San Benito Greyhound varsity baseball team
Special to the NEWS
McALLEN – The week didn’t start the way they’d have liked, but the Greyhound baseball team turned things around at the McAllen/Mission ISD Baseball Tournament over the weekend.
The ’Hounds went 2-2 in McAllen and brought home a fourth place trophy as a result. Skipper Ram Partida said earning some hardware was one of the club’s ambitions after a season-opening loss at Harlingen South.
“Our goal was to come back with a trophy and we came back with one,” Partida said. “Even though it was the fourth place trophy, the kids played well. There were 29 teams from the Valley and the Corpus area in the tournament. It was pretty stacked.”
The tourney featured state-ranked Calallen, which won the Blue Division title. Valley no. 1 Sharyland and Harlingen South were also among the local teams participating.
San Benito defeated Brownsville Rivera (6-2) and Weslaco East (9-2) during Friday’s pool play. A 4-0 loss to Mission Veterans closed the day.
On Saturday, the ’Hounds fell to Valley baseball power PSJA High, 10-0 in large part to six errors.
“You can’t do that against a great team,” Partida said.
But that doesn’t mean San Benito had a bad weekend. In fact, a couple of the boys had stellar performances throughout the tourney.
Landing on the all-tournament team were outfielder Victor Gaytan and pitcher Tommy Padilla. Gaytan was on fire at the plate, batting .500, scoring four runs and drawing three walks in the four games. Padilla, meanwhile, was sensational on the mound. He went six innings and got a complete game victory, scattering five hits with six strikeouts.
Meanwhile, the ’Hounds opened District 31-5A play on Tuesday night against McAllen Memorial. This weekend, they’ll travel to the mid-Valley to play in the long-running Mercedes Knights of Columbus baseball tournament at Mercedes High School.
Through five games, Partida said his club, which sits at 2-3 overall, is definitely on the upswing.
“The kids are excited and they’re buying into our discipline theme,” Partida said. “You can tell they’re having fun out there. This is the same group of kids from last year, but a completely different ballclub.”
Read this story in the Feb. 27 edition of the San Benito News, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.
3 comments
Congratulations to our nephew Ram Partida and his Greyhound team. We are so proud of you. Love Aunt YaYa and Uncle Ray
Hounds win 1st District game 12-8 vs McMemorial/
I’m proud of the Hounds for bringing home a trophy hopefully they bring home another one