By Rey Sifuentes Jr.
Eagle Pass Independent School District executive director of human resources and media spokesperson Jesus Arturo Costilla confirmed on Thursday that Eagle Pass High School was still slated to face San Antonio Johnson in a best of three games Region IV semifinal playoff series which begins tomorrow (Friday).
Costilla also rebuffed a recent report that the University Interscholastic League had given EPISD a three-option ultimatum which stems from an incident report docketed earlier this week by Mission-Sharyland’s baseball staff.
“No, that is not correct,” Costilla said. “Everything is still under investigation, but we are still scheduled to play (against San Antonio Johnson) this weekend. So we are moving forward with that.”
EPHS and SA. Johnson meet for game one at 7 p.m. in Eagle Pass tomorrow (Friday). Game two is in San Antonio on Saturday afternoon, with a third game following shortly if needed.
Sharyland’s head baseball coach claims that he had an agreement with EPHS skipper Reynol Mendoza to go through UIL, and allowing the sanctioning organization to select the four umpires for their region quarterfinal one-game playoff from the San Antonio chapter.
Mendoza, allegedly, instead went directly to the San Antonio chapter and hand-picked the game’s umpires.
Eagle Pass and Sharyland played out the game, which the Eagles won 10-9 in what was an eight-inning slugfest.
In a story published in the McAllen Monitor last night (Wednesday), Sharyland Superintendent Virginia M. Richter said she was told by the University Interscholastic League - specifically by Deputy Director Dr. Jamey Harrison - that the governing body of Texas high school athletics gave Eagle Pass three options to choose from in response to the controversy surrounding the game and the ensuing incident reports filed by Sharyland.
Eagle Pass’ options consisted of: 1. Doing nothing and getting called before the State Executive Committee. 2. Forfeiting, or 3. Re-playing the game.
Costilla, however, said that was not the case.