SONORA, TX—The TLCA Eagles punched their first-ever ticket to the Texas high school baseball playoffs with an emphatic 9-3 win over the Sonora Broncos in the District 4-3A play-in game for the fourth seed.
“It feels amazing,” said second year head coach Jonathan Paez before his players doused him with a water cooler. “Since last year these young men have been working their butts off. I told them this year was their year to make an appearance. Not only do we want to make an appearance, we want to keep playing baseball.”
The win was the end of a learning curve for a young program that has only played baseball since 2011 and went 0-10 in district play a year ago.
“It feels great,” TLCA senior pitcher Thomas Laney said. “I’m a senior. I’ve been here for four years and we’ve tried going to playoffs every year and have been upset every time. It just feels great that we actually get to go to playoffs now.”
While TLCA is a playoff debutant, leading up to the play-in game the Eagles never felt that or any similar label stick considering close games with Reagan County and Ballinger among others.
“We had three great practices prior to this game,” Paez praised. “I told the guys that we can’t let up. We had a good outing against Reagan County last time. We were up in the sixth inning. I told them to stay focused. We lost a little focus and ended up losing that game. Coming into this game, they felt really good about this one. I told them, ‘You’ve got to come out with the same mentality. If you come out with the same mentality, you’ll come out with a W.”
The win was of the come from behind variety as Sonora took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Daniel Gonzalez came home to score on a passed ball.
Sonora’s starting pitcher, Jalen Lopez, and TLCA’s starting pitcher, Laney, then settled into a groove to trade scoreless second and third innings.
TLCA’s bats woke up and exploded for eight runs in the fourth inning, where the Eagles sent 12 men to the plate and took an 8-1 lead. Cody Zapata put one of many exclamation marks on the inning when he took a 2-0 pitch to left field for a double to drive in two runs.
The inning also helped TLCA’s pitcher stay in his groove as Laney would toss a scoreless fourth frame on 13 pitches, allowing just a hit batsman to first base and no further.
“It gave me cushioning once we started grabbing those runs,” Laney said. “It gave me the cushion to work with the pitches I had. My curveball was working [well] today. It really helped out.”
Laney would go six-and-a-third innings for the Eagles, allowing three runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts and a hit batsman on his ledger for the day.
“The kid goes out there and competes every single outing, whether we’re losing or winning,” Paez said of his ace. “I tell him all the time, ‘You have to find three pitches.’ We’re not the most talented pitchers. We’re not the most talented players, but if you can throw strikes, you’re going to win some ballgames. That’s exactly what he did tonight.”
The Eagles would bring a close to their scoring with an RBI fielder’s choice from Adrian Ybarra to make it 9-1 in the top of the sixth inning.
Sonora would plate two runs on an RBI single from Wesley Dutton and a sacrifice fly from Brock Aschenbeck to narrow the deficit down to 9-3 in the seventh inning, but it was too little too late for the Broncos.
Tapia, who came on with one out in the seventh, struck out Hunter Bunch to bring Sonora’s season to a close and extend TLCA’s for at least one more game.
Zapata headed up TLCA’s onslaught by going 2-for-4 with a run scored and two RBIs in the win. Each of the first six batters for TLCA registered at least one hit.
Daniel Gonzalez had an incredible day at the plate by going 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored for the Broncos. Gonzalez also went three innings in relief of Lopez, who was charged with the loss.
TLCA (13-13, 3-7) next faces District 3-3A champ Alpine in the Bi-District round of playoffs in Crane with details to be determined soon.
Sonora finishes the season 6-11 overall with a 3-7 mark in District 4-3A.
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