By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Much like last season during the playoffs against Weslaco High, Hanna found itself trying to catch up.
Weslaco High took advantage of some early Hanna mistakes, building an eight-run lead and backing a complete game by Ulises Hernandez. The Panthers went on to defeat the Golden Eagles 9-4 in Game 1 of a best-of-three bi-district series Thursday.
Hernandez kept Hanna off balance all evening. He went the distance, allowed four runs on four hits, walked five and struck out seven.
“(Hernandez) is a tough pitcher, he’s been tough all season,” Weslaco High coach Eddie Serna said. “He has a variety of pitches that keep the batter guessing, and it’s tough to hit against him. He’s been a warrior for us, and he came out there and pitched his game.”
Last season, the Panthers built a six-run lead after the first inning against Hanna and went on to take Game 1 by a score of 10-4. This one followed a similar path, as Weslaco High wasted no time in getting on the board, scoring on a passed ball in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead.
The Panthers added to the lead during the second inning. The first two runners reached on a hit batsman and an error and scored on a double by Tyler Lopez to take a 3-0 lead.
Weslaco High put three more runs across the plate during the third inning. The Panthers scored on a wild pitch, an error on an overthrow and later on a sacrifice fly for a 6-0 advantage.
“You can’t make any errors, these guys are good hitters,” Hanna coach Eddie Garcia said. “My freshman (Noe Guerrero) did very well. We just had some big innings that we made an error here, two or three mistakes there, they scored and it got out of hand fast.”
The Panthers added two more runs during the fourth inning. Hernandez had a sacrifice fly and Matt Rosales added an RBI on a groundout for an 8-0 lead, and that was all for Hanna starter Noe Guerrero. Guerrero pitched four innings, allowed eight runs on eight hits, walked three and struck out four.
Hanna finally broke through during the bottom of the fourth. The Eagles scored on a wild pitch, a single by Cesar Saldaña and a sacrifice fly by Jaime Gonzalez to cut into the lead, 8-3.
“Against a team like that, down by a lot, you have to get that timely hit,” Garcia said. “We left a few guys at second and third, and we couldn’t get it.”
Weslaco High added a run during the seventh inning on a groundout to take a 9-3 lead.
Hanna scored a run on a single by Lee Alonzo to get within 9-4, but Hernandez allowed nothing else.
Serna was happy to get the road victory, and he expects Game 2 to be just as tough.
“It’s good to come to Brownsville and pick up a victory because it’s tough to do that here, especially at Hanna,” he said. “I know they are going to come out battling, they always do.”
Garcia said his squad needs to reveal its true character.
“We have to be more focused, show more effort, more determination. That wasn’t us,” he said. “We need to have more fire and hopefully we bring it out (today). We’ve got to make it a three-game series, but we have to win (today) and then we’ll see.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.