The Levelland Lobos baseball team hosted a pair of scrimmages against Seminole and Denver City this past Friday and Saturday, winning both.
The Lobos started the weekend with an 8-6 win over Seminole on Friday. They committed a few er- rors and allowed five runs early in the scrimmage, but they would show resilience, responding with eight unanswered runs on offense and timely pitching, only allowing one run the remainder of the game.
“I really liked the way they came together before in the locker room, and then they played together out here,” Lobos Head Baseball Coach Chris Portwood said. “They kept it professional, lots of energy all the way around.”
Coach Portwood would also note the early struggles and errors, acknowledging the nature of failure in baseball, which is why he preaches communication to his guys. In shortcomings, he wants the Lobos to come together and communicate about their roles and assignments in situations.
They certainly did that in their scrimmage against Seminole, which is great practice for the upcoming regular season.
On the mound, Abram Arteaga earned the win against Seminole, tossing two scoreless innings, striking out two batters and only allowing a hit, Jake Potter had a team high three strikeouts in 1.2 innings pitched, and as a team the Lobos surrendered three earned runs, seven hits, one walk, while striking out seven batters total.
Offensive standouts included RJ Mireles with two hits, two runs-batted-in, one run scored and a stolen base, Tobias Gavina with two hits including a double, two runs scored and a run-batted-in, Arteaga with a double, one walk and a run scored, and Kai Martinez with a double and run scored.
In the Lobos scrimmage against Denver City on Saturday, they beat them 12-8. Due to a malfunction, the statistics were unavailable for the win.
Following the pair of scrimmage wins, the Lobos are looking to continue to “work on the little rocks,” which is what Coach Portwood referenced as the foundation of the program.
Those little rocks would include defensive positioning, situational and signage understanding, and even the duties of dugout managers and ball boys, all of which make a program a well-oiled machine.
They’ll have one more opportunity to work on those in scrimmage against Shallowater early in the week, and then the regular season will be underway. The Lobos host Dumas for their season opener on Monday at 3 p.m.