The Eagle Pass Eagles face La Joya Coyotes in a best of three series in bi-district baseball in Laredo at the United SAC baseball complex with the first game set for Friday night at 7:00 p.m. and game two scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. Should a game three be necessary it will be played 30 minutes following game two.
The Eagles come into the series as the third seed from District 29-6A only by the bad luck of the draw as they shared the conference championship with Laredo Alexander and San Antonio Southwest. Each of the tri-champions finished district play with 10-4 record.
La Joya is the second seed coming out of District 30-6A in the Rio Grande Valley entering the playoffs with overall record of 13-7. Offensively, the Coyotes are led by three juniors Erbey Polanco with a .403 batting average, Brandon Rocha hitting .375 and Edward Rios at .339. Expected to take the mound in game one for the Coyotes would be Polanco, the team’s workhorse all season but whose record is just 2 wins against 7 losses. Likely starter for game two could come from sophomores Paulo Landers or Manuel Flores, each of whom shared second man in the Coyote rotation for much of the season. Another possible starter could be junior Albino Villareal who hurled just one game, but it was a complete game win.
Your Eagles started slowly early in the season as coach Reynol Mendoza tried a lot of combinations with his players in preparation for district play and what resulted in the first district crown in 13 years. The Eagles enter the playoffs with a 14-16 overall record.
Offensively the Eagles are led by Dee Andre Torres with a .473 batting average and 3 home runs, Rey Rey Mendoza at .420, Kristian Barcena with a .400 average, Issac Gonzalez at .385, Braulio Rodriguez at .333 and with 4 home runs and Christian Del Bosque with a .325 batting average.
Set to start game one is Eagle ace lefthander Rey Rey Mendoza who comes into the playoffs with a 4-2 record and 2.33 ERA. Game two starter likely will be Eric Heredia who sports a 4-1 record and 2.54 ERA while coach Mendoza’s freshman son Edward Mendoza could get a start as well. The younger Mendoza has a 3-0 season record and a 3.85 ERA. Closer for the Eagles is Dee Andre Torres usually coming in from his shortstop position to nail victories down. Torres has a stingy .095 ERA.