Yoemen Sports Network

Marion Tournament

Much of the baseball teams across the state either played one game or did not play any games at all due to the weather for their opening tournament. Cameron was one of the fortunate few to get 3 games in at the turf field of Marion over the weekend. The Yoemen finished with a 2-1 mark, with wins over #16 Blanco (6-5) and 4A Devine (4-1), and a loss to 4A La Vernia (4-0).

“Going into that tournament, I was not sure if we were going to play any games, but luckily the weather held up and were able to get some in,” said Yoe coach Hector Delgadillo.”

“I thought we played pretty good baseball. There are just a few things we are working on. Like I told the other coaches, we had three different lineups for each game and right now we are trying to figure out our identity and fill in some key positions. We are trying to give guys a chance and see what they can bring to the table.”

Since the 2018 Yoe football schedule has been finalized, I now want to give my thoughts on the opponents and who to look out for. I will say that I believe this schedule, as a whole, could be down as a compared to schedules of the past. That is not to say this schedule will not have its challenges, because it will. But, compared to other years, I would say there are more winnable games.

10. Jarrell (0-10/0-6)

Jarrell is still in the basketball playoffs, and that is simply their bread and butter. The Cougars had pretty solid team back in 2015, but since then they have fallen on hard times. I don’t really expect that to change much this season. The Cougars are only losing 9 seniors but return no all-district players. It should be another uphill battle, but it can’t get any worse.

9. Manor New Tech (0-0/0-0)

For the most part, it was a struggle for the Lady Yoe in their two days of play in the Jourdanton tournament this past weekend. Cameron dropped their first three games and was trailing 5-1 to Gonzales in their finale. It was not a total loss as the Lady Yoe managed to score 4 in the 4th and 3 in the fifth to avoid going winless.

Game Summaries

Natalia (L 8-3)

Cameron began the tournament with what was the eventual champion in Natalia. The Lady Mustangs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second, but Cameron responded in the bottom half as T’Maja Oges doubled on a ground ball to third, scoring Madison Brunson who had reached on an error, and Brittany Hatter, which had just singled in the previous at-bat.

In the third, Hatter grounded out to third, pushing across Kenzie Wimmer to give the ladies their first lead.

Former Yoe coordinator takes 6A job

On Tuesday, it was confirmed that Lupe Florez had accepted the head football coaching job at 6A Clear Brook. Clear Brooks is located in Friendswood, just southwest of Houston. Florez was hired in 2012 by Rick Rhoades to be the offensive coordinator. In his three years in charge of the offense, Cameron averaged over 41 points per game and won three consecutive state championships. Florez then left for Bay City in 2015, where he guided the Black Cats to an overall record of 18-15 and an area round playoff finish in 2017. Bay City was 0-10 the year before Florez had arrived. He previously coached at Mission, Rains, Castleberry, Carter Riverside, Coldspring and in Brookings, Oregon.

All girls powerlifters qualify for regionals

Lady Yoe, Yoe Golf finishes 2nd in Cameron

The Lady Yoe continued their streak of strong early performances by posting a second place finish in Cameron, shooting a 421. That mark was just 11 strokes behind winner Rockdale (410) and 102 strokes ahead of third place Academy (523).

Keagan Galvan paced Cameron with a 93, good enough for the silver medal. Jazmin Vaculin was two strokes behind at 100, which was good enough for the bronze.

Presley Berry (111) and Emily Graham (117) also shot rounds for the team.

On Tuesday, the boys participated in their own tournament from the country club, and the results were positive with a second place finish at 343. Despite battling a wrist injury, Nikolas Keratsopoulos managed to finished as the second medalist with an 81. Stockton Kruse was just one stroke behind with an 82, good enough for the bronze medal.

You generally don’t see a ton of baseball teams execute in all three phases of the game to begin a new season.  In his first game as the head coach of the Yoemen, Hector Delgadillo could not have asked for more from his team as they hit, pitched and played defense at a high level in a 15-2, 5-inning rule rule victory over Waco Connally.  

Cameron’s ace from a season ago, Jason Llanas, got the nod on the mound.  The junior had an all-around complete game, tossing four innings, giving up two hits, one earned run while striking out 11 and walking none.  Llanas also led his team at the plate, finishing a perfect 4-4 with a double, triple, two runs scored and five runs driven in. 

When Cameron has lost games this season, it’s usually been because of some sort of offensive inefficiency. In Monday’s bi-district contest with McGregor, the Yoemen will be looking back to free-throw shooting. Cameron finished just 10-29 from the charity stripe, and that was the difference in a stinging 63-55 opening round loss.

“When you can’t hit free throws, you’re not going to win games,” said Yoe coach Nick Burns following the loss. “It’s been an achilles heel of ours all season and. Until you hit them, you’re not going to win games.”

McGregor senior guard Michael Irons broke the ice at the 6:45 minute of the mark of the first, sinking a three-point shot. It was a bad omen for Yoe fans, as Irons proceeded to score 21 more points in the half, for a total of 24 in the opening two periods. That was just two short of Cameron’s entire total of 26.

The Lady Yoe’s bats produced enough runs to outscore Madisonville in their season opener a week ago. Unfortunately, the ladies could not keep that up pace when it was needed in a 15-4 loss to Caldwell on Friday.

Cameron nearly matched the Lady Hornets in hits, only trailing 9-8, but it was 9 costly errors that led to 12 runs that was the downfall in the loss.

The top of the order was productive to open the game, with back-to-back-to-back singles from Ashley Balch, Yareli Contreras and Madison Brunson, followed by an error to plate two runs.

The lead was short-lived as the Lady Hornets plated three in the bottom half of the first with a hit by pitch, walk, error and two singles.

Cameron would respond as Balch singled home both Trinity Daniels and Kenzie Wimmer in the second. However, Cameron could not plate any further runs in the next three frames, while Caldwell scored 4 in the second, third and fourth innings to complete the run-rule.

Since dropping down a classification back in 2011, Yoemen baseball has managed to get into the playoffs all but one year, while also winning a state championship in that first season.

In 2018, the program is not only projected to get back into the playoffs, but to also win 20-3A in the process.

Cameron was pegged by TxHighSchoolBaseball.com’s preseason magazine to win the district, with Franklin, Rogers and Academy predicted to finish in the two through four spots, respectively.

For first year head coach Hector Delgadillo, it’s a time of the year he’s been looking forward to since he got to Cameron.

“I’m pretty excited,” said Delgadillo. “To me, it’s the best time of the year. It’s exciting to get to know the kids and the community of Cameron.”

The coach is still getting to learn all of the kids involved with the program, but says he has been pleased with what he’s seen the first week of practice. .

In their first matchup with Jarrell, Cameron gave the Cougars what was arguably their biggest scare of the district schedule up to that point, staying within four to six points the entire way in a 59-53 loss. Going into the number one team’s house on senior night, it did not seem likely for that mark to be topped, but that was arguably the case as the Yoemen were down by just two points with 1:30 remaining before Jarrell had one late push for a 67-57 win.

Down just 59-57, Cameron (19-13) had the ball coming out of a timeout. However, the ball was quickly turned over, which led to a transition bucket. Jarrell proceeded to score the game’s final 6 points.