Hondo Anvil Herald

Heyen tosses back-to-back no-hitters

 

     District play began with a bang for the Hondo Owl baseball team on Friday night, March 24.

     A 10-0 home win over Dilley was also a no-hitter, with four innings of work from Eli Heyen and one final inning from Skyler Fitzpatrick.

     Then a funny thing happened on Tuesday, March 28, in Crystal City. Heyen went to the mound again, and tossed his second no-hitter in a four-day span, going all seven innings, striking out 16, in a 5-0 win over the Javelinas.

    The Owls, after winning just two of their first 15 games, have now opened District 28-3A with a 2-0 record.

    This week, play continues in District 28-3A. Friday, March 31, the Owls will visit Lytle at 7 p.m. In the upcoming week, the team will shift to their Easter week schedule. Hondo will host Natalia on Monday, April 3, and will be at home to take on Cotulla on Thursday, April 6. All three games are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

     Last Wednesday, March 22, in their final pre-district game, errors proved costly for the Owls, who dropped a 7-6 contest at Uvalde.

Against Dilley, Heyen struck out, while issuing four free passes. The Wolves managed to put only one ball into the outfield, a first inning fly out to left. At the plate, the Owls put together four hits in the first inning to take a 3-0 lead. Fitzpatrick had a two-run single and Mikey Arredondo also had an RBI.

     In the third, Dilley had a rough time in the field, committing six errors. The Owls added to that with four more hits, which led to a seven-run inning, enough to give Hondo a 10-0 lead. Fitzpatrick, Heyen, Leyson Palomo and Leland Rodriguez all had hits in the inning, as the Owls totaled 11 for the game.

     Tuesday’s game at Crystal City was scoreless until the fifth inning, when the Owls capitalized on a pair of errors, along with a pair of hits from Rodriguez and Heyen, to take a 2-0 lead.

     Hondo padded its lead with three in the seventh, on hits from Josiah Quintanilla, Rodriguez and a two-run single from Andrew Lara.

Last Wednesday at Uvalde, Hondo outhit the Coyotes, 9-5, but the Owls’ four errors helped Uvalde score seven runs in the first two innings of their 7-6 win. The Owls chipped away after trailing 7-3, scoring single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth, but couldn’t generate any more runs in the one-run loss. Rodriguez, Fitzpatrick and Lara all had two hits in the game, with Lara driving in two.