Walkoff win

GONZALES — Up one run with one out on the board, the Gonzales Apaches found themselves in unfamiliar territory Tuesday night against the Yoakum Bulldogs. This baseball team on the diamond was two outs away from their first district win in two years.

But disaster struck with a routine popup to third baseman Zach Akers.

Akers waited for what seemed like an eternity before the ball finally dropped in his glove, but then bounced and fell to the ground.

“E5” will read the scorecards as Akers took the error. The Bulldogs took advantage, basing the next two runners before Yoakum was able to tie the game at 1-1 with the base runner saved by the error earlier in the frame crossing the plate. The Apaches finished the inning giving up just that lone run, which would have been something no less than a miracle in previous seasons.

“In the past they might have taken that error with them two, three, four batters down, maybe even the next inning with them,” Apaches’ head coach Lance Alford said. “But here we’re just learning to flush it. We just flush it away and move on to the next pitch.”

The bottom of the seventh, with batters 7-9 up to the plate, the Apaches did something they haven’t done in years, pulled off a walk-off district victory.

Colby Cox hit a single, then Alex Ortiz followed with a single. Garrett Rickman was hit by a pitch to load up the bases and Blake Cox put the ball in play, forcing Yoakum to get the force out at home, but Colby was deemed safe by the home-plate umpire, officially giving the Apaches that number ‘1’ in the win column.

“Honestly I know it’s a cliché but I can’t express this feeling,” Alford said of the Apaches’ efforts. “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, they’ll give it to you, don’t worry about it.’ I know these kids here and I know they fought hard and they’re getting better.”

As for Akers’ error, his lone of the night, Alford asserted that he has no worries at all about his third baseman.

“I believe in Zach Akers,” Alford said. “I believe he is truly one of the best third basemen and I guarantee you, we hit 10 more fly balls just like that to him he catches every single one. I guarantee you because he’s that good and he’ll come through for us.”

One of the stars of the night was starting pitcher Kolby Kifer who went the distance, pitching all seven innings, giving up three hits and walking two, while striking out five batters. The important stat of the night for the Apaches was the two walks, albeit one came in the final inning when Alford elected to intentionally walk a batter.

“[Kifer] gutted it out, was hitting his spots,” he explained. “He owned the outside part of the plate and he had [Yoakum] off balance all night long, inside, outside, up and down.”

“He keeps us in the game,” Alford continued. “When we don’t walk people it keeps the fielders in the game. If we’re walking we get fielders back here, you know, they’re kind of drifting out but as long as he’s throwing strikes? That’s the key to it. As long as you throw strikes the players are going to be there mentally and you can tell they were in the game.”

The drop in the seventh was the Apaches lone error of the night as fly balls were caught all around and routine throws to first were made.

The Apaches even turned a double play in the first.

“That double play was a thing of beauty and I was so proud,” Alford said. “That’s a freshman right there at second base and [Devin Banda] just turned that play like a seasoned veteran.”

“[We were] just solid defensively all the way around,” he continued. “Everybody made great plays.”

At the plate, Colby Cox had both of the runs as he turned around a bad start to the day. Colby struck out in the second looking but finished the night 2-for-3 with two singles and both of the Apaches’ runs.

Blake Cox got him in twice, once on a triple in the fifth inning and the other on the walk-off fielder’s choice.

Now that Gonzales is 1-0 in district, Alford knows that his kids are starting to believe and that’s an important part of the process.

“The kids believe it. They do,” he said. “but they know it’s one pitch at a time. They won’t look that far ahead.”

Tonight the Apaches are in a non-district game against La Grange. Although their focus is on the Leopards, Alford jokingly noted that Navarro is Monday.

“[This game] 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.”

Tonight’s game at La Grange is set to start at 2 p.m.