TJ GARCIA | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
EDINBURG — Even though it was spring break, Edinburg North held class Friday night.
The subject: Methodical Baseball 101.
The Cougars used patience at the plate, solid but unspectacular pitching and good defense to beat crosstown-rival Edinburg High 4-2 at the Bobcats’ home field. Edinburg North managed just six hits, but they were timely. And from the mound, Franky Rivas had just one strikeout, but he and his defense stopped Edinburg runners in scoring position several times.
It also helped that Cougars’ junior ace Carlo Servin came on in the sixth inning and retired the last six Edinburg batters in a row — five by strikeout.
The victory improves Edinburg North to 3-0 in District 31-6A. The Bobcats go to 1-1.
“We were just thinking to put the ball in play, small ball, scratching one inning at a time,” Edinburg North catcher Saul Garza said. “We were going against a good pitcher. We knew we were not going to explode in one inning. It’s a gradual process. It was going to take some time.”
That, it did. But the Cougars were patient.
Edinburg North did not score in the first three innings, being held in check by Bobcats pitcher Jaime Cansino, who fanned six on the night. But in the fourth, third baseman Jon Salas got on base after a Bobcats error then scored on an RBI single by Garza. North went up 2-0 after another Edinburg error scored Garza.
Edinburg High didn’t score in the fifth, but the Bobcats added two runs on a couple of miscues by the Cougars and an RBI single from left fielder John Gonzalez. Edinburg had other opportunities to score in the game, but North threw two Bobcat runners out at home and stranded five others.
“We stress to these guys that we have to do the little things right,” North coach Damian Gonzalez said. “Sacrificing for your team. Pushing the runner over. We talk to them about scratching every inning. I tell them all the time, ‘If you do enough of the little things right, you are going to have a chance to win the game.’”
Of the Cougars’ six hits, five were singles. They also walked four times and had one sacrifice fly to go with a couple of double plays.
With the game knotted at two in the sixth inning, the Cougars were able to punch across one run on another Garza RBI. In the seventh, Edinburg North added an insurance run when Marc Esquivel doubled in Pito Davila to make it 4-2. Slowly but surely, they gained the lead and eventually won the game.
The Bobcats were never able to get back on the scoreboard, and certainly not after Servin got on in relief of the starter senior Frankie Rivas. While Rivas went far into the count with breaking pitches, Servin’s heaters quickly ended the district game.
“We wanted to catch them off guard because they knew I was going to come in hot,” Servin said. “They are really good hitters, but Frank had them off guard at the beginning of the game, and then I came in with a faster ball and it worked.”
Edinburg High coach Robert Valdez said his team needed to have executed better and delivered more timely hits to win this important district game.
“Everybody says the rivalry is between Edinburg and Edinburg Vela, and it’s not,” Valdez said. “The rivalry is between Edinburg North and Edinburg High. Tonight was another great game for the community. It’s a big game. It’s sad there had to be loser and it had to be us, but hats off to them.”