Valladares Fans 13 As TERRA Downs Ransom Everglades

Alexis Valladares struck out 13 and allowed one hit as the TERRA Institue Wolves blanked Ransom Everglades 3-0 on Tuesday to earn their first win in District 4A-15.

“It”s all about pitching and defense,” Terra Manager Hernan Adames said. “It’s going to be like that all year around. We have depth at pitching, and we feel our pen is very solid.”

Ransom Everglades countered with a resilient defense of its own, holding the Wolves to three runs and five hits.

TERRA Institue stifled Ransom from the opening pitch. The Wolves engineered a quick three-and-out, Valladares carried that momentum into the second inning, forcing a 6-3 ground out and two strikeouts to end the inning.

Valladares seemed to be just warming up as he sat down the first two batters to start the the third inning. In search of the Wolves’ third consecutive 1-2-3 inning, Valladare recorded his sixth strikeout, but the pitch was dropped and overthrown at first. Valladares, however, retorted with his seventh K and six straight strikeout.

Ransom Everglades had no answer for TERRA’s defense, but the Wolves likewise were held stymied early and held hitless through the first two innings. Freshman Andres Perez changed that with one swing of the bat as he led off to start the bottom of the third and sent his first high school home run over the left center-field fence.

“I knew it was going to be a fastball. It came inside, and I put a good swing on it,” Perez said. “At first, I was just running, and then I looked up and saw the umpire saying it’s out.”

A couple batters later, the Wolves walked Nick Lopez, setting up Angel Mestre for an RBI single and putting the Wolves up 2-0.

Valladares proved to be imperfect in the fourth after giving up a hit to left field. Valladares regained his composer and confidence in his curve ball for back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning. The Wolves ace struck out the first three batters he faced in the fifth inning and garnered his 13th strikeout in the sixth inning.

“It took me awhile to get into my spot, but after that, my curve ball started falling,” Valladares said. “The combination of my high fastball and by curve ball is really what did it. My curve ball was dominating and really finishing well.”

In the bottom of the sixth, Angel Mistre pulled a pitch down the left-field line for a double. Rueben Pino, Terra’s 2012 leader in hits and RBIs, followed with a blast to center field for a double, bringing in Mistre for the Wolves’ final run.

“It always been about what we’ve been doing since day one,” Adames said. “We made the adjustments and timely hits. We’ve made large improvements in our second year as a varsity team.”

Ransom Everglades fell to 1-1 on the season and 0-1 in district play.

“We didn’t hit. That’s it,” Raiders coach Steven Suaraze said. “We played great defense, we just didn’t hit, but we’re a young ball club and we’ll keep on learning.”

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