photo;Byers/H5AB "WE ARE THERE"

Saturday, June 13
Falvey, Socorro muscle their way to 5A title

photo;Byers/H5AB "WE ARE THERE"

Falvey, Socorro muscle their way to 5A title

Bulldogs bite Lufkin for first-ever state championship

By LONNIE KING

© 2009, Houston5ABaseball.com

For three innings of the UIL Class 5A state championship at Dell Diamond on Saturday, it appeared that the Lufkin Panthers had come up with a prescription to defeat the Socorro Bulldogs from El Paso. But in the end, it was a double dose of Cory Falvey's powerful bat that was just what the doctor ordered for a state championship.

Socorro defeated Lufkin, 12-7, to give the city of El Paso its first baseball state championship in 60 years. The El Paso Bowie Bears were the 1949 state champions in the first year a state baseball tournament was held.

In the process, Falvey was voted Most Valuable Player of the Class 5A tournament. Falvey set a UIL record for most home runs (3) in a tournament and tied the record (first set in 1959 by Rox Covert of Austin High School) for most home runs (2) in a championship game.

In their two games, Socorro posted 23 runs and 23 hits. And after the game was complete and the awards ceremony taken care of Bulldog head coach Chris Forbes savored the victory and sounded like a vindicated man.

"Some people said that we couldn't possibly have the team batting average that we had, that we must've been playing weak people," said Forbes. "Well, we showed everybody and we proved everybody wrong. We can hit the ball like that and all that was legit. We came out and beat them."

From the start, it appeared Lufkin had determined a way to silence the Socorro hitters. Starter Luis Dejesus retired the side in order in each of the first three innings.

Meanwhile, the Panthers were taking advantage of every early opportunity they got. In the first inning, after the first two batters were retired, Socorro starter Tavi Amparan walked Tim Enriquez, who then stole second base. Dejesus blooped a single to shallow right field that brought home the first run of the game.

The Panthers added another run in the third. Seth Thompson led off with a walk and a single from Enriquez moved him to third base. Dejesus drove home his second runner of the game with a ground out. Lufkin led 2-0 going to the fourth inning.

Still, Forbes said there was never any major concern in his team's dugout.

"We don't panic. Just because we're down, that doesn't mean we're out of a game," Forbes stated. "We got back in the game and we took care of business."

Socorro would begin taking care of business their second time through the batting order. In the fourth inning, with one out, Aaron Olivas drilled a double to the gap in right field. Falvey then hit a long home run over the bullpen beyond the left-center field wall to tie the game at 2-2.

"I was going to shorten it up, trying to just get a hit somewhere," Falvey said. "I mean, I wasn't trying to hit it out and I saw curve ball high and I got all of it."

Catcher JessiRay Navarrette doubled one out later and his courtesy runner, Oscar Sandate, went to third on a wild pitch. When Lufkin catcher Zach Marberry attempted to make a play on Sandate at third, his throw skipped by third baseman Corey Lyles down the left field line, allowing Sandate to score the go-ahead run.

The Bulldogs would continue the attack in the fifth inning, fueled again by the bat of Falvey. With the bases loaded and two outs, Lufkin head coach Clay Berry elected to relieve Dejesus with J.P. Clifton, who had pitched three innings in Lufkin's semifinal win over Pearland on Friday. The first batter he faced was Falvey.

"The first pitch, (Clifton) threw me a curve ball inside and that's pretty much my pitch I like to hit," Falvey recalled afterward. "And then, he threw the same exact pitch and I just turned on it. I squared it up and just hit it out."

Falvey's grand slam gave him 6 RBI for the game and 9 RBI in the two-game tournament, and gave the Bulldogs a comfortable lead.

"He's been a clutch player for us all season long, in fact, his whole career," Forbes said. "When we get into a pressure situation, I look at Cory Falvey in the batter's box and I know something's going to happen."

Socorro would not be done scoring, and it would turn out that they'd need the additional runs.

In the top of the seventh inning, a walk and a two-base throwing error produced a run for Socorro. Navarrette delivered an RBI double and Amparan followed with a two-RBI single to give the Bulldogs an 11-3 lead and chase Clifton from the game. With the bases loaded, George Stoltz walked to bring home the fifth run of the inning and send Socorro to the bottom of the seventh with a 12-3 lead.

But Amparan appeared to wear down quickly in the seventh. Lufkin put the first seven batters of the inning on base, on the way to scoring four runs. Amparan was relieved by Aaron Olivas after four batters and, though he put the first three batters he faced on base, Olivas found a groove and retired the last three batters in order. The final out of the game came on a fly out to, appropriately enough, Falvey in center field.

For Forbes, the victory and championship were literally a dream-come-true. He said he envisioned this outcome after his team lost Game 1 of their regional quarterfinal series to Weatherford.

"I had a dream that night," said Forbes, pointing at his players as they hoisted the championship trophy for their fans to see, "and it looked just like that."

"I didn't tell anybody because I didn't want to jinx us," he continued, as his voice began to tremble with emotion. "We had to win two on Saturday (against Weatherford) to come back, but I dreamed that night that we were picking that trophy…and there it is."

Socorro finishes with a 35-4 record in the school's first state championship season. Lufkin, in their ninth state tournament appearance, finishes 30-10.

photo;Byers/H5AB "WE ARE THERE"