HARLINGEN— The last time the Harlingen Cardinals and Harlingen South Hawks met on the baseball diamond, the game was pushed to 10 innings and the Cards came out on top 4-3.
Although the first game was a nail biter the second matchup on Tuesday told a different story that ended with the same result as the Cards took care of business early and dominated the Hawks 11-1.
With the solid outing the Cardinals are now 6-2 in District 32-6A play and are currently on a two-game win streak.
“It always feels good when we can get a win in this type of fashion and we’re going to enjoy it,” said Cards head coach Bryan Aughney. “But I always remind the guys that every game is a step closer to achieving our goals and that we have still have work to do.”
The Cardinals didn’t miss a beat in the first inning, scoring a total of nine runs with five consecutive RBIs that gave Harlingen a commanding 9-0 lead at the end of the first.
Harlingen took advantage of four errors by South in the first and batter Boedy Flores ignited the Cardinal in each of his two times at bat.
“We hit the ball hard and well early on and that lead to us putting up those runs in the first,” said Aughney. “We took advantage of their defensive miscues, which allowed our pitcher to really go out there and do his thing.”
Harlingen pitcher Mathew Sesler kept the Hawks in check, throwing a total of 42 pitches in the game until he was relieved in the fifth by Punky Ortega.
South’s Nick Muniz scored for the Hawks in the fifth.
Harlingen hosts Brownsville Rivera in their next matchup on Friday while South travels to Los Fresnos to face the Falcons.