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San Antonio Independent School District Tournament
WHEN: THURSDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 26, 27
Thursday, Feb 25, 2010:
1. Field #2 - @ 5:00 PM versus Jefferson Mustangs. (Eagles are visitors.)
SCORE: EAGLES 17 JEFFERSON 0
Friday, Feb 26, 2010:
2. Field #1 @ 5:00 PM versus Lee Volunteers. (Eagles are home team.)
SCORE: EAGLES 7 LEE 1
Saturday Feb 27, 2010:
3. Field #2 @ NOON versus Johnson Jaguars. (Eagles are visiting team.)
SCORE: EAGLES 0 JOHNSON 12
4. Field #2 @ 5:00 PM versus Riverside Rangers. (Eagles are visiting team.)
SCORE: EAGLES 4 RIVERSIDE 6
WHERE: SAISD SPORTS COMPLEX (adjacent to Burbank High School) 1000 Edwards, San Antonio, Texas
Click here for driving directions.
16 TEAMS: Akins, Brackenridge, Brandeis, Burbank, Edison,
Fox Tech, Highlands, Sam Houston, Jefferson, Johnson, Kennedy, Lanier, Lee, Riverside, Southwest,
Steele
ADMISSION:
General admission: $4.00
Student with school ID: $2.00
Tournament pass: $8.00
TOURNAMENT STYLE: 16 teams. Each team is guaranteed a minimum of 3 games.
Click here for chart 2010 tournament brackets and all scores.
 TOURNAMENT RULES:
Games will be played with a time limit, except for the championship game.
Eight run rule after 4 innings.
“Drop dead” rule after 2 hours. Score reverts to last completed inning.
DUGOUT ASSIGNMENTS: Home team uses third base dugout.
AWARDS: Trophies for:
Championship bracket: 1st, 2nd, 3rd place. Consolation bracket: 1st place
RESULTS & COMMENTARY:
GAME 1
On the first day of the SAISD Tournament, the Eagles were mismatched against the Thomas Jefferson Mustangs
from San Antonio in a late afternoon game on Field 2 of the SAISD Sports Complex. The visiting Eagles batted first and put
12 first-inning runs on the scoreboard before they ever put their gloves on to take the field. In fact, the Eagles were one at-bat short of batting through the lineup twice in the first stanza.
A total of ten Eagles got at least one hit in the game. Andres Ruiz, Jordan Stewart and Chris Cullen each got an extra-base hit.
Jeremy Rubio got on base the hard way twice, having been hit by pitched balls from two different Mustang pitchers. Corey Pinson, J.T. Garcia and Jack Harris were each hit at the plate once.
Eagle pitcher Chris Cullen faced 13 batters and struck out TEN of them in the mercy rule shortened 4 inning game. Cullen walked a single batter and recorded a no-hitter shutout.
In other SAISD tournament action Friday, Lee bested Burbank on Field 1 by a score of 4-3. The Eagles will meet the Lee Volunteers on Field 1 at 5:00 PM Friday.
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GAME 2
Behind the strong pitching of Jordan Stewart, the Eagles held the Lee Volunteers to a single run, while Eagle bats
hung seven runs on the scoreboard. Andres Ruiz led off the bottom of the first inning with a double to center field, and Jeremy
Rubio followed right behind him with a 2-RBI home run. The Eagles would take a 4 run lead in the 1st and would never look back.
Stewart pitched the entire 6-inning game, giving up only 4 hits and 3 walks, while recording 3 strikeouts. Lee’s lone run came in the top of the final inning.
Eagle catcher Corey Pinson launched a 2nd inning triple. Lorenzo Mendoza, Shawn Whitely and Jack Harris each had a stolen base.
The Eagles have guaranteed themselves a top-four finish in the tournament. They play Saturday, February 27, at noon and at 5:00 PM.
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GAME 3
The first game for the Eagles on the final day of the tournament matched undefeated Akins against the undefeated Johnson Jaguars. These were not the Lyndon Baines Johnson High School Jaguars from the Austin Independent School
District. Instead, they were the Claudia Taylor Lady Bird Johnson High School Jaguars from the North East Independent School District in San Antonio.
The visiting Eagles made little productive use of their bats, the entire squad making only a total of sixteen offensive trips to the
plate for the 4-inning game. Only Jordan Stewart’s 4th inning single broke up the no-hitter of Johnson starting pitcher Klaus Bohrmann and reliever Garrett Cox.
Andres “Gordo” Ruiz started on the mound for the Eagles. Keith Thompkins came on in 3rd inning relief. Defensively, the
Eagles’ play was marred by errors throughout the game. Ruiz took the loss, giving up seven base hits and recording two walks
and two strikeouts. In his two-thirds of an inning, Thompkins struck out two but gave up three hits, two of which went for extra bases.
The Jaguars shut out the Eagles and went on to become champions of the tournament. Congratulations to CTJ.
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GAME 4 At 5 PM on Saturday, February 27, the Eagles met the Riverside Rangers from the Ysleta ISD in El Paso, in a
game to determine 3rd place in the SAISD tournament. Each team had one loss going into the contest. The Eagles were the visiting team and occupied the dugout along the 1st base line. This game had no time limit.
Kenny Davis started for the Eagles, giving up nine hits, issuing two walks and striking out five batters. Chris Cullen came on in
5th inning relief and gave up one hit, while walking one batter. Riverside’s J. Chavez was the winning pitcher; Davis took the loss for the Eagles.
 The Eagles could have won this game, should have won this game, and gave up several opportunities to win this game. Poor officiating cannot be used as an
excuse, but poor officiating can certainly be noted when it happens, and it happened here.
The strike zone of the home plate umpire was so flexible and inconsistent, it was
meaningless. Consider the picture on the left, taken in the top of the 5th inning. Eagle batter Kenny Davis had run the count up to full. The pitch from Ranger
pitcher J. Chavez did not bend or drop. It was just about ankle high when it came across the plate. And the umpire called it strike three.
Click on the picture for a larger version.
When he was on the mound, Davis never had a pitch like that called as a strike. However, the same umpire did call strikes for
some of Davis’s pitches that were up around the batter’s armpits. The Riverside pitcher never got those calls. The location of
the strike zone apparently depended on who was pitching, the phase of the moon, the odor wafting from the Burbank High School Agricultural Science animal barns, and other important factors.
Unfortunately, the pungent aroma of the officiating overwhelmed the smell from the barns, and it didn’t limit itself to an
inconsistency in the calling of balls and strikes. Riverside pitcher Chavez has a persistent hitch in his motion that can easily be
called a balk at any time there’s a runner on base. In the fourth inning, the field umpire called a balk on Chavez and the Eagle
runners advanced. The Riverside coach objected, and the home plate umpire overruled the call. The runners had to back up. A few pitches later, the home plate umpire called a balk. Loudly. A “makeup call?” Balk, un-balk, balk. The truth is, they
were both balks, but it looked as if only the ump behind the plate got to call ’em. The field official stayed quiet about balks (and almost everything else) for the remainder of the game.
In the top of the 6th inning on a count of 0-1, Eagle outfielder Shawn Whitely bunted back to
the Riverside pitcher, who didn’t field the ball well. When the pitcher finally threw the ball to 1st base, the 1st baseman had his glove in an awkward position and simply missed the throw.
Hit? Error? No, the home plate umpire called Whitely out for having deviated from the base path and having blocked the 1st baseman’s play on the thrown ball! After all, why else would
the 1st baseman have muffed the catch? The field umpire, the one whose balk call had been overruled, didn’t bother disagreeing.
However, the photograph here shows:
a)
The Eagles’ Whitely was already on the bag before the throw from the pitcher reached 1st base.
b)
The Ranger 1st baseman, L. Garcia, did not have his glove in a proper position to catch the thrown ball as it approached
from the pitcher. With the ball less than two feet away from him, Garcia was still holding his glove closed, with the back of his
glove toward the incoming ball. He simply managed to miss the ball - all on his own - without help from Whitely or anyone else.
c) Whitley came straight into the bag, clearly passing behind the 1st baseman as he did so. Whitely arrived at 1st base
quickly. What motive or opportunity would he have had to meander out between the pitcher and the 1st baseman to interfere with a throw he had already beaten? Regardless, he’d have to have been superhumanly fast to make such a detour - and still
beat the throw!
Click on the picture for a larger version.
High school umpires have been instructed this year to focus on punishing batters who fail to stay in the prescribed runner’s lane
to 1st base. Perhaps the umpire behind the plate for this game can report that he made his quota on Saturday evening at Field 2 of the SAISD Spring Sports Complex.
The Eagles were down, but they were never entirely out of the game. A late inning rally, assisted by three consecutive walks
and a couple of wild pitches from Riverside relief pitcher Kirby Hernandez, allowed the Eagles to pull within two runs of the
Rangers. Lorenzo Mendoza’s 5th-inning triple was impressive, but it was one of only five Eagle hits. Jack Harris was 2 for 3
at the plate, with two singles, a walk and a strikeout. It was not enough. After 7 innings, the final score was Eagles 4, Riverside 6. The Rangers took the tournament’s 3rd place trophy back to El Paso. Congratulations to the Rangers.
The Eagles finished fourth in the 16-team tourney, but there is no hardware awarded for that.
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