Here's the inside story on Alice's win, courtesy of the Corpus Christi Caller Times:
One up, one down
Coyotes' quick start fuels upset of defending champs
By Lee Goddard (Contact)
Originally published 04:23 a.m., May 9, 2008
Updated 04:23 a.m., May 9, 2008
ALICE — Victor Escamilla made the right moves.
The Alice baseball coach mapped out the perfect way to upset defending state champion Moody.
Take the Trojans in a one-game playoff to eliminate their pitching depth. Rely on a .500 pitcher just because Moody had not seen him. And then, with that upset on the way to being dashed, bring in a reliever at the perfect time to close out the contest.
The Coyotes jumped on Moody for a five-run first inning, and rode the arm of starter Roman Gomez. When Gomez flagged in the sixth, Louie Canales came in and closed the game for a 9-6 upset Thursday night that will reverberate through the Class 4A tournament.
With only one game deciding it all, unranked Alice (21-11) advanced to the regional quarterfinals next week, meeting the winner of the Uvalde-Mission playoff series. Third-ranked Moody (27-4) found its quest for consecutive titles derailed in its opening playoff series.
It came down to the right moves. Escamilla withheld Gomez (4-3) from the bi-district series against Mercedes. He knew the Trojans didn’t get a good look at him, and had no qualms starting him.
Gomez held up with a one-hitter through five innings, and Moody was down six entering the sixth. But the Trojans pieced together a couple of walks and hits, and the game was cut to 7-5 when Canales came on in relief.
Battling jitters, but not wanting to let down his teammates, Canales set down two batters to escape the jam.
“I was really nervous when I first got in, and all my teammates played really hard,” said Canales, who recorded his third save. “We had been working real hard for this.”
Three Moody errors with two outs in the bottom half of the inning gave the Coyotes two runs and much-appreciated breathing room.
Canales allowed a run in the top of the seventh, but when he got the final out, the burnt-orange half of the packed Coyote Baseball Complex had a frenzied reaction. Players flung gloves in the air. The bench stormed the field. There was a dogpile at the pitcher’s mound. Fans mobbed the gate by the Alice dugout ten deep to congratulate the Coyotes.
“It was pretty crazy,” Canales said.
It was a crazy start as well. Alice jumped off to a 5-0 lead, using double steals, sending runners for the extra base and drilling eight hits total off Moody pitching. R.J. Gomez’s two-run double started the scoring, and the Coyotes never trailed.
Moody couldn’t come back. The Trojans made a variety of errors, had a rough outing from ace Marc Gomez (9-2) and didn’t get timely hits until the sixth, stranding runners on third during the first two innings.
But Moody coach Corky Gallegos didn’t blame the dreaded one-game playoff that sometimes has haunted the Trojans.
“The factor is you come out and play the worst game of your season when it all counts,” Gallegos said, “and they play maybe their best game of the year.”
ALICE 9, MOODY 6
Moody 000 014 1—6 5 4
Alice 510 102 x—9 8 2
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