Warriors ride emotional rollercoster during district play

The 2012 baseball season saw some unexpected events, both good and bad.

Victoria West's season took a change on April 9 with the death of a player, Victoria East went on yet another playoff run and Calhoun had an unexpected playoff appearance.

"We faced a lot of adversity and challenges going into the district season," said West baseball coach Manuel Alvarado. "The way the kids responded, I thought that was awesome the way they did."

The Warriors were 5-0 and in firm control of District 30-4A when tragedy struck the program.

Sophomore pitcher Austin Davis died at DeTar Hospital North early in the morning on April 9.

The Warriors went on to beat Calhoun the next day and Gregory-Portland on April 13, the day Davis was scheduled to start.

Led by district MVP Miles Manning, the Warriors went a perfect 10-0 in district and made it to the area playoffs where they lost to perennial power Calallen 1-0.

"It just shows what type of kids we have here," said the West coach. "The attitude we had was we could play with anybody and that's the mind set we took into the ball game."

Manning went 9-2 on the season with a a 2.31 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 57 2/3 innings.

Freshman Brooks Bynum was named the district Designated Hitter of the Year after hitting .364 with 16 RBIs.

Across town, the Titans finished as the District 30-4A No. 2 seed and for a second straight season made it to the area playoffs.

This year the Titans were swept by Corpus Christi Moody, but Titans coach Wes Kolle said the Titans played well and thinks the team will continue to make strides next year.

"No matter what happened, we'd always have guys step up when their opportunity came," Kolle said.

East finished the season 20-13 and 8-2 in district. Its only two district losses came to eventual champion West.

One of the players that stepped up was freshman infielder and outfielder Jonathan Ortega.

Ortega earned district Newcomer of the Year honors after hitting .450 with 13 RBIs.

Kolle said that despite his experience at the high school level, Ortega doesn't shy away from making things happen in the clutch.

"He wants to be at the plate when the team needs a big hit," Kolle said. "He's a clutch performer, he works hard in practice and he doesn't let pressure situations get to him."

In Port Lavaca, the Sandcrabs made a historic run in the playoffs.

The Sandcrabs survived a three-game bi-district playoff against San Antonio Brackenridge and won a playoff series for the first time in school history.

"It doesn't get old, it hasn't gotten old anyway," said Calhoun coach Santos Alvarado.

The Sandcrabs finished the season with a 15-12 record and each of their four playoff games were one-run affairs.

Calhoun's season ended with a 3-2 area playoff loss to Corpus Christi Flour Bluff. The coach hopes the playoff berth will serve as a learning experience for the team next season.

"Once you get in, you get a taste and hopefully that taste will stay in there and they'll want to come back for more," Santos said.

The Sandcrabs were led on the mound by Zach Cruz and Quinton Henderson.

Cruz went 6-5 this year with a 1.98 ERA and stuck out seven batters per game this season. He pitched 78 innings this season.

Offensively, Devian Cantu and Royce Williams swung the big sticks for Calhoun.

Cantu finished the season with a .391 average and 12 RBIs and a home run.

Cruz and Cantu garnered all-district first team honors. The Sandcrabs look to build on their historic season in 2013 with Cantu and Cruz.

"I had a great group of kids to work with," Santos said. "They went out to practice, they had fun, they did what we asked them to do."