McCurdy Charter School baseball coach Roberto DeVargas pulled the team aside after a season-ending loss.
With the team huddled behind first base, DeVargas told the district champions that they renewed his love for baseball, and he was proud of the way they fought after going down early.
“I told them, ‘Thank you for the ride,’” DeVargas said. “This was a blast. We never gave up. We battled until the end. They did good.”
The Bobcats fell at home in the state quarterfinals, 6-3, to Rehoboth Christian on June 22, ending a fantastic season where they started 14-0. But after a hard-fought loss, nearly the entire team will return next season after gaining important experience.
The loss ends a great season for McCurdy where they dominated every district opponent and were able to host a home state tournament game as the No. 4 seed.
“It was pretty special,” said senior Santiago Samora. “Went undefeated in districts, not a lot of people can say that they did that. I was proud of them, and what they did.”
As the lone senior on the team, Samora said he was happy to teach a lot of the younger players, and was proud of their progress.
After losing the entire 2020 season, many of the Bobcats came in fresh for the year.
McCurdy started the year dominant, but none of the district teams they played presented much of a challenge. And multiple early-season games against tougher opponents were rained out or canceled.
For the team’s eighth-graders, two of whom started the game, their most recent competitive experience came in little league. It was a sudden adjustment to the high-level of pitching they would see against Rehoboth.
“For those younger guys, I know it was very hard for them,” Samora said. “I’ve been on varsity for five years, so I’ve somewhat seen pitchers like these. But, it just didn’t work out for us today.”
And Lynx pitcher Jake Zylstra, the state 2A leader in earned run average, presented a velocity that many of the Bobcats had never seen before, and they struggled to adjust.
“We did adjust, some of the younger kids had some big eyes on there,” DeVargas said.
Rehoboth took an early 2-0 lead after two singles and a walk, but McCurdy junior Andres Borrego found success against the Lynx lineup. Though another run scored in the third inning on a single and fielding error in the outfield.
Borrego had an overall impressive day on the mound despite a smaller strike zone at times frustrating him. Only the two first-inning runs were earned against him, and he regularly stranded baserunners. And Borrego threw a whopping 120 pitches.
“He was lights out,” DeVargas said.
The defense also repeatedly came up strong with tough outfield catches and clean ground ball fielding.
The Bobcat offense came out slow, with a single from Borrego the only baserunner in the first three innings, and he was promptly picked off.
But the Bobcats looked significantly more comfortable on their second trip through the order. In the fourth inning, junior Marcos Gasca reached on a catcher’s interference, and Samora hit a hard grounder to left for a double.
“It felt pretty good,” Samora said. “I thought we were coming back.”
Sophomore catcher Markus Martinez singled to left to score Gasca and Samora moved to third. Then, when Martinez took off for second and the catcher threw down, he somehow juked multiple tag attempts while Samora sprinted home and scored against a high throw, and shouted at his teammates to tell them that they could win.
“When I saw that I was safe, I thought we were going to come back and be able to play tomorrow,” Samora said.
Suddenly, the Bobcats were within a run, though Martinez was ultimately caught stealing to end the inning.
“They adjusted, and they made adjustments quick,” DeVargas said. “And that’s what I like about this team.”
But the young bottom of the order struggled against the velocity, with high fastballs continually getting swings and misses, and the Bobcats remained behind.
Borrego held the Lynx off the board in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. But in the seventh, errors around the infield after a few base hits allowed multiple runners to score, and Rehoboth took a 6-2 lead before Martinez replaced Borrego for the final out.
Facing a new pitcher in the sixth inning, the top of the McCurdy lineup went down again. Martinez led off the seventh with a single, and made it to third on a throwing error. Borrego knocked him in with a groundout, but that was the end of the threat.
The Bobcats will return strong, losing just Samora and returning a core group of players who had strong seasons, and now have much-needed experience against top pitching.
“I’m just hoping that I was a good example for a lot of these eighth-graders,” Samora said. “Showing them that, I was an eighth-grader once, too, on this team. And we made it to state every year. Just never give up, and just keep working for that ‘chip.”
After the game, the 15-year McCurdy coach, who Samora called “One of my best coaches ever,” said he was not done just yet, despite previous promises that he would be.
“That’s my motto,” DeVargas joked to the players. “One more year.”