By Moses Leos III
The struggle to acquire timely hits in critical situations hindered the Lehman Lobos in a 4-3 defeat by the Del Valle Cardinals Monday at Lehman High.
Despite amassing eight hits on the night, the Lobo offense stranded 13 runners on base.
“We had a lot of people on (base), but we couldn’t execute,” Lehman pitcher Josh Valdez said. “We didn’t have the drive to pull it through.”
Lehman’s offense couldn’t capitalize with runners in scoring position. Collectively, Lehman went 2 for 7 and had RISP in all but two innings.
Del Valle’s offense gained the upper hand in the first inning. A two-out walk, followed by a player reaching first on an error set up Daniel Heros. A two-run RBI double from Heros gave Del Valle a 2-0 lead.
Valdez shut the door over the next four innings, limiting Del Valle to one more base hit. Valdez attributed his success with adjusting his throwing motion. Finding the strike zone, along with a consistent approach also played a factor.
Lehman head coach Toby Robinson said Valdez “was a little antsy,” but settled down after the first inning.
“I started pulling my elbow down more,” Valdez said. “I leave things up high. I need to work on things low and keep things low, below the knees. It seemed to work.”
Valdez’s pitching allowed the offense to respond in the second inning.
Following a lead-off single, Lehman’s Jesse Garcia delivered a one-out RBI triple to center field to score the Lobos’ opening run. Garcia later scored on a passed ball to tie the game 2-2.
Robinson was ultimately pleased with the team’s ability to generate contact.
“We went up there, and we had good at bats,” Robinson said. “We swung the bat tonight, which we’ve been struggling with lately.”
But the Lobos couldn’t continue momentum. Instead, Del Valle pitcher Vincent Molina kept the Lobo offense off balance. Using an effective breaking ball and the ability to throw strikes, Molina kept Lehman bats from exploding for a big inning. He limited the Lobos to only one run and five hits the rest of the way.
Molina went seven innings, tossing three strikeouts.
As the Lobo offense disappeared, the Cardinals found theirs in a big way in the sixth inning.
With a runner on first base and no outs, Del Valle’s Matthew Berron swatted a two-run home run. His blast gave Del Valle a 4-2 lead.
Lehman rallied for a run in the bottom half of the sixth to pull within a run, but could get no closer.
For Robinson, finishing the season strong and avoiding a late season swoon is the goal.
“Every game, we seem to have one little thing that gets us,” Robinson said. “It’s just about putting it all on the same page. We practice it for hours and hours every day. We need to put it on paper.”
