By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — Abby Hinojosa stepped up to the plate during the 10th inning Wednesday without any recollection of what had happened in her previous four at-bats.
None of those appearances were worth remembering, with the junior catcher having missed opportunities to get on base each time.
So with her team up one run, Hinojosa started anew, lacing a two-run triple off the centerfield wall, punctuating Edinburg North’s 5-1 road win over district rival Edinburg High.
“Honestly, I just cleared my mind,” Hinojosa said. “I thought of it as just, I wasn’t 0-for-4. I wasn’t anything.
“Desi (Marmolejo)’s an awesome pitcher. Hats off to her. I just got one to hit. It was high, but I just threw my hands at it. I was surprised I hit it, actually.”
Hinojosa’s insurance RBIs highlighted a momentum-shifting stretch during the top of the 10th inning, when Edinburg North scored four runs on five hits.
After tying the game at 1 in the second inning, the Lady Cougars came up empty going into extra innings. They tallied five hits and one walk, with only one runner reaching third base.
North put a stop to that, though, when Klari Lopez and Caro Flores opened the 10th inning with singles. After a Jaqui Chapa flyout, Haley Dermott’s double scored Lopez for the go-ahead run, setting the stage for Hinojosa’s two-run blast followed by Andrea Ruiz’s RBI single.
“It just kind of steamrolled with those (first) six batters doing what they needed to do,” Lady Cougars coach Richard Tressler said.
By winning, North (17-3, 8-1) evened the season series at one game apiece. And more importantly, it kept the Lady Cougars in first place with three games to go.
Edinburg High (16-6, 7-2) failed to pick up any ground, standing pat in second place. Weslaco High (15-5, 6-2), which hasn’t played a district game since April 7 due to weather issues, remains in third place.
“Honestly to me, I was standing over there thinking the team that wins a game like this deserves to win it,” Tressler said. “Because in my opinion, other than us, (Edinburg High’s) the best team in our district. They really are, they’ve very tough. And it’s a rivalry game and it’s always a big battle.”
North will play its second game in as many days today when it takes on Weslaco High, considered to be its last big test before the playoffs get under way.
Should North win, it would further cement its chances of winning a sixth consecutive district title, while earning its 17th straight postseason berth.
For now, Hinojosa said, “We’re not thinking about that. (Wednesday’s win) is just another step on the ladder. We got another big game (today) and we’ll start the process over again. It’s tough, but we’ve got the girls to do it.”
Unclear at the moment is whether North will have the services of first baseman Vanessa Garces, who was hit in the face by a ball thrown by third baseman Jaqui Chapa. Trying to get a runner out at first, Chapa’s throw bounced once before hitting Garces in the face.
In the process, Marmolejo scored from third as Garces remained down. Moments later, she left the field on her own power.
“Her braces got stuck to her cheek (after getting hit by the ball) and it kind of went through her cheek,” Tressler said. “She’s probably going to have it pulled out and stitched. The brace came through her cheek. We’re kind of worried about it.”
Almost lost amid the extra-innings heroics was the play of Jackie Longoria, who Tressler said “pitched a gem of a game.” She finished with four strikeouts — including two straight to close the eighth inning with two runners on — while yielding 11 hits and three walks.
Her counterpart, Marmolejo, had 10 strikeouts, allowing one run on five hits and a walk through the first seven innings, before giving up a hit in the ninth and four runs on five hits in the 10th.
“It was a great game,” Edinburg High coach Jesse Banda said. “We had a lot of opportunities, and so did they. The two pitchers were locked in a pitching duel, and they wouldn’t give up. They were both tenacious and they got the big inning and we had opportunities to do it and we didn’t.
“That’s what it was. Whoever came through with a clutch hit was going to get win, and they did it.”