Oklahoma State’s catcher signee Rojas confident on the mound, pitches complete game
Jersey Village – Comfortable, confident and steady pitcher Robie Rojas led the Jersey Village Falcons to a 6-1 victory over the visiting Katy Tigers on Thursday night in game one of the best-of-three series in the Class 5A Region III Quarterfinals.
The Falcons (20-12-1) stand one win away from advancing to the regional semifinals as it will visit Katy on Friday for game 2 at 4:30 pm.
Likely for game two, fans can expect to see Brandon Koncaba or Kirby Peek for Jersey Village and the Tigers will counter with Zack Wilson.
Oklahoma State signee Rojas used his multi-talents to serve the Falcons on the mound. Rojas, who signed with Cowboys as a catcher, was effective though only striking out three batters, with no walks and giving up four hits, received a team performance while solid defense backed him.
“I felt more comfortable, I didn’t have to pump it up as much,” Falcons pitcher Rojas. I told my team, you’re going to have to work tonight. I’m going to try to push this to seven innings. They worked behind me and I’m glad they did. They stepped up behind me.”
Rojas (2-0) has been seldom used on the mound this season, but after ace Mason Howat went down to injury Coach Rob turned to Rojas.
“I was kind of struggling with the fastball at the beginning”, added Rojas. My curve ball and slider looked very well tonight. I controlled it and spotted the slider up. My changeup wasn’t working. I was working with two pitches, but my fastball made my slider look good.”
“I knew he was cable of doing that all year. He had a little elbow issue early in the year”, said Jersey Village coach Robb Jensen. We obviously didn’t need him with Mason on the mound and we thought we lost him behind the plat but our freshman (Cole Frost) stepped up behind the plate. I didn’t think we’d get a complete game out of him, but I was hoping for five, the pitch count was pretty low. He finished with 88 pitches. I got to be pleased with that effort.”
When Rojas is on the mound, freshman catcher Frost who finished 2-of-3 batting is behind the plate.
“I had butterflies early and Robie came out and pitched a great game”, catcher Cole Frost said. I did everything I could to help out my team. Once I got my first big hit to left field that really pumped me up and got me going. I’ve caught Robie one time before. But I felt more comforted and I felt calm and confident.”
The Falcons scored all the runs it needed in the second inning.
Short stop Mikey Sliepka led a four-hit, 3-run inning with an infield single to left and scored on Kirby Peek’s double to right field. Brandon Koncaba followed with an infield single. Then, with Peek waiting on third base, a balk was called on Katy’s pitcher Tim Winders, allowing Peek to score Jersey Village second run before Frost added an RBI fielder’s choice, pushing the lead, 3-0.
Katy (29-8) lone run came in the third inning. Matt Chalk’s grounder to second, allowed him to reach second base after falcons second baseman Phillip Ybarra’a throwing error. Kyle franz lined out to the pitcher, moving Chalk to third where he scored on Isacc Garcia fielder’s choice.
“He not a bad ball player is he (Robie Rojas). He pitched well,” said Tigers coach Tom McPherson. I don’t know how many balls we hit hard, but they made every play. It’s one of those games we had two strikeouts the whole game. We hit the ball, they made the plays. They got a couple big hits. That’s why we’re playing a series. Hopefully we’ll come back and play better.
The Falcons added three more runs; two in the fourth and the last coming in the fifth inning.