{"id":11178,"date":"2025-02-10T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/?p=11178"},"modified":"2025-02-07T15:44:25","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T15:44:25","slug":"stepping-to-the-plate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/10\/stepping-to-the-plate\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping to the plate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New team, same goal for Hogs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In his 16 seasons with the Javelinas Baseball team, Coach Jason Gonzales has seen many faces come and go through his dugout and despite all the changes, one goal remains constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur team goal is always going to be to win a championship. Right now, first place is available so we\u2019ll never accept second place or worse than that, while first is still available,\u201d Gonzales said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Javelinas are coming off a season in which they went 23-27 overall with a 21-27 conference record. The Hogs are looking to improve on their ninth-place finish last season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They enter the season with one sole returner on the offensive side, Vincent Sanchez. The senior third baseman was recognized for his outstanding 2024 season in The South Texas Winter Baseball Banquet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVinny [Vincent Sanchez] will have to hit in the meat of the order for us. He\u2019ll have to drive in some big runs. He’s going to have to kind of solidify our offense. We\u2019re also able to put some good transfers around him in terms of Nick Reyes, Isaiah Aguilar and then throwing some young guys like a true freshman Landon Salinas. And so, there’s some pieces around him,\u201d Gonzales said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coastal Bend College transfer, Nick Reyes along with Dallas College Cedar Valley transfer Jacob Cueva and St. Mary\u2019s transfer Isaiah Aguilar are some new additions to the Hogs squad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A player who has stepped up in the dugout is Ulises Quiroga, a transfer from UTSA. Quiroga was recognized by the LSC as Pitcher to Watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d say our new guy Uli [Ulises Quiroga]. He came in and did a real good job. He\u2019s had experience at UTSA so he knows how to lead a ball club,\u201d Cueva said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heading into the season the Javelinas are projected to finish sixth in the LSC preseason poll putting them right on the edge of making the conference tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team plans to strengthen their bond and build up their skills for a successful season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think playing for something bigger than ourselves, playing for each other and going to work every single day. No matter the outcome, no matter the result,\u201d Aguilar said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hogs started the season 1-3 against the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds and now the men head to Lawton, OK. to take on the Cameron Aggies in a four-game series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo
Photo by Edward Green – Ethan Campos pitching in home opener.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo by Edward Green – Landon Salinas greeting Jacob Cueva at home plate for a run scored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":11180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[141],"ppma_author":[288],"class_list":["post-11178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Photo by Edward Green - Landon Salinas greeting Jacob Cueva at home plate for a run scored.","source_text":"","source_url":""},"authors":[{"term_id":288,"user_id":132,"is_guest":0,"slug":"mark-paz","display_name":"Mark Paz","avatar_url":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/f8c5d411667d054487c111ee694f0255.jpg?ver=1776213899","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11178"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11187,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11178\/revisions\/11187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11178"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=11178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}