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Down to the Wire
- Updated: March 12, 2022
By Ruben Rodriguez
Los Fresnos News
The Los Fresnos Falcons hosted the La Joya Palmview Lobos in a Non-District Battle on a very frigid Monday Night. In what has become quite the rivalry over the years, The Falcons and Lobos faced off for the fourth straight season. Last season the Falcons and Lobos tied in extra innings, the year prior, Palmview took the win 6-4. The Falcons last defeated Palmview in 2019 by a score of 4-0, so this match served as the climax in a new and exciting rivalry. To make things more interesting, both the Falcons and Lobos were perfect and coming off great Tournament runs. Both teams were also coming off big wins over Coastal Bend Powerhouses Gregory-Portland and Corpus Christi London.
Taking the Mound for the Falcons was senior ace Matthew Padilla, who was a key player in Los Fresnos’ historic playoff run in 2021. Palmview, who is known to have multiple aces in their starting rotation, started with Juan Castaneda set the stage for a possible pitcher’s duel.
Palmview struck first as leadoff hitter Tony Villareal hit a solid line drive to left field for a standup double. After a strikeout and a groundout, Pitcher Juan Castaneda hit a hard liner into center to bring Villareal in to take the lead in the top of the first. Padilla got the Falcons out of trouble by getting his second strikeout.
The Falcons, who have a plethora of talent, fell victim to the dominance of Castaneda from the mound as he forced a one, two, three outing for three consecutive innings. Accumulating five strikeouts in the process, it was until the bottom of the fourth when Los Fresnos was able to get some hits on the board.
Despite constant hitting by Palmview, Los Fresnos managed to hold them scoreless for the rest of regulation. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Padilla was hit by a pitch after Muniz started off the inning with a flyout. Josh Muniz then brought Padilla in with a huge RBI triple. Then after a few more hits by Diego Cantu and Roel Gonzalez, Pinch Hitter Sebastian Sanchez hits an RBI Single to give Los Fresnos the lead 2-1.
In the Top of the seventh inning, errors began to plague Los Fresnos as Palmview took advantage of the errors as Josiah Gonzalez hit an RBI single to tie the ballgame. Padilla, who held his own for seven innings, hit a total of 14 strikeouts and held Palmview Scoreless was pulled at the top of the eighth inning as Los Fresnos sent Josh Munoz to the mound as a reliever. After Los Fresnos was not able to break the tie in the bottom of the seventh.
Los Fresnos was consumed by errors once again as Palmview tacked on three more runs of Falcon Errors to make it a 5-2 game. Los Fresnos then battled in the bottom of the eighth inning but Lobo Reliever Derek Garza forced groundouts to give Palmview their fifth win of 2022.
In what truly delivered as a pitcher’s duel, Padilla and Castaneda combined for 25 strikeouts as Los Fresnos Falls to 5-1. The Falcons will take part in the Mira’s Sports Classic in Corpus.
