Ruben Esquivel and Isaac Cardona combined on a six hitter to get the win and Julio Ruiz and Saul Gaona four hit the Longhorns in the loss, which puts them two games out with one game to go.
In the first inning, the Royals left the bases loaded when Ruiz drew a walk, Gaona hit, Raymond Casarez drew a twoout walk to load the bases when Esquivel finished impressively striking out the side to keep the Royals at bay. In the bottom of the first, the KTTT chased Julio Ruiz for two runs on three of only four hits Ruiz permitted all game long, two of which were Texas Leaguers, as Ruiz and Cardona are considered as arguably two of the best 13 year-old pitchers in the league.
The Royals scored one in the second when David Ramirez started things off with a leadoff single followed by a towering triple by Alec Alvarez to deep left field to pull within one, but was thrown out at home with the potential tying run on a weak ground ball to the Longhorn shortstop who threw Alvarez out at home for out number one with Armin Flores reaching on the fielder’schoice. Leadoff hitter Julio Ruiz then hit a shot off of Esquivel to deep left field right into the glove of Roel Vasquez for the second out of the inning followed by a single off the bat of Mikey Hernandez putting runners at first and second but Esquivel gets the next hitter swinging to end the Royal threat.
The Longhorns scored two in the bottom of the second to make it 4-1, then things got interesting in the third when Saul Cardona hits a rope to left to Elijah Escamilla for out number one, then Casarez walks, followed by an RBI double by Daniel Rios, a walk to David Ramirez. Alvarez goes down swinging, but is safe on an error by the catcher loading the bases scoring Rios with the third Royal run. Emiliano Flores comes in to pinch hit and goes down swinging bringing up Julio Cesar Ruiz with the bases loaded and on the second pitch a passed ball gets by catcher Esquivel but Ramirez hesitates then goes home and is thrown out at the plate for out number three killing a potential gamewinning rally.
Ruiz came right back in the fourth with a hit and got to third on a stolen base and a passed ball with no outs, but Cardona got out of the inning with two K’s and a groundout to the catcher leaving the tying
run on third and the potential winning run on second in the form of Mikey Hernandez who had drawn a walk.
All in all the Royals drop to an amazing 4-5 record in a tie with Juan Garza’s Longhorns, with the Aggies in sole possession of first with a 6-3 record.
The Cardinals play the Longhorns and the Royals square off with Kunafin today at Moncada.