Jacob Buque’s pitching brings the heat

Jacob Duque, a pitcher for the JV Lamar baseball team, came through with a win in a game against Arlington High with the final  score being 3-2 and ended on a walk-off.

The Lamar JV team may be young, but that doesn’t mean the team doesn’t have anything to offer for the future varsity team with Duque being an example of what’s to come.

“I’ve seen him practice all day on his pitching, to the point where I would try to make him stop since I could see how tired he was but he never let me,” said Jacob’s close friend Javier Robles. “ I don’t think the teams are prepared for him. He might not look the part, but if you are ever batting [against him], you will rarely hit the ball.”

The junior has been playing for more than five years and has switched around positions. Once he was placed as a pitcher, he never switched to another position and started to train harder to be the best.

“I do not want to let my coach or my team down when I play. That’s why I train as hard as I do, so they can believe in me when I step up on that plate,” Duque said.

“At this point, I play every game like my last just so I put in my all and not slack off when my team could need me for the win.”

During the Lamar vs Arlington game, Duque had whispered into his glove before almost every pitch, and for the next pitch he made a strong throw to the plate. It appeared that it was too slow and Duque said the possibility for it to get hit had startled him. Luckily, a clap was heard and the ball had reached the catcher’s glove.

“I like to tell the ball the pitch I’m about to do just for good luck, but for some reason that pitch just felt off once it left my hand,” Duque said. “My stomach just dropped.

Duque said he could feel that something was off and the thought of the team hitting a home run made me shake.

“I just closed my eyes and started waiting to see what noise the crowd would make, but the excitement I felt after I saw that the batter was slowly walking off the base could never be matched,” he said.

Head coach Paul Kino said he is proud of all of his teams.

“The teams are relentless and will grind out all they can just to be at the top,” Kino said. “ Every year a new varsity team forms so I’m excited to see what the players have to offer.”