It was a rough weekend for our four remaining Class 5A baseball teams. Veterans Memorial, King, Calallen and Gregory-Portland all were eliminated in the state tournament.
I don’t think anybody saw that coming, but we still have plenty of great baseball teams from the area alive and well.
Tonight, we’ll focus on Sinton and Robstown.
The Pirates showed a lot of grit by rallying from one game down to beat Cuero and advance to the Class 4A Region quarterfinals.
They are tough to beat and they will face a rematch with district rival Robstown in a best-of-3 series starting Friday night at Cabaniss Field.
It’s been a wild ride for the Cottonpickers.
They had to win their last two regular season games just to make the playoffs as a fourth-place team.
But here they are, staring at Sinton once again. The Pirates beat the Cottonpickers twice already this season.
It will be very interesting to see what happens this weekend.
“Seems like it’s always us and Sinton battling to go to the next round,” Robstown coach Elias Vasquez said. “Our goal every year is to get to the state tournament, but Sinton is always tough. They are well coached, they play really good baseball and it’s going to be a great series.”
Robstown pitcher Juan Carlos Coronado expects a big challenge from the Pirates.
“They are a very good team and they are very competitive but so are we,” Coronado said. “They have great pitching, but we have great pitching, too. They have good hitting but so do we. It’s going to be a great series.”
The Cottonpickers’ remarkable historic legacy has helped this team in its late playoff push.
“It’s been like 30 something years since Robstown did not make the playoffs and I told the guys let’s not be the team that does not make it,” infielder-pitcher Elias Olmeda said. “We want to be the team that goes far and a deep run in the playoffs so we have had that mentality going into the playoffs. The ride has been fun so far.”
It certainly shapes up to be a great series. Sinton won both previous meetings earlier this season, 5-3 and 2-0.
And here’s the schedule for the playoff series:
H.S. BASEBALL PLAYOFFS
CLASS 4A REGIONAL QUARTER-FINALS
ROBSTOWN VS. SINTON
- GAME 1, Friday at Cabaniss Field, 7:30 p.m.
- GAME 2, Saturday at Cabaniss Field, 5 p.m.
- GAME 3, 30 minutes after the end of Game 2, if necessary.
