Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Robstown continues winning tradition, 4-1

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Saturday, April 7, 2001
Robstown continues winning tradition, 4-1
Players anxiously await Castro’s return, but play up to potential in the meantime
By George Vondracek
Caller-Times
ROBSTOWN - "Big Red'' is alive and thriving, with its leader one game away from returning to the dugout.
   Robstown High School's baseball team, squinting from the spotlights directed its way off the playing field in the past 11 months, took as firm of a grasp as is possible of the District 31-4A race Friday night.
   Paced by Ruben Hinojosa's 3-for-3 night and Greg Gonzalez's four-hit pitching, the Cotton Pickers moved to 4-0 with a 4-1 win over Tuloso-Midway.
   Robstown (15-2-2) has a two-game lead on the field with Monday night's game against defending state champion Calallen closing the first half of play. After that game, coach Steve Castro is eligible to return from a five-game district suspension for violating UIL rules.
   "It's been real hard," said Hinojosa, who drove in all of Robstown's runs with two RBI singles and a two-run home run. "We can't think about it when we're on the field. We're just playing our hearts out. We're just playing the way he (Castro) works us in practice."
   In the interim, freshman coach Elias Vasquez, pitching coach Martin Perez and JV coach Hector Flores have been directing the club during ballgames.
   Castro still is allowed to coach the team during non-game days.
   The Cotton Pickers needed little direction Friday night - just let Hinojosa swing the bat and Gonzalez throw the ball.
   "Coach Castro prepares us well during the week," Vasquez said. "They're ready to play and they want to play for him. They want to show him that he's still the man."
   Hinojosa was the main man Friday night. His first-inning single drove in Frankie Pena with the first run of the game.
   Hinojosa's bases-loaded infield RBI single in the third gave Robstown a 2-1 lead. In the fifth, his fourth homer of the year - and third in as many games - off hard-luck T-M losing pitcher Adam Laskowski (1-5) accounted for the final margin.
   All of Robstown's runs scored with two outs.
   "I wasn't trying to go for a home run," Hinojosa said. "I was just trying to get a good pitch and I took a good cut at it."
   Laskowski, who was the winning pitcher in T-M's win over Calallen, has lost to some stiff competition: state contenders Kerrville Tivy, Belton and Austin Bowie.
   Gonzalez (5-0-1) needed only 78 pitches to dispatch the Warriors (2-2, 12-11). He struck out eight and walked no one. T-M touched him for its run in the third on Marcus Flores' crazy-hop double that bounded off a divot at shortstop and caromed into center field.
   That scored Joey Arriaga, who opened the inning with a screaming double down the left-field line.
   That was all T-M could muster off Gonzalez, who at one point retired 11 straight Warriors.
   "We've got to score more than one run against Robstown," T-M coach Gary Curtis said. "Everybody hits the ball in this district. We've got to put the runs on the board."
   The Warriors (2-2, 12-11) now are clumped in a second-place tie involving at least three teams. The scrambled standings is going to make for an interesting second half of the season, Curtis said.
   "It's going to be tough," Curtis said. "No one game is bigger than the other. Everybody's capable of beating anyone on any night."
   Robstown 4, Tuloso-Midway 1
   Tuloso-Midway 001 000 0-1 4 2
   Robstown 101 020 x-4 6 0
   Adam Laskowski, Chris Rhyne (5) and Taylor Caan. Greg Gonzalez (4-0-1) and Jerry Gonzalez. W - G. Gonzalez (5-0-1). L - Laskowski (1-5). HR - Robstown, Ruben Hinojosa (4). Records - T-M 2-2 district, 12-11 overall; Robstown 4-0, 15-2-2.
   Highlights - T-M, Joey Arriaga 2B; Marcus Flores RBI 2B. Robstown, Hinojosa 3-3, 2-run HR, 4RBIs; G. Gonzalez 8Ks.


Contact George Vondracek at 886-3731 or vondracekg@caller.com

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