The dreaded time for every high school baseball team has finally come. This week marks the last week of the regular season. For some teams, the off-season is starting much earlier than they want it to. But those teams with playoffs in sight, this is a win or go home scenario. Here are some key games going on this week in District 29-5A. 

District 29-5A Championship series. #2 Ray Texans and the # 14 Veterans Memorial Eagles in a best of three series.

Gm 1 - Ray at Veterans, Thursday 8pm

Gm 2 – Veterans at Ray, Friday 5:30pm

Gm 3 – Veterans at Ray. Saturday 1pm (if necessary).

 The #2 seed of North Zone, Gregory Portland will play the #3 seed of South Zone, King in a 2 out of 3 series.  Game 1-Thursday, April 27, Gregory Portland HS, 6:00pm.  Game 2 is Friday, April 28, Cabaniss Stadium, 8:00pm.  IF Game 3, Saturday, April 29 at Gregory Portland HS, 1:00pm.

The #3 seed of North Zone, Victoria East will play #2 seed of South Zone, Carroll in a 2 out of 3 series.  Game 1-Thursday, Cabaniss Stadium, 5:30pm.  Game 2-Friday, April 28, Victoria Riverside Stadium. 7:00pm.  IF Game 3, Saturday, April 29, 3:30pm Cabaniss Stadium.

4^th place North Zone Victoria West will play 4^th place South Zone Flour Bluff in a 2 out of 3 series.  Game 1-Wednesday, April 26, at Victoria Riverside Stadium at 5:30pm.  Game 2-Friday, April 28 at Flour Bluff HS at 5:00pm.  IF Game 3, will be 30 minutes after at Flour Bluff HS.

5^th place North Zone Miller (home) will play 5^th place South Zone Moody (visitor) at Cabaniss Stadium at 6:00pm, Wednesday, April 26.

The games we will cover on the MIC Sports Network are:

Thursday, April 27,             5:30pm Victoria East vs Carroll

                                               8:00pm Ray vs Veterans Memorial

Friday, April 28,                  5:30pm Veterans Memorial vs Ray

                                              8:00pm GP vs King

Saturday, April 29             1:00pm Veterans Memorial vs Ray (if necessary)

                                                3:30pm Victoria East vs Carroll (if necessary)

TIGERS TOP VETS 5-0; ROMAN RULES w/12K’s in COMPLETE GAME SHUTOUT

If you happened to be in or around the Cabaniss Sports Complex Tuesday evening then, for the sake of your parking sanity, I hope it was for a swim.

There were many events taking place with boys’ and girls’ soccer (*football) championships and middle school track and field taking place, to name a few, but the hot ticket in town was a battle between two ball clubs -- undefeated in district play -- as the streaky Carroll Tigers played host to Veterans Memorial Eagles. This was the first game of a two-game series with district championship stakes.

It was a pitchers’ duel from the jump as both ball clubs went without a run scored until the 5th. The low scoring game worked in direct contrast with both teams’ offensive output in district play. The two teams came into the contest with 79 combined runs, and, yet, both Vets (30) and Carroll (49) surrendered just 4 runs apiece in four district games.

Michael Krall (#22) toed the rubber for the Eagles, and he pitched himself out of a couple jams with the help of some great plays from the defense including a diving catch from 1st baseman Aiden Scott (#14).

The performance of the night, however, came from the Tigers’ Richie Roman (#16) who pitched a complete game shutout. Surrendering only 3 hits, Roman was able to rack up 12 strikeouts -- a career high for Roman -- in his 7 innings of work.

Roman was dominant as well as daunting on the mound with the bill of his cap casting a shadow over his face and his long hair adding an element of intimidation to go along with his tall stature. But it was his hard breaking off-speed pitches that paired well with the strong velocity on his fastball that put the stamp on his brand of pitching.

“I just executed the gameplan and it worked well for us,” Roman told MICSPORTSNETWORK. “I feel like I’m a pretty intimidating pitcher, so I just go out there and try my hardest by going out there and throwing strikes.

“I’m confident on the mound because I have confidence that we have the best fielding in the state.”

The Tigers’ right-handed hurler got some timely double plays, but his own catcher, #12 Dae Palomo, would put the first run on the board with an infield single RBI in the bottom of the 5th.

It came after the Tigers had ended multiple innings with runners on, and Palomo came up with two outs and runners on second and third base. Palomo would hit a ball deep into the hole and Vets SS Damon Hernandez (#6) had to field it perfectly just to make it close, which he did, but a perfect headfirst slide into first base beat the throw.

The Tigers would open the scoring up even further that inning with a bases clearing triple from 1st baseman Jake Cruz (#24)—bringing the score to 4-0. After adding another run in the top of the 6th, Roman would close it out with a final score of 5-0.

“We had a lot of traffic early, a lot of chances to score early, but their pitcher got the job done,” Tigers’ Head Coach David Marsello said after the game. “The way Ritchie was throwing, if you get 1 or 2, we feel confident it’ll get the job done because he was so dominant tonight.”

Coach Marsello confirmed that EJ Cantu will start the second game in the series. Cantu has been the ‘Friday night pitcher’ for the Tigers since the start of district play and the entire coaching staff has a lot of confidence in him.

“EJ Cantu will get the ball Friday, and we’ve got an army of dudes who have thrown a lot of pitches in quality games. This is what 29-5A is all about, a well-coached Vets team and they’re always the big dog on the block, but we’re going to be ready no matter how you slice it.”

The Eagles will get a chance to run it back with the Tigers on Friday at 5:30pm. You can watch the game live on micsportsnetwork.com.

The Veterans Memorial Eagles completed the sweep over a stout King Mustangs squad on Thursday. In a game rescheduled twice due to weather, the district foes were able to play through seven innings without the rain factoring. Instead, both teams, and fans, gritted through the cold air and biting wind.

It was a complete performance from the Eagles propped up by a masterful pitching performance from the Eagles’ Zach Garcia (#12). Aside from the complete game shutout, Garcia achieved 7 innings of one-hit baseball with four strikeouts on the day.

He was smart and crafty on the mound, the kind of crafty pitching that called back to the great Greg Maddox, and, most importantly, he threw strikes. Rarely was Garcia in trouble throughout the contest, and he mixed up speeds while maintaining similar arm angles, making it difficult to pick up on his pitches.

During a postgame scrum, Garcia referenced the support he received from his defense, crediting the win to a team effort.

“Big sweep over King that puts us in a good position,” Garcia told MICSPORTSNETWORK. “It was a good team win.”

Garcia pitched with the kind of confidence that comes from knowing the defense has your back, and they did. The supporting cast was equally brilliant, including the defensive play of the game that came when Eagles’ second baseman Ryan Ashurst (#16) made a superb diving catch on a liner hit to him by the Mustang’s Bryan Guillen in the top of the 3^rd.

Even when pitching well, it can be difficult to keep a pitching arm warm between innings. So, for Garcia to get through a complete game under the cold conditions was a testament to the mindset of the entire squad.

“You always expect to play until Coach Yeager takes you out,” Garcia explained. “Our big Motto is ‘compete,’ so compete until he takes you out. I have a great offense behind me, and I have a great defense behind me, so it’s easy to pitch behind those guys.”

The Eagles will ride this momentum into next week’s two game series against the Carroll Tigers—a team with their own momentum built on a 7-game win streak.

With playoffs looming, the Eagles’ Head Coach, Lee Yeager, knows it is important to stay focused on what is in front of his team.

“This [win over King] gets us in a good position moving forward,” Coach Yeager told MIC’s Mario Mungia. “We were able to sweep Moody, we were able to sweep King, now we have Bluff and Carroll left, so we’ll get ourselves in a position where we can fight for the zone.”

Vets squares off against Carroll this Tuesday at 8pm. You can stream the entire game on Micsportsnetwork.com.

San Antonio’s rising boxing star, Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez (17-0, 11KOs), plays host Saturday to his opponent Christian Gonzalez (15-1, 5KOs) live from the Boeing Center at Tech Port. The expectedly pro-Bam crowd is hoping to see the hometown kid become a 2-division world champion.

Bam Rodriguez had a meteoric year in 2022, which saw him become the WBC Super Flyweight World Champion – his first world title – after defeating Carlos Cuadras by 12-round UD in February. He would go on to defend that title twice more before vacating the belt to pursue Flyweight supremacy. Now, in his 2023 debut, he’ll get the chance to do just that.

Texas has always been home to some of boxing’s best at both the pro and amateur ranks, but over the past decade, we’ve seen dominance from fighters like the DFW’s Errol Spence and Vergil Ortiz Jr., or Houston’s Jermell Charlo set the bar for repping the Lone Star State.

However, as terrific as those fighters are, Bam Rodriguez checks every box on the build-a-star BINGO card. He has the talent, he puts on exciting fights, and he is competing at a weight with plenty of meaningful opponents.

Bam’s older brother, Joshua Franco, holds a world title at super flyweight. The two brothers built a reputation for themselves in the amateurs, and being separated by four years in age adds to their already close bond—Bam has stated that Franco is like a father figure to him.

The Rodriguez-Gonzalez feature bout will be streamed live on the DAZN app. With a win, Bam and his promoter have made it clear that a bout with Mexico’s Juan Francisco “El Gallo” Estrada—a fighter with years atop the pound-for-pound list.

Texas is without a doubt the greatest state for high school athletics in the U.S.. Being around Texas high school sports has afforded me not only some of the greatest opportunities in my life, but also allowed me to watch a few of the greatest games and greatest athletes live in person. Being born in Wisconsin and raised in Maryland, who both have produced their fair share of pro talent, I was around sports through all of my grade school years and I never once got the same feeling as when I was at a game here in Texas.

Firstly, Texas high school football. If you have not caught a game in person yet, I highly recommend it. Do some research on the best teams in your area and go catch a game, it will easily be worth your time. In my season of coverage of high school football in the coastal bend, I was hardly ever disappointed by a game and I was never once not excited to go to a game. Every player that I saw step on the field was there to give it everything they had and no team ever felt like they were out of the game. Being on the sideline for most games, each team had a different energy that they brought. However they each had one thing in common - they were a brotherhood. I have never seen more unselfish players play the game of football in my life. 

If my word doesn't hold much weight to you and you aren't convinced then let me tell you of the best game I got to go to, #1 Refugio vs #2 Shiner in the 2021 playoffs. These two 2A schools had a combined enrollment of 427.5 managed to pull in a crowd of nearly 12,000 to Victoria Memorial Stadium. While Shiner rolled to a 55 - 14 win the game was electric and it was clear these 2 teams had had a long storied rivalry. One particular man was in attendance and shared the same sideline as me, Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian. He was there to watch one of his potential recruits, Dalton Brooks, and well he did not disappoint the Longhorn HC. Dalton and his brother Doug Brooks combined for 555 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns. It was the most dominant performance I have ever seen. If potentially having the chance to see a future college star and pro football player does not persuade you to want to catch a game this fall, I don't know what will.

Baseball is a close 2nd. Coming into the recent high school baseball season I wasn't much of a fan of the sport, but wow did it change that completely. The coastal bend was home to numerous extremely talented baseball programs, including 2 that brought home state titles in the Sinton and London Pirates. The bond each of the teams showed was amazing and there wasn't a team I saw that wasn't able to fill the stands for even a regular season game. For the playoffs, it didn't matter the teams or where it was played, i cant recall a time when the stands were not nearly full or completely packed. The energy from the players and fans was more electric than many football games I watched which was amazing. In my time covering baseball I have seen so many young and talented prospects who are going on to continue their baseball careers at storied baseball programs and I don't doubt they will continue to play amazing there too. Players such as Keevyn Goss and Jack Bell for the Ray Texans, Xavier Perez for Veterans Memorial, nearly all of the Sinton Starting lineup, Justin Lamkin for Calallen are just a few amazing talents I got to see this season. 

Similar to football, there was one game that sticks in my mind as the most memorable and that was the Class 4A Region 4 Championship game between #1 Sinton and #3 Calallen. The game had the feel of a State Championship game as the 2 teams were the highest ranked teams left in the playoffs for their class. The game drew 7,892 fans which was more than a couple MLB teams who were playing on the same day, and it was an absolute thriller from beginning to end with Sinton taking the victory 3-1. The talent on each side was astounding, from pitcher throwing low 90s and leaving batters in the dust to batters getting the best of the pitchers and hitting bombs. 

The 2021-2022 high school sports season was truly one of the most memory filled parts of my life and it's gotten me hooked. I know no matter where I go in life i'll never be too far away from these programs that have given me the best moments of my life. Once again I encourage anyone to go to a high school playoff game for any sport, even a regular season game and I promise you won't be disappointed. Who knows, you may end up seeing the best game of your life or the next big star just beginning his road to the big leagues. 

Hello, everyone! I’d like to personally welcome you to the MIC Sports Network website. MIC Sports Network is a high school sports video streaming company that will focus on our Coastal Bend area teams. Our goal is to cover as many teams, schools and sports as possible. As the 22-23 sports season starts, we hope you’ll make a point to watch our coverage.  Be sure to check our website out often, as we expand our video coverage and add more features.

Doug Kesterson, Director of MIC Sports Network.