They defeated the Laredo Wood Bat League Prospects 9-3 the night before.
Here's the write-up from Friday's game:
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For Broncos General Manager Jose Melendez and Manager Ricardo Cuevas, it was an opportunity to see some of the talent as cuts were slated to be made late Friday night and following tonight's second exhibition against the Laredo Adult Baseball League.
"We know we can hit well and we have good depth," Melendez said.
"What we're concerned with is defense. We have a logjam in the outfield."
With that in mind, Cuevas spent a lot of Friday's action tinkering with lineup experiments, such as moving outfielders to play infield and vice versa.
The Prospects were made up mostly of high school stars, current and past, including Luis Pollorena (United High), Ramon Sandoval (United, now at TAMIU), Jorge Guarneros (United, now at TAMIU), Danny Navarro (United, now at TAMIU) and Jason Bonugli (United, now at TAMIU).
They found themselves going up against right-hander Ryan Harris, United League Baseball's Pitcher of the Year in 2006, and two other times as well.
"Baseball is baseball," Pollorena said prior to Friday's game.
"As long as we get to play, we're happy.
We're just trying to put the ball in play and put together a good game."
In what was a relatively entertaining game that featured plenty of offense for the boys of summer, Broncos fans got a good look at some of the talent the team will be featuring this year.
Those standouts include Cleveland Brownlee, who has impressed with his power bat, and rookie shortstop Ryan Flynn, a former TAMIU star whose defense has been nothing short of exceptional.
He showed superb range, a quick release and a strong arm as the Prospects seemed to test him time and time again on Friday, and he made them pay each and every time.
"It's a common occurrence now, he's just been excellent defensively every day," Melendez said of Flynn.
"He made some great, great plays.
He's struggling with the bat, which we expected, but he's been great."
The Broncos also awarded fans a look at locals Andres Santos and O.J. Garza, former United stars, as well as former Nixon High great and Latin-American Sports Hall of Famer Tano Tijerina.
The team put the game away in the second inning, when it tallied seven runs on seven hits and hit for the cycle, including a homer over the left field wall by Santos with one out.
Miguel Ortiz (three-run double) and Mario Mendez (two-run triple) also aided the cause.
Santos added a sacrifice RBI in the fourth and Angelis Nunez threw in a RBI triple for good measure in the eighth.
Tijerina threw two innings in relief and did not allow a runner to sniff base.
He forced four groundouts and two flyouts.
"He pitched very well," Melendez said.
"He looked sharp and he executed nicely. He looks great out there."
As a whole, the Broncos were sound defensively and patient at the plate offensively.
"We still have a lot of hard decisions to make," Melendez said.
"There are still a lot of holes we need to address.
The defense was okay, the hitting lacked toward the end a bit and the pitching looked good.
"But we still have concerns with our catching situation.
We have five guys in camp and none of them has taken advantage of the role."
Plenty of players got a look, including six pitchers - Harris, Tijerina, Gustavo Vasquez, Nathan Crawford and Dave Triplett.
Harris and Tijerina are projected starters.
For the Prospects, who managed just one hit through the first six innings, Pollorena went 0-for-1 with two walks and Jose Luis Maldonado put the team on the board in the ninth with a three-run moon shot over left field with one out.
The Broncos' lineup on Friday looked like this, in order: Ortiz (second base), Garza (center field), Mendez (third base), Nunez (right field), Santos (first base), Brownlee (designated hitter), David Cardona (left field), Kylee Hash (catcher) and Flynn (shortstop).
The Broncos were hardly threatened at all, even without some of their core stars for this season, including Selwyn Langaigne and Luis Ugueto, both of whom are certain to be key factors in the lineup.
Langaigne and Ugueto are having visa issues but are expected to join the team soon.
BRONCO BITS: Shortly before Friday's game, Pollorena, who was named the District 29-5A Most Valuable Player on Wednesday, confirmed that he will sign to play college ball at the Marion Military Institute in Alabama.
He will join Laredoans Beto Castillo and Alex Salinas, former LBJ standouts, for the Tigers, who play in the Alabama Junior College Conference. ...
The Broncos recently worked out a broadcasting deal with sportsjuice.com.
Ray Brito returns for his second season as the Voice of the Broncos.
The team will broadcast all 80 games this season, starting with the season opener in Edinburg on June 11. ...
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On Saturday, the Broncos came from behind for the win.
Here's Broncos media guru's Ray Brito's game story from the team's second win:
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The Laredo Broncos fell behind early but came back to beat the Laredo Adult Baseball League by a score of 7-3.
The game was scoreless after 3 innings of play. Broncos starter Gregorio Martinez had no problem getting through his 2 1/3 innings of work. Maximo De La Cruz then came in for the Broncos and got the last 2 outs of the 3rd. Then in the 4th the Laredo Adult Baseball League got to De La Cruz on a RBI single by Alejandro Garza to give them a 1-0 lead.
That would remain the score till the bottom of the 5th inning when the Broncos bats finally got going. David Cardona led off the inning with a single and went to 2nd on a sacrifice bunt. Ryan Flynn and Steven Wright followed with walks to load the bases. OJ Garza then reached on a fielder’s choice with Cardona scoring, Flynn moving to 3rd and Wright out at 2nd. Mario Mendez then followed with a walk to reload the bases and Argelis Nunez reached on an infield single scoring Flynn. The very next batter was Andres “El Monkey” Santos and he delivered with a 2 run single, which gave the Broncos a 4-1 lead after 5.
The Laredo Adult Baseball League would get 1 of those run back in the 6th inning off of Broncos reliever Matt Minor. With the bases loaded Anselmo Nino drew a walk which made the score 4-2 in favor of the Broncos.
The Broncos would tack on a run in the bottom of the 7th. OJ Garza led off with a walk and then stole 2nd. Then a wild pitch moved him to 3rd base where he scored on a single by Mario Mendez making the score 5-2.
The Broncos would add on again to their lead in the 8th inning. Trevor Dimick led off the inning with a walk and then scored on a RBI double by Jonathan Carillo. Carillo would move to 3rd when the throw to home got by the catcher. Romy Cardaya then followed with a ground out scoring Carillo and extending the lead to 7-2.
New Broncos closer Tristan Crawford came in and pitched a scoreless 8th but, gave up 1 run in the 9th inning. However Crawford would still pick up the save as the Broncos beat the Laredo Adult Baseball League by a score of 7-3.
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One key player from both wins has been former United great Andres "El Monkey" Santos.
Santos had a homer and sacrifice RBI in Friday's game, and added a two-run single in Saturday's contest.Mario Mendez and Angelis Nunez are two other sluggers who made a significant impact in the two games. Keep an eye on those two.
The pitching was again solid for the Broncos on Saturday.
After allowing three runs (all in the ninth inning off reliever David Triplett, who is unlikely to make the final roster) on Friday, the Broncos gave up just three more Saturday.
Alejandro Garza had a RBI single and Anselmo Nino drew a bases-loaded walk off reliever Matt Minor.
Closer Tristan Crawford surrendered a run in the ninth.
Defense was a huge concern for Broncos General Manager Jose Melendez entering the exhibition games, and he had to have been relatively content after the games.
The pitching was solid, the defense was sound and there were few mental mistakes. For exhibition games, not bad showings at all.
Melendez will have some tough cuts to make as he has to trim the roster by 6-8 players by 8 a.m. on June 11.
Some cuts will be easier to make than others, but with the amount of depth and talent Melendez has assembled this season, there will be a lot of good, quality players coming off the bench this season.
Undoubtedly, it is a terrific problem to have, even if the contests were against competition of a considerable lower quality.
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