasserted they are likely the team to beat again.
There was a little bit of a slow start in Thursday's first game of a best-of-three bi-district series against Somerset, but the Pirates won 10-1 on the road. Friday evening in front of a full contingent of Sinton fans at Gene Kasprzyk Field, the Pirates scored five runs in the first inning and then rolled to a 10-0 run-rule victory to sweep the series.
It was expected for the District 30-4A champion Pirates to win the series against the fourth place team from District 29-4A but on Friday coach Adrian Alaniz came away more than pleased with his team's focus and intensity as it started its quest to repeat as state champions.
"I feel like (Friday) was a really good day for us in all categories," said Alaniz after his team improved to 30-1 on the season. "(Thursday) we started off a little slow but I kind of felt that way with not having a game we were able to pick up last week. You know just those in-game moments it's just hard to replicate when you go out to a practice. Today I felt like everything worked its way that it needed to be, offensively, defensively, the way that we were allowed to manufacture some runs ... really pleased with the way our kids performed (Friday)."
The Pirates will take on Calallen, who swept La Grulla in a bi-district series, for the third straight year in the playoffs in a the area round, with a time, date and place still to be determined.
Friday's highlights
The Pirates scored four runs in the first inning before the Bulldogs could record an out with the big hit a two-run double from catcher Nick Flores. Rob Thomas also added an RBI single as Kash Wood and Blake Mitchell each scored on errors in a five-run first inning. The Pirates added two more in the third, which included an RBI double from Kline Chester and then three more in the fifth to close out the game as Marco Gonzales hit a sacrifice fly to center to end the game. Prior to Gonzales' sac fly, Mitchell smacked a two-run single to right. Somerset had a runner in scoring position in the fourth and fifth but could not push a run across as starting pitcher Jaquae Stewart faced 17 batters, two over the five-inning minimum.
Friday's stars
Stewart was stellar on the mound after a two-week hiatus as he allowed two hits to go with no runs, three walks and three strikeouts, and also picked off two runners at first. Mitchell finished the day 2 for 3 with two RBI and a run and Thomas was 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run. Flores drove in two runs and was 1 for 3, and Chester and Thomas also drove in runs.
They said it
Sinton starter Jaquae Stewart on his start on Friday: "It felt good to be back on the bump, I haven't been on the bump in two weeks, so it feels good to put in some work and let the guys work as well."
Sinton coach Adrian Alaniz on how the Pirates have maintained focused as they enter the playoffs: "As you go through the middle of district play and you run-rule people, it's kind of hard to motivate the kids to know that there's a bigger picture ahead of us and we don't need to fall into a window where we panic and say 'Oh man, I wish I would've tried a little bit harder or focused in a little bit more so.' We preach that out on the practice field and in the games just to know that there's those things we are working for too. Now that the playoffs are here, you know the mindset is exactly where we want it to be."
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Sinton sweeps Somerset with run-rule victory in Game 2
