Mundo Sanchez pitched a complete-game no-hitter and struck out eight against Fredericksburg in the Mules 9-1 district opener last Thursday night. Sanchez, the starting catcher, is now 6-1 on the mound for the season. Photo by Marvin Pfeiffer

Alamo Heights baseball coach Stan Gideon wanted his team to send a message to the rest of district with their recent play.

These Mules have a kick.

“I hope everybody gets up on Good Friday and buys a paper and takes a look at what happened over here at Alamo Heights,” Gideon said.

The varsity boys opened District 27-4A play with a 9-1 thrashing of Fredericksburg, raising their season record to 13-8 and sending notice to the rest of the district that they are for real.

Mundo Sanchez, the team’s starting catcher, threw a no-hitter against the Billies in his first district game as a pitcher. Now that’s definitely something to make the rest of the district sit up and take notice!

“We’re playing well and coming together at the right time. We had our best week of the season last week,” Gideon said. “We played a close game in Alice, really dominated the whole game, but they came back and beat us at the end. We played South San and beat them, 13-1. Then we went and swept Uvalde (8-7 and 12-1), the team that beat us in the regional semifinals last year.”

It’s in district play where it all really counts and the Mules are off to a great start. The offense is clicking and the pitching is obviously showing some muscle.

“It’s time to bring our game up,” said senior center fielder Nick Amick. “We’ve got district play now. We know we’ve got to play well. We’ve got to do the right thing and hit the ball well and that’s what we’re doing. We’re all stepping our game up.”

The scoreboard displays ''no hits'' for Fredericksburg as Alamo Heights baseball coach Stan Gideon holds a post-game meeting with his team after the Mules impressive 9-1 district opening victory over Fredericksburg.

He said he thought this year’s team might even be a little ahead of there last year’s club was at the same point in the season.

“We’ve got a lot of young players but they’re all stepping up,” Amick said. “We’ve got a good shot to go far this year.”

It was Mundo Sanchez’s no-hitter in the Fredericksburg game that was the highlight of the night.

“It was amazing, but I couldn’t have done it without my defense,” said an obviously elated and relieved Sanchez after the game.

Sanchez realized that he was on to something special as early as the second inning. A scoreboard error showed the Billies as having a hit and he made sure that it was corrected.

As the innings wore on, Sanchez fought through the pressure and came through the game virtually unscathed. He struck out eight and the only flaw in the game might have been the four walks he allowed, one of which led to Fredericksburg’s only run of the night on a wild pitch.

“My dad and I are really superstitious about that stuff,” said Sanchez when asked if the mention of his no-hitter during the game might bother him. “I’m borderline obsessive-compulsive, but it was fun. I was thinking about it the whole time.”

Gideon had nothing but praise for Sanchez’s fine outing.

“He pitched well,” Gideon said. “He was pretty efficient with his pitches, and they never really got to him. He definitely did his part in the district opener. It was good to see him fight through the butterflies or whatever and gain some composure and develop into a big-game district playoff type pitcher.”

“That will pay off for us all down the line,” Gideon said looking ahead to the rest of the season.

The Mules will have played a key road game against Boerne by the time this paper hits the stands and will finish up the week at home against Kennedy. Games against Memorial and Kerrville Tivy the following week finish up the first round of district play.

“We’re pumped,” said Sanchez. “We’re ready to go!”