By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
LOS FRESNOS — Los Fresnos’ Miguel Gonzalez made the most of another chance.
In the bottom of the 12th inning, Gonzalez hit a deep, two-out single to left to score the winning run as the Falcons won 7-6 in walk-off fashion over Harlingen High during a 12-inning District 32-6A game Friday night.
“This was everything we’ve practiced,” he said. “Coach always tells us to look for one pitch to drive, especially in that inning. Just be positive and believe. That’s the main word on our team, believe and keep competing. That’s what happened, I just came through.”
With two runners in scoring position and down to the last out of the inning, Gonzalez drove a pitch over the head of the Cardinals (12-11 overall, 4-7 in District 32-6A) left fielder as Charles Chapa scored from third base to give the Falcons (15-4, 9-2) the victory after a marathon game that nearly approached the five-hour mark.
A couple innings before, Gonzalez hit a hard single to center and seemed to be determined to be the winning run. But on a steal attempt, he got caught in a run down and was tagged out, ending a good scoring chance for the Falcons. He would get his redemption to seal Los Fresnos ninth district win.
The Falcons had to rally to tie the game, but that wasn’t before a scary moment in the sixth inning.
Los Fresnos catcher Nate Reyna attempted to block the plate to prevent a Harlingen High player from scoring, when the two collided sending both players to the ground. Either the runner wasn’t prepared to slide or didn’t think the play at the plate was going to be close enough when Reyna caught the ball up the line toward first base and had to quickly get back to the plate when the collision happened.
The paramedics were called and Reyna’s head and neck were secured and he was taken away in an ambulance.
“I think the kids took it upon themselves to win one for Nate,” Los Fresnos coach Rene Morales said. “It was a bang-bang play at the plate and right now we’re going to go see how he’s doing and we’ll go from there.”
After both teams regrouped, play resumed. Los Fresnos got out of the sixth inning trailing 6-3. The Falcons responded by scoring three runs in the bottom half on wild pitches to knot the game at 6.
“We couldn’t string much together there,” Harlingen High coach Brian Aughney said after taking the early lead. “Their guys did a great of attacking the strike zone and keeping us off balance. Early on we were dialed in to our offensive philosophy and what we’re trying to do. As the game got later, we got away from it and coming out of our character as an offensive team.”
Both teams had a few opportunities in the extra frames, but neither capitalized until Gonzalez ended it with a run-scoring single while keeping his teammate on his mind.
“As soon as that happened we felt that we had to win this game for him,” Gonzalez said. “He took a hard hit, so we had to step it up and win the game for him because he’s in our prayers right now. Hopefully everything comes out good.”
Harlingen High was in control early. The Cardinals put three runs across the plate in the top of the first inning, including two on a single off the bat of Nathan Ramon. In the second inning, Harlingen High added another pair on sacrifice fly by Jaedon Wynn and an RBI-single from Mario Hernandez to take a 5-0 lead.
In the fourth inning, the Falcons would get three runs back, including one on an RBI-double by JJ Sanchez to cut the deficit to two runs.
Nick Montemayor got the win after pitching four innings of relief, allowing no runs on just one hit, walked none and struck out three for Los Fresnos.
Matt Sesler took the loss after working 2 1/3 innings of relief, he allowed the lone run on four hits, walked two and struck out one for Harlingen High.
Other than the run in the sixth inning, the Cardinals’ offense stalled after the first couple innings and it was costly.
“Young hitters have to learn to forget about the last one and move on to the next one,” Aughney said. “They just happen to make one more play than we did.”
With the victory, Los Fresnos remains in second in the district, just a game behind front-runner Brownsville Veterans Memorial with an upcoming showdown with the Chargers coming up next week.
“We’ve used a word the last couple weeks and that’s ‘believe,’” Morales said. “These kids are starting to believe in each other. I’ve told them you never know when it’s going to be your call. Some of them came off the bench and produced in those certain situations and we have to keep believing what we’re doing.”
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.