Tag Archives: Marcelo Perez

Chanclas down Sod Squad to end skid, stay in playoff hunt

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Jalen Battles doubles to left-center field to drive in the Flying Chanclas' first two runs of the game in the fourth inning against the Amarillo Sod Squad on Wednesday at Wolff Stadium. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jalen Battles doubles to left-center to drive in the Flying Chanclas’ first two runs in the fourth inning against the Amarillo Sod Squad. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
For The JB Replay

After losing four straight games, the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio rebounded Wednesday with a 5-1 victory over the Amarillo Sod Squad, keeping alive hopes for a spot in the Texas Collegiate League playoffs.

A crowd of 591 at Wolff Stadium watched as the Chanclas snapped out of their funk on offense with 10 hits.

They scored two runs in the fourth inning and three in the sixth to back the pitching of Marcelo Perez, Arturo Guajardo and Garrett Egli, who combined on a seven-hitter while striking out 14.

The Flying Chanclas' Johnny Hernandez scores the first run of the game on a double by Battles. - photo by Joe Alexander

Johnny Hernandez scores the first run of the game on a double by Jalen Battles. – photo by Joe Alexander

Perez, from TCU, pitched six scoreless innings, allowed four hits and struck out eight.

Offensive standouts included Jalen Battles, whose two-run double in the fourth gave the Chanclas the lead and some much-needed momentum.

Also, Kyte McDonald ignited the three-run sixth with a one-out double. Ryan Flores highlighted the uprising with an RBI single for the third run of the inning to make it 5-0.

During the four-game losing streak, the Chanclas produced only five runs on 22 hits. In that time, they batted a cool .173 as a team.

Coming into Wednesday night, they had been shut out in two of their last three games and had scored runs in only two of their past 37 innings.

The Flying Chanclas' Grant Smith scores the second run of the game on a double by Jalen Battles in the fourth inning against the Amarillo Sod Squad on Wednesday at Wolff Stadium. - photo by Joe Alexander

Grant Smith, from first base, races around to score on Battles’ blast to make it 2-0. – photo by Joe Alexander

They finally broke through in a two-run fourth. With two outs, Johnny Hernandez singled, Grant Smith walked and Battles drove both of them home with a two-run double off Amarillo starter Jared Lyons.

In the sixth, a walk and then a double off the bat of McDonald set up another big inning, putting runners at second and third with one out.

The Chanclas scored on Smith’s sacrifice fly, a wild pitch and a run-scoring single by Flores, the team’s RBI leader.

Runs-hits-errors

Amarillo — 1 7 0
San Antonio — 5 10 0
Please click on a link here to see Wednesday night’s box score.

Records

Amarillo 16-10
San Antonio 14-11
Please click on a link here to see the TCL standings after Wednesday night’s games.

Coming up

Amarillo at San Antonio, 7:05 p.m. Thursday. Next, three games vs. Round Rock. San Antonio at Round Rock, 7:05 p.m. Friday. Round Rock at San Antonio, 7:05 p.m. Saturday. San Antonio at Round Rock, 7:05 p.m. Sunday. (End of regular season).

Playoff races

In the TCL, two teams from each division qualify for the playoffs. With four days left in the regular season, eight teams remain alive — four in the South and four in the North.

In the South, Round Rock and Brazos Valley (both 15-11) are tied for first, followed by the Chanclas (14-11) and the Acadiana Cane Cutters (11-13). Round Rock tightened the race Wednesday with a 5-0 victory at home over Brazos Valley.

The North is also a four-team race featuring the Sod Squad (16-10), the Tulsa Drillers (15-10), Frisco RoughRiders (14-10) and the Amarillo Sod Dogs (14-12). Tulsa beat the Sod Dogs 5-3 on the road in Amarillo.

Flying Chanclas starting pitcher Marcelo Perez went six shutout innings and allowed four hits with eight strikeouts and two walks against the Amarillo Sod Squad on Wednesday at Wolff Stadium. - photo by Joe Alexander

Flying Chanclas starting pitcher Marcelo Perez went six shutout innings and allowed four hits, with eight strikeouts and two walks. – photo by Joe Alexander

Flying Chanclas win 15-2 to regain first place in TCL South

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Flying Chanclas starter Marcelo Perez pitched 4.0 scoreless innings on three hits with five strikeouts and three walks on Thursday against the Brazos Bend Bombers at Wolff Stadium. - photo by Joe Alexander

Flying Chanclas starter Marcelo Perez pitched four scoreless innings in a 15-2 victory over Brazos Valley. Perez allowed three hits and struck out five. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Marcelo Perez pitched four scoreless innings, and Grant Smith enjoyed a three-hit, three-RBI night Wednesday as the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio rolled to a 15-2 victory over the Brazos Valley Bombers at Wolff Stadium.

With the win, the Chanclas avenged a 6-1 loss to the Bombers in the series opener Tuesday and moved back into first place in the South Division standings of the Texas Collegiate League.

The Chanclas (12-7) and the Bombers (12-8) will play again Thursday night at Wolff, before the teams move on to play three more starting Friday at Travis Field in Bryan.

Perez, from Laredo Alexander and TCU, was sharp from the beginning.

He kept throwing strikes to challenge the visitors, and the visitors kept making outs. Through the first three innings, Perez had a strike-ball ratio of 32-13. His teammates responded in the bottom half with three runs to take a 3-0 lead.

For his night’s work, Perez pitched four scoreless innings and allowed only three hits. He walked three but he also struck out five.

The Chanclas made up for a poor showing in Tuesday’s series opener by blowing away the Bombers in the middle innings.

After scoring three runs in the third, the Chanclas added one in the fourth, five in the fifth and one in the sixth for a 10-0 lead. Smith, from the University of the Incarnate Word, sparked the uprising in the fifth with a two-run single.

The Flying Chanclas' Grant Smith had three hits, three RBIs and scored three times on Thursday against the Brazos Valley Bombers at Wolff Stadium. - photo by Joe Alexander

Grant Smith had his second three-hit game in the last four outings. He also drove in three runs and scored three. -Photo by Joe Alexander

Runs-hit-errors

Brazos Valley — 2 5 2
San Antonio — 15 12 2
Please click on the link to find Wednesday’s box score.

Records

Brazos Valley 12-8
San Antonio 12-7

Coming up

Brazos Valley at San Antonio, 7:05 p.m. Thursday, at Wolff Stadium.

Notable

The Bombers hastened their own demise with wildness and walks. They issued nine bases on balls for the game.

Flying Chanclas left fielder Anthony Forte makes a diving catch on a fly ball that was knocked down by a strong breeze on Thursday against the Brazos Valley Bombers at Wolff Stadium. - photo by Joe Alexander

Flying Chanclas left fielder Anthony Forte makes a diving catch on a fly ball that was knocked down by a strong breeze on Wednesday against the Brazos Valley Bombers at Wolff Stadium. – photo by Joe Alexander

Chanclas shrug off adversity, prepare for season opener

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The coronavirus knocked one player out of action even before the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio opened practice last week. Two more players, Chanclas manager John McLaren said Sunday, have tested positive in the past few days.

Flying Chanclas de San Antonio manager John McLaren. - photo by Joe Alexander

Flying Chanclas manager John McLaren. – Photo by Joe Alexander

On top of that, one of his key pitchers has had to leave town because of a personal matter in his family, leaving a significant gap in the starting rotation.

But even with the adversity, McLaren has developed a good feeling about the potential of his team, which is set to open open play in the Texas Collegiate League this week.

His spirits were lifted by performances that he witnessed in a scrimmage on Friday and in an intra-squad game on Saturday at Wolff Stadium.

Supplying an update in a phone interview on Sunday night, McLaren, a former manager of the Seattle Mariners and the Washington Nationals, said some of his players have a chance to excel in professional baseball.

He also likes their overall attitude and willingness to be coached.

“We talked about the (intra-squad) game yesterday, and we shared some ideas with them,” he said. “You know, the kids, they’re all ears. They want to learn the game. And we love teaching it. We’re having a lot of fun with this. I think they are, (too).

“For myself, it’ll be nice to follow these kids (in the future), seeing how they’re doing in their career. A couple of them, I’m really, really high on. They can take this to the next level, and maybe higher.”

McLaren is set to board the bus with his players Monday morning.

They’ll leave at 7:15 a.m., en route to Amarillo, where they’ll open their first season in the Texas Collegiate League on Tuesday night.

After three games in three nights against the Amarillo Sod Squad, the plan calls for the Chanclas to motor eight hours back to the Alamo City, where they’ll open at Wolff on Friday night against the Acadiana (La.) Cane Cutters.

It’s the start of a 30-game schedule that will run through the end of July.

Talking about Saturday’s practice game, McLaren cited the play of his outfield, namely Porter Brown of TCU, Kyte McDonald of Mississippi State and Jordan Thompson, who will play for Texas A&M next season.

“These kids are scrappy, and they hustle,” he said. “They’re multi-talented. They run the bases aggressively. They have nice (hitting) strokes. I think our strong suit is our outfield.

“I’m hoping our pitching is our strong suit, too, but that’s yet to be seen. We’ll have to see how all the pieces fall together.”

McLaren said Marcelo Perez, Austin Krob and Riggs Threadgill have entered the picture as pitchers slotted into the starting rotation.

Stopping short of naming an opening-day starter, the manager said it likely would be Perez or Krob, both from TCU.

Catching is rounding into form with Tyler LaRue, the son of former major league catcher Jason LaRue, and Nick Wolff.

On the corners in the infield, Conner Shepherd is at third, with Ryan Flores and Lee Thomas at first.

McLaren mentioned Leyton Barry and Grant Smith as two with versatility to share the middle infield positions.

It’s been a hectic first week on the job for McLaren, an Arizona resident, in putting together his team.

Not only has he tried to get things organized with only six days of practice, he’s also had to do it against the backdrop of the worst health crisis in the United States in more than 100 years.

Since the coronavirus hit the United States in March, it has sickened more than 2.5 million people and killed more than 125,000.

To complicate matters more for McLaren, Texas is now considered a hot spot for the disease.

Bexar County, which includes San Antonio and surrounding areas, has reported more than 10,000 cases since March, with more than 7,300 coming since June 1.

McLaren said he has been on the phone with other managers to see how it is affecting the 10-team league.

“Like I said, we’ve got our challenges,” he said. “We talk every day, about social distancing and doing the right thing. You know, I think with the bars and night clubs closed down, it’ll help, because these kids won’t have any place to go hang out.

“I mean, I don’t care how many times you tell ’em, they’re kids. They go out. They like to go have a good time, and there’s consequences during these tough times.

“We put it right in their lap — it’s up to you. If you be as careful as you can, we can maybe get this season in. If not, we might have a problem. So, that’s where we are.”