Overheard in The Tejano Jacks of El Paso Community College dugout during the first game of the Saturday doubleheader:

The Head Coach looking at the player keeeping the book:

"You like to pitch don't you? Well get in the bullpen. Maybe we have a mascot that would like to pitch."

I volunteered because as many of you know, I was the MVP in the 45+ Mens All-Star game this past fall as the starting pitcher. The Blade threw four innings of scoreless one-hit, in case that slipped by you.

"Well, get in the bullpen" the coach looked at me, chuckling.

The Tejanos head coach ran into some pitching problems this weekend, Central Arizona College banged out 67 runs with 68 hits and threw in a couple of shutouts to boot, and it was a big weekend sweep of El Paso Community College. You have to start with the shortstop Ernny Ordonez who hit for the cycle in game one on Friday. He drove in eight runs and then added another triple in a 23-0 win. Ordonez went 5-6 with eight rbi's, scored five times and the homerun was a grand slam. You don't even know what to say.

A shortstop no less.

Ordonez went 11-19 for the weekend, with 13 rbi and scored 7 times. He is now second in the nation in rbi's in Divison I with 20, and he's behind teammate Alix Garcia who has 22. Jake Vander Wal is now third in RBI's. The Vaqueros have the three leading RBI guys in the country. Garcia went 10-14, driving in 12 runs, blasting his second homerun and scored seven times in the four games. 

Reagan Teegarden went 12-14 over the weekend, driving in nine runs and scored eight times. It needs to be said again. 12 for 14. He's hitting a team leading .529.

Vander Wal hit his fourth homerun, an opposite field laser, Liam Spence (7-14 overall) and Nick Cheema each hit their first, and Clayton Keyes had a fabulous weekend going 5-8 with his first homer. He also scored eight times. It was impressive that he walked three times in game three when everyone was creaming the baseball.

Let's see what else.

Central totaled 30 extra base hits, 18 doubles, six triples, and six homeruns. Central now leads the nation with 63 extra base hits. And triples. And RBI's. The RBI's is what's astounding, Central has 33 more rbi's than Miami Dade who has the second most. Central also leads the country with 49 stolen bases.

"I care about winning ball games" the head coach Anthony Gilich said when I brought up the number six national ranking.

Central put together two more shutouts. Nick Trogerlic-Iverson started Saturday's first game (there were double headers Friday and Saturday) and threw five innings striking out eight in the 23-0 win. He still hasn't given up an earned run in three starts. Iverson heads up a pitching staff that leads the nation in strikeouts. The statistics are unbelievable, but they're all here.

"The jump this kid had from last year to this year is amazing" said athletic director Chuck Schnoor.

Just to show you how well things are going so far for Iverson, he walked a batter late in the Saturday game and he was not happy about it.

In Fridays' first game, Jacob Hilton made his first start and was brilliant, throwing five scoreless innings without walking a batter. He gave up three meaningless singles and struck out four. Freshman Julio Astacio finished up and in relief, has not given up an earned run.

Central improves to 13-0 on the year with three games this week. Conference play begins Saturday with a doubleheader against Arizona Western.

 -Blade

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