(La Villa, Texas)-It was a canon shot, over the left field fence by freshmen Andres Rocha, that sent the 32-6A Brownsville Rivera Raiders (23-14) wild, chanting, “he’s just a freshmen” as Rocha rounded the bases to defeat La Joya 1-0 in Game Two of the Best-of-Three series on Saturday at La Villa High School. “This is the first time since I have been a head coach at Rivera that we are advancing to the second round. I told our team that we could be 6A Bi-District Champions today, and here we are, Bi-District Champions,” said Rivera HS Head Baseball Coach, Travis Parker.
On the mound, Raiders pitcher Nate Alvear stood tall, with his hair dyed in red, kept the Coyotes off balance throughout the day, to pick up his victory. The Raiders team rushed the mound to splash water bottles on their 5’5″ pitcher as La Joya’s last batter hit a liner to first base to end their playoff hopes of advancing to the next round. The Raiders won 3-2, 1-0, over La Joya.
With the win, the Raiders will meet 30-6A Eagles Pass (23-9) in the Best-of-Three series this weekend with all games to be played at Laredo Veterans Field beginning on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in Game One and Game Two is set for Friday at 7:00 p.m. If necessary, Game Three will be played on Saturday at 12:00 noon.
The Blast! Freshmen Andres Rocha from Brownsville Rivera hits a homer to defeat La Joya 1-0 on Saturday at La Villa HS. (HSSMImages)