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The first steps the Broncs baseball team took this season were in the right direction, as they won the first four games of the season at home during the Al Ogletree Classic. Held between Feb. 26 and Feb. 28, the Ogletree Classic brought UT Brownsville and Texas A&M-Prairie View to Edinburg Baseball Stadium, where the Broncs were twice victorious against each team.
Tuesday the Broncs went up to Austin to take on national powerhouse Texas but lost in a heartbreakingly close 3-2 decision. They are next in action Friday at home against Louisiana Tech.
“A 4-0 start is always a great way to start a season,” head baseball coach Manny Mantrana said after the tournament. “It was definitely a great tournament. We’re happy about it.”
In the event named after legendary UTPA baseball coach Al Ogletree, who coached the school from 1968 to 1997, the Broncs did notably better than last season, when they lost three times.
The first game of the tournament was Friday afternoon and became a showcase of offensive prowess, ending with the teams combining for 40 runs, UTPA on top 23-17. UTB took an early lead in the second inning 5-3, but the Broncs came back in the third inning with five runs and did not lose their lead the rest of the game.
Later that evening the Broncs went up against Prairie View, winning 5-1. The great ally was pitching, as junior Cody Plunk gave up just one hit over seven scoreless innings. Offensively they were aided by Abraham Garcia and Vincent Mejia, who went 2 for 3 and 1 for 2 respectively. Freshman Angel Ibanez of Sharyland drove in four runs and hit a home run.
“Cody did a really great job during the second game,” Mantrana said. “He did a good job of keeping them scoreless for seven innings,”
The next two games established a pattern. On Saturday, in their second game against Prairie View, the Broncs came out on top, 9-2, assisted by junior Alex Carnall, who went 4 for 5, and Garret Bivone who finished 3 for 5. The next day, UTB came back looking for redemption, and made a good attempt, leading 9-5 at the top of the fifth. The Broncs, however rallied with six runs on three hits in the eighth inning to win 13-9.
Much of the team’s newfound success can be attributed to the 23 new faces on the team, the product of Mantrana’s recruitment techniques.
“This was our first recruitment class and it’s going well,” he said. “We’re recruiting based on need. So depending on what positions we lost last season, we try to go for those.”
With so many different faces on the team, players need to be adaptable, a quality Mantrana says they’ve been able to exhibit, with new and old players meshing well.
“When we recruit we look for the total package,” Mantrana explained. “We look for good players on and off the field because good players make a good team.”
Despite their success this weekend the team is already looking to improve as they start a 15-day homestand at the Stadium March 5, during which they will have a total of 12 games against Louisiana Tech, Notre Dame, and Stephen F. Austin.
“Our pitchers weren’t fielding very well and our bunting defense needs to improve,” Mantrana said. “We’re only going to get better.”
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In this article, Mr. Salinas, erroneously, refers to Prairie View A&M University as “Texas A&M-Prairie View”. So that all of us can avoid appearing to be ignorant of our own state history, it should be noted that:
In 1876, the State of Texas created a new constitution that, even today, continues as the basic organic law of Texas . Through that instrument the state’s only three “constitutionally established colleges”, Texas A&M at College Station, the University of Texas at Austin and Prairie View A&M were formed. The Constitution of 1876 specified in Article 7, Section 14 that “the Legislature shall also when deemed practicable, establish and provide for the maintenance of a college or branch university for the instruction of colored youths of the State ….”
The Texas Legislature, at that time, had the option of establishing a separate college or a “branch” university. Rather than establishing a “branch” university the Legislature chose instead to establish a “separate” college, for the instruction of colored youths of the State.
This is to say that, Prairie View A&M is not, now, a branch of Texas A&M, nor has ever been a branch of Texas A&M.
To buttress this fact, on June 17, 2005, during the 79th Texas Legislative Session, Governor Rick Perry signed into law H.B. 1409, sponsored by Representative Garnet Coleman, thereby prohibiting any legislative or administrative effort to ever change the historic name of Prairie View A&M University.
As an alumnus of the great Prairie View A&M University, it is my sincere hope that all of us will seek to research our Texas history in order that we might be able to exhibit a more well-rounded level of education to the world.