By MARK MOLINA
Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — From start to finish, nothing much went right for the Harlingen Lady Cardinals.
Their defense struggled and the Edinburg North Lady Cougars took advantage, cruising to a 21-3 win in five innings in Game 1 of their best-of-three bi-district series Thursday Night at Cardinals Field.
The Lady Cards were plagued by errors and sloppy play in the top of the first inning, leading to six runs for the Lady Cougars.
The Lady Cougs never looked back and head coach Richard Tressler was glad to see his team not skip a beat transitioning to postseason play.
“We are just playing the same kind of softball we have been playing all season long,” Tressler said. “We had good approaches at the plate and I’m most glad that we got to both of their pitchers tonight.
“Unless they have something I haven’t seen, that’s what we’re going to see tomorrow and we’re just going to try and maintain consistency and take the same approaches at the plate.”
Harlingen starting pitcher Skylar Macias was pulled in the top of the second inning after allowing seven runs, giving way to relief pitcher Carla Arrellano.
Combined, the pair allowed 17 hits, but Harlingen head coach Cassandra Hernandez isn’t going to let her team hang their heads.
“It’s just one game,” Harlingen head coach Cassandra Hernandez said. “Edinburg North is a good team and they came to play. I think we were getting our jitters out. It’s a three-game series and I’m excited — it’s not over.”
The series continues today at Edinburg at 7 p.m.
Arrellano took the circle in the second and allowed an RBI double, which made it an 8-0 game, but ended up retiring three of the next four Cougar batters.
In the top of the third, however, Edinburg North lit her up as well.
Edinburg North’s Abigail Hinojosa hit a sac fly to get the scoring started in the inning, followed by an RBI single from Andreah Ruiz, scoring Ayissa Maldonado.
Two batters later, an RBI single from Carolina Garcia scored Klarissa Lopez.
Ruiz also came across the plate soon after.
Throughout the game, Edinburg North’s savvy showed on the bases.
“I have experienced girls who know how to play the game and I encourage them to be aggressive,” Tressler said. “We did that tonight and by taking extra bases and scoring extra runs because Harlingen was being sloppy and throwing the ball around a bit.
“It also helps that we hit the ball in between, but I have some smart and savvy kids.”
The Lady Cougs led 14-0 after a six-run top of the third inning and went on to score seven more runs in the top of the fifth.
Harlingen did avoid the shutout and got some of those runs back in the bottom of the inning with a three-run home run to deep right field by Emily Garcia.
“That puts some confidence in our sticks in the heart of our lineup,” Hernandez said. “We have some good hitters and we can do it and we will.”