Torres Tackles: Covering Apache baseball for 4 years

A few weeks ago was my third-year anniversary of moving to Gonzales from North Carolina to begin a career in sports writing for the Inquirer. Admittedly my first ever assignment came as a surprise. I walked into the office for the first time to get introduced to the staff, thinking that it would be just a “here’s how everything works, we officially start Monday” kind of day. Alas, my editor took me to the Gonzales Apaches baseball tournament to show me the ropes. But instead of telling me then and there I had to write the story, I just took photos with my assigned camera, went home for the rest of the weekend and came back Monday with my boss telling me to write the tournament story. Needless to say, I really had no idea what I was doing. I sometimes cringe at the stories I’ve written in the past.

Today, some may still believe that I have no idea what I’m doing but that’s fine. I know the truth. (I’m way better at pretending to know stuff now than I did three years ago, but don’t tell anybody.)

But importantly than my growth in writing is the growth in the sports programs around the county. I’ve already written about this phenomenon numerous times this year. But one of the biggest changes shined bright Tuesday night when I covered Gonzales’ first district baseball game of the season.

As I said earlier, my first assignment was the Apaches’ home tournament. This is now my fourth year in covering the baseball squad. The best game that I covered all of the 2013 season for the Gonzales baseball team was their final home game when they beat the Cuero Gobblers at home in extra innings on a walkoff. Though I initially wrote it wrong, crediting the walkoff hit to the wrong batter (like I said, I used to not know what I was doing), the moment was still a pretty special one for the team. Unfortunately that win represented the last home district victory they’ve had for two years as the Apaches didn’t win a single district game the next two seasons.

That streak ended Tuesday against another rival team in the Yoakum Bulldogs. And yes, even though that will just be represented as a ‘1’ in the win-loss column, for the Apaches and the baseball community it’s something more important. It represents changes. It represents hope. It represents a new era for Apache baseball.

“Honestly, I know it’s cliché but I can’t express that feeling,” Apaches’ head coach Lance Alford said after the win. “I’m so happy for these boys because they’ve been through so much, people have given up on them in the past. They say ‘ah, it’s just Gonzales, they’re going to make mistakes...don’t worry about it.’ I know these kids here and I know they fought hard and they’re getting better.”

Alford was hired in the summer to rebuild this program. Athletic director Kodi Crane liked that Alford was already committed to the town.

“We’re going to get some longevity which I think that’s really important for the future of our baseball program,” Crane said in July. “[Alford’s] very sharp, his dad was a coach, been around the game his whole life, very fundamental oriented, you know, start form the basics and build up and that’ll be good for our program.”

That showed Tuesday night as the Apaches committed less errors than ever before. Routine popup balls looked easy. In the first inning a freshman player turned a double play, something that would have been unheard of in previous years.

But Tuesday’s win shows that this is a new look Apaches team, an Apaches team that is confident and knows that the 2-1 win is just the beginning.

“[This win] can build onto something and they’ll be ready,” Alford said. “They will. They’re going to compete. You’ll definitely see the orange and black and white compete. And it’s fun. It’s going to be a fun year.”

I remember covering a tournament game out in Yoakum and just listening to the dugout while the Apaches were making their mistakes on the field. Larry Wuthrich, the Apaches’ head baseball coach at the time, would yell out instructions but one that stuck out to me was to third basemen Zachary Akers.

If Akers was even two inches away from where he needed to line up on third, the head coach would yell out “AKERS! EARTH TO AKERS!” and proceeded to tell him to shift over a bit.

What a difference a few years make. Alford cited Akers as one of the important cogs to this Apache machine this season.

“I believe in Zach Akers,” Alford said. “I believe he is truly one of the best third basemen.”

Akers isn’t the only example of change that you can see as you look out onto the baseball diamond for the Apaches. But he does show that change can happen in a program.

Gonzales is just 1-0 right now in District 26-4A and they still have a ways to go before becoming perennial playoff contenders. But winning this game meant a lot for this program. And with it happening in their first district matchup of the season, it needs to be celebrated. Now the real work begins and maybe I’ll be able to write a postseason story about our Gonzales Apaches.

Even if some may say I still don’t know what I’m doing after three years in the business.