Crucial mistakes doom Apaches in district loss

GONZALES — Errors and the inability to get on base. That’s been the story for the Apaches’ baseball team all season and on Tuesday night it was retold again, this time an 11-0 loss against the Wimberley Texans who are currently on top of District 27-4A undefeated.

“It’s kind of been our song all year — make the plays when you get a chance to make the plays,” Gonzales’ head coach Lance Alford said. “We made mistakes at crucial times.”

Wimberley’s five-run first inning involved just one error in the scorebooks though that one error morphed into other mistakes that allowed five runners to plate.

“First inning, we should have got out of that inning with no runs,” Alford explained. “Ground ball here…we’re fine. Fly ball out there gets caught, we’re out of the inning no runs. It’s a learning process and that’s what you have when you have a young team. We’re getting better because we’re not making as many, but we’re still making them at the wrong time. [But] there is improvement, yes.”

As the Texans continued to score runs, the Apaches’ lack of aggressiveness at the plate proved to be a problem yet again, with seven batters striking out, four of which were looking.

“You have to be aggressive, especially early on in the count,” Alford said. “You can’t let the pitcher get ahead of you. One thing we have to do a better job is picking up the rotation on the ball, we have to be able to react to the fastball and if we’re out there we have to be discipline enough to keep our hands back and adapt to the curve ball when it comes. We’re still working on that and we’ve been working on it all year. It’s just been a work-in-progress, we just take it day-by-day.”

The Apaches lone hitter was left fielder Alex Ortiz who went 1-for-1 with a walk and a single. Kolby Kifer struck out swinging in the fourth inning, but a passed ball allowed the runner to reach first safely. Those were the only base runners the Apaches had in Tuesday’s game.

Kifer took the loss on the mound, pitching all but one batter in 4.2 innings of play. He gave up 11 hits, walked three batters and struck out three while allowing four earned runs. Albert Camarillo came in relief in the top of the fifth with a man on first and third. In his first and only pitch of the night, Camarillo forced a fly out to end the inning.

Despite the loss that drops the Apaches to 0-6, due to the five-team district, there’s still a chance the team can reach the postseason and that begins with a must-win game on Tuesday against Austin Eastside Memorial (1-5).

Eastside Memorial’s lone win in district is indeed against the Apaches, a 5-2 decision April 7. The Apaches lost that game despite out-hitting the Panthers nine to five, mainly due to their five errors.

“[We have to] make the routine plays, don’t get more than three outs in the inning,” Alford said. “I think we’ll be able to score [against Austin Eastside]. I have no worries about us scoring. We just have to make the routine plays when we have the opportunity.”

The team will have to do it without their starting catcher and leadoff hitter Garrett Rickman who is out with an arm injury for the rest of the season.

“We’re going to miss Garrett a lot. He’s the catalyst,” Alford said. “He gets things going back there, he’s the leader behind the plate. But Ty [Oliver] stepped up. He did a good job. Kept the ball off the screen. Just miss that extra bat in there. But we’ll make up for it, we’ll come out and play and we’ll be ready to go for next Tuesday.”

“We’re going to get better and we’re going to keep working hard,” Alford explained. “They got a great attitude. They haven’t quit and that’s what I love about them. It’s tough, baseball is that way. It exposes weaknesses at times. Everybody can see it because there’s no place to hide. There aren’t 21 other guys to hide with like on a football field. It’s tough, so I applaud these young men for taking the chance out here. With something maybe bad happening in the game that you did, that takes a lot of guts and they should be commended for that.”

The Apaches are on a break today, then host Austin Eastside Memorial on Tuesday, with first pitch scheduled at 7 p.m.

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