Cowboys hold down second-place in 29-4A

Transitions in sports generally don’t happen in a seamless fashion, which is why McCollum’s success this season has raised eyebrows.

The Cowboys (12-4, 7-1) currently are the top-ranked team in the Sports on SA’s South Side area rankings and hold second place in District 29-4A entering tonight’s 6:30 p.m. game against rival Harlandale at the Frank Tejeda Complex. McCollum seemed to hit the ground running this year, winning its first six games before running into 29-4A leader Medina Valley in the Southwest Tournament, despite returning just four starters from last year’s district runners-up.

Additionally, the Cowboys are under new management. Jose Garza resigned as McCollum’s coach to become an administrator at the school. Former South San assistant coach, and alum, Hector Delgadillo was hired for his first head coaching assignment.

“I’m pretty excited and the kids are all pretty excited about baseball season,” Delgadillo said. “The kids had been working hard for this.”

Although McCollum returned seven experienced players, the Cowboys had several important starters to replace. Delgadillo indicated that the transition wasn’t as easily made as the game results made it appear.

“We lost some key players that I think would have really helped a lot,” he said. “We had a few players that weren’t really returning starters, but they were hoping to play a bigger role. I think the expectations were that we’d be sort of unpredictable, but they’ve all stepped up and are either starting or coming in from the bullpen.”

Delgadillo graduated from South San in 2001 and played collegiate ball at the University of the Incarnate Word. He said he drew from his knowledge of the game and its strategies learned from his Bobcats coach Robert Zamora, for whom he served three years as an assistant, and UIW coach Danny Heep, a former major leaguer.

“Coach Heep is more of an offensive coach,” Delgadillo said. “He wants to stay aggressive and put pressure on the other team by putting the ball in play. Coach Zamora likes to bunt, hit-and-run and do all the little things like that. What I learned from Robert was to win the inning and play defense.

“What they had in common was to stress that pitching and defense are going to win ballgames.”

Delgadillo found out about the McCollum opening in late August.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, to become a head baseball coach,” Delgadillo said. “I talked to some of my friends and they all told me to run with it. It was an opportunity that was too good to pass up.”

The Cowboys’ pitching corps has been seniors Hector Arevalo, Jesse Medina and Dominick Ortiz along with sophomore Rafael Ramirez.

Arevalo and Heaven Garcia combined to pitch a no-hitter March 4 in a 10-0 win over Lanier.

“They just stayed around the plate,” Delgadillo said. “They weren’t trying to strike people out. If we get good pitching, we know we can hit. We try to stay disciplined at the plate and get those timely hits.”

Southside transfer Justin Zertuche is splitting catching dties with Ortiz. Returnee A.J. Vasquez is set at second base. Adolph Garcia in center field and Heaven Garcia in right field have shared outfield spots with ortiz and senior Ryan Villalobos.

An offense that has frequently put up big rallies has been the Cowboys greatest strength. McCollum has scored 10 or more runs in eight of the 16 games it has played.

“It’s great for us to be able to score some runs,” Delgadillo said. “When you can put up a big inning, that always helps.

“It’s good for us to know we can do that, but I’ve tried to let the kids know we can’t rely on the big inning. We’ll need to do some small ball at times, too. The main thing is to be aggressive (offensively), but to be disciplined at the same time.”