Apaches out-matched at home

GONZALES — Taking on a district title contender requires near-perfect baseball for a team like the up-and-coming Gonzales Apaches to knock off. Unfortunately, there were too many mistakes on the field and at the plate to take down the District 26-4A leading Navarro Panthers (9-0), with Gonzales (3-5) losing the game 7-0.

“Had a few too many errors,” Apaches’ head coach Lance Alford noted. “Can’t get more than three outs in an inning, when you do, you got to overcome that mistake and get better and make sure you don’t make that same mistake again.”

Four of the seven runs Navarro scored directly came from errors on the field.

Meanwhile at the plate, the Apaches couldn’t seem to find an answer to Navarro’s Matthew Maldonado’s pitching.

Maldonado went the distance, pitching all seven innings while giving up one hit, one walk and striking out 14 batters, eight of which without swinging.

“Pitcher on the hill shut out La Vernia, no hit them actually. We’re at least that much better than La Vernia,” Alford joked. “We didn’t see anything like that all year. No excuse for it, but we need to sit on the fast ball and get after the fast ball when we see it and then adjust to the breaking pitch. Hopefully this is a learning experience and then we can move on.”

The lack of run support was an issue though Alford did praise his pitcher, Garrett Rickman, for his work on the mound.

“Garrett Rickman, we didn’t give him very much support but he pitched a heck of a game,” he said. “He pitched well enough to keep us in the game if we put a few runs across the plate, we’re going to be OK.”

Rickman pitched all seven innings, giving up seven runs, 11 hits with one walk while striking out two.

“We’re going to go with him and ride the little lefty as long as we can,” Alford said.

Early on the Apaches did keep the Panthers at bay until the fourth inning when Navarro punished Gonzales for the errors on the field. Navarro’s first four batters reached safely on base, two via hits and the other two on infield errors. However, Gonzales’ Zach Akers was able to get a putout from third to first for the inning’s first out. A sacrifice fly out to right fielder Alex Ortiz scored another run and then a put out from second baseman Devin Banda stopped the bleeding as the Apaches allowed just three runs.

After allowing another run at the top of the fifth, the Apaches finally had their first hit of the game, this time off the bat of Akers.

“The base hit that he hit up the middle was vintage Zach Akers,” Alford said. “He doesn’t try to do more than what he’s capable of. He just does what he’s supposed to do and gets the job done.”

Akers made it to second on a Jonathan Banda at-bat. Akers then stole third but was stranded after Navarro’s Maldonado struck out the next two batters.

Though fans in the stands as well as some of the players seemed perplexed at the umpire’s strike zone, Alford didn’t see much reason to argue with the official.

“You’re either going to be a hitter or the umpire,” he explained. “And once the ball passes you by you have no more control of the outcome. You take it into your hands so that that guy doesn’t make the decision of what happens on that pitch. I didn’t have a real big problem with the zone.”

“I’ve seen a great strike zone,” Alford continued. “If it would have floated around tremendously and it was just horrible then I would have said something. I will never say something to an umpire unless I have a valid reason to. I didn’t have a reason to. We were also down 7-0, I don’t think it was going to change the complexion of the game getting upset at that guy in saying something. I really didn’t think it was going to have any bearing on it. And once again I didn’t think his strike zone was that difficult, we just needed to go up there with a hitter’s mentality thinking ‘yes yes yes’ and swing the bat and get on it and don’t give him the chance to make the choice for us.”

The Apaches couldn’t find another base runner until the last inning when catcher Ryan Benes made it on with a walk. Unfortunately, the game would end as he was caught in a run down between first and second. After a few seconds of being chased down, Benes tried making a move to second but was tagged to end the game.

Gonzales now drops to 3-5 in district, with two big games this week that may determine which teams in District 26-4A will advance to the playoffs. Tonight the Apaches travel to Cuero to take on the 5-4 Gobblers who sit in fourth. Navarro (9-0) needs one more win to clinch the district title. Meanwhile, La Vernia sits at second with a 6-2 record and Wimberley is in third with a 5-4 record.

Gonzales’ remaining schedule includes on the road against Cuero, on the road against Wimberley, home against La Vernia and home against Canyon Lake (1-8).

Tonight’s game at Cuero is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.