Porter ready to lock up with Longhorns

Porter's baseball team has been riding its pitching staff all season long and against Laredo United they are going to need them more than ever.

The Cowboys are hoping to out duel the Longhorns (20-6) on the mound who are riding a 12-game winning streak into the area round as they face-off at 8 p.m. tonight for the series-opener in Robstown at Aviator Field.

Laredo United boasts a three-man starting rotation that has a combined record of 13-1 with ace Jorge Guarneros (4-1) owning a microscopic 0.73 earned run average on the year.

Guarneros is scheduled to take the hill tonight for the Longhorns while Porter plans to pitch its best three pitcher's by committee that has baffled hitters the entire season.

Porter's Adrian Diaz will be the likely starter followed by Dennis Ortiz and closing the game will be hurler Henry Garcia who's off game last week consisted of 12 strikeouts in a complete game shutout performance.

"At this point of the year you're going to be playing against teams with 20 wins that have at least one or two solid pitchers throw-ing above 84 miles per hour," Cowboys coach Tony Barbosa said. "Our kids are going to have to rise to the occasion."

The achilles heel for Porter has been its hitting and with the arms Laredo United is going to throw at the Cowboys coach Barbosa is hoping the team can string together some hits.

"I don't care if it's a bunt, or a little bleeder single down the line," he said. "But if the team can get something going anything can happen."

The rest of the Longhorns starters include Daniel Navarrow (5-0, 1.23 ERA) and Luis Pollorena (4-1, 1.53 ERA) to compliment a blistering offense that bats at a .391 clip.

Guarneros' four homers and Navarro's three round-trippers lead the team providing power to the consistent lineup.

Overall the Longhorns go into the series winning 15 of its last 16 games while Porter is coming off a series sweep over Edinburg North with two consecutive 3-0 wins.

"Just like in our last game there was consistency," Barbosa said. "Good pitching, solid defense and we hit the ball. We wouldn't be here if we hadn't been doing that."