HARLINGEN — In Harlingen’s previous two games, they managed just two runs.
Facing Harlingen South’s Ojani ChacoHarlingen Southn in the regular-season finale didn’t help matters.
Chacon tossed nine strikeouts in seven scoreless innings for the Hawks as they blanked Harlingen High 6-0 Tuesday night at Harlingen Field.
The Cards got just three hits and could get nothing going as the South defense played well behind Chacon.
“I was confident that I was going to do a good job here tonight because I know we have a good team that will back me up. I really trust these guy; they’re good support,” Chacon said. “It’s really not just me pitching, it’s those guys that help me out.”
At one point, Chacon struck out five of six batters he faced in the fifth and sixth innings as he picked up the win over Harlingen’s Daniel Anciso.
Anciso allowed six earned runs and gave up 10 hits.
With the win, South finishes the season 11-3 and stopped a two-game skid.
Now, the second-seeded Hawks will look toward Edinburg North in bi-district play.
Despite getting 10 hits, Harlingen South head coach Tony Leal feels things just went the Hawks’ way in the season finale.
“Every team is good in our district and Harlingen played well tonight. We got some breaks that we haven’t been getting lately,” South head coach Tony Leal said. “Tonight, Ojani did a really good job and we played some decent defense and got those breaks.”
As for Harlingen, they dropped its sixth straight and head into the offseason looking to correct the little mistakes that plagued the Cards all season long.
The Cards could not generate offense while the base-running miscues and errors continued to slow them down.
“The struggles we had tonight are the same ones we had early in the season,” Harlingen head coach Bryan Aughney said. “We didn’t do a good job of progressing. When we get to the off season, we’ve got to change some things up.
“It’s a young squad, but we set a precedent of where we want to be every year and this season, we obviously didn’t get there this year.”
The Hawks and Cards were scoreless after three and a half innings.
However, in the bottom of the fourth a dropped ball by Harlingen’s Boedy Flores trying to make a play at third base put South’s Kurt Hoelschen in scoring position. Alec Garza brought him in for the first run of the game moments later with a single.
Two batters later a 2-RBI triple to deep right field from Daniel Rivera brought in Chacon and Garza for two more runs, making the game 3-0.
The Hawks went on to score three runs in the next two innings.
Garza was 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs, while Rivera was 1 of 2 and also brought in a pair of runs on the night.
South’s playoff details are still to be determined.