Martir leads Grand Street over Curtis

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When Kevin Martir gets comfortable, there's little you can do to stop him.

Unfortunately for Curtis, it had to figure this out the hard way as the senior catcher torched it for an eye popping seven RBIs on his way to leading Grand Street to a 12-2 victory on the opening day of the Monroe tournament Saturday at Grand Street Campus.

"Today was one of those games that you dream about and fantasize about," said elated Wolves head coach Melvin Martinez. "To have seven RBIs at the Major League, college, or even high school level is an unbelievable feat. My hat goes to him and I congratulate him. It was definitely one of those dream games."

The Maryland-bound Martir started the day by hitting an RBI double in the bottom of the first to put the Wolves up 2-0. In his next at-bat, the Xaverian transfer hit an RBI triple to  right field that kept the momentum going. But Martir's biggest hit was the RBI triple he hit at the top of the seventh inning with the bases loaded and no outs. With Martir on deck, the Warriors decided to make a pitching change. The adjustment did little to slow Martir down though as hit blasted a shot to left field on his first pitch.

"My idea was to come in aggressive," Martir said. "Their pitching staff gave me what I wanted and I took advantage. I was seeing the ball really well. It actually looked like a watermelon today. I just put the bat on the ball and it worked out."

The hit opened up the game for the Wolves as they went on a scoring spree. Senior left-fielder Charlie Garcia hit an RBI double followed by an RBI triple from senior Maryland recruit Jose Cuas and Grand Street was up 10 runs for a 12-2 lead.

"I think we completely dominated today," Martinez said. "It should have been been 21 runs and Curtis shouldn't have scored. They two runs they scored were unearned. You can't ask for anything better than that, they did well today."

Pitcher Geraldo Gonzalez put up a decent stat line as well, although he certainly felt he could have performed better. The senior finished with nine strikeouts, one hit, and five walks in five innings pitched.

"I had an ok outing, it wasn't my best performance," Gonzalez said. "I started off strong, but finished a little shaky. I had too many walks. But the biggest thing for me was to leave the game with my team up."

"He struggled a little today, but he has so much explosion that when he's on, he strikes out guys and when he's not he's walking batters," Martinez said. "It should have been a no-hitter. The only hit that they got was a lazy fly ball to right field that the wind just took. It was over a very good defensive player. Today was the longest that Gerry has pitched with 91 pitches. During the exhibition season, he has been going 65-75 pitches. We pushed the envelope just a little today, but he's looking good."

Gonzalez's best play of the day was striking out the side with the bases loaded at the top of the third inning.

"At the moment I was focused, I knew I had to make the right pitch at the right time to the right batter," Gonzalez said. "I knew that I had a great defense behind me. As long as I got that one out, I knew that my team would most likely be able to get the double play. So we were more focused than usual because we were only up by four runs at the time."

With a big match-up against Xaverian looming Monday morning (also at Grand Street), the Wolves have no time to rest as they prepare to face off against the defending CHSAA Class AA champions.

"Our last three games against Xaverian have been very tight," Martinez said. "That's how great these teams are. With pitching and defense on point, the team that makes the most mistakes will lose. It's a championship caliber game with a playoff atmosphere, so I'm hoping we come out on top."

Martir emphasized that the game will be big for him as well.

"I really want to do well against them being my old school," Martir said. "But at the end of the day, the main thing is for our team to get a win."

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