BY BRYAN RAMOS | STAFF WRITER
WESLACO – The rainy weather earlier in the week prevented Edinburg Vela and Weslaco High from clashing on the diamond Tuesday.
On Thursday, however, it was raining strikeouts for Edinburg Vela pitcher Nico Rodriguez as he didn’t let the postponement phase him, racking up 13 Ks on the night to match the number on his jersey and leading the SaberCats (13-4-2, 3-0) to a 5-3 win.
“Weslaco’s a good team, but I just treated it like any other game. The next game is always the biggest, you just got to work day by day so we prepared for this,” Rodriguez said after improving his record to 5-1.
The Panthers and SaberCats were tied at 2 after two innings, but a three-run inning for Vela in the fifth carried them to a victory.
Edinburg Vela coach Jaime Perez said his players grew up Thursday night by facing a 16-4-1 team in Weslaco.
“That’s a great club over there,” Perez said about the Panthers. “Coach Serna does a good job getting his guys ready. When it comes down to two quality clubs like this duking it out, what more do you want? It’s a darn good game, it’s what baseball is all about.”
SaberCat second baseman Ivan Mendoza delivered three RBIs for Vela with a 2-run single in the top of the third and another in the top of the fifth. Mendoza, a sophomore, has stepped into the leadoff role for Vela as teammates have battled injuries, but he was able to produce against Weslaco as the 7-8-9 hitters for the SaberCats were able to work their way on base.
“My teammates really helped me out a lot and make it easy for me to come up and do my job,” Mendoza said. “We just had to come in and compete as a team and do our part, and we were able to get it done.”
Mendoza finished the game 2 for 4 with three RBIs and one run, meanwhile SaberCat shortstop Ramsey Amador went 3 for 4 on the night.
The Panthers got on the board in the bottom of the second inning off a Vela error and a sac fly by Jayden Perez that allowed Seth Sanchez to cross the plate. Although Weslaco put up six hits and three runs, they were all unearned as the SaberCats helped with three errors.
“We had some opportunities to break away early, but we didn’t, and that’s ok, that’s the way the game goes,” Weslaco coach Eddie Serna said. “Kids battled tough, we had tough situations defensively and they battled through. Don’t take anything away from Vela, they came ready to play, we were ready to play and it was a heck of a game.”
The Panthers will be back at it tonight as they have a quick turnaround due to the delays earlier in the week. Weslaco (16-4-1, 1-1) travels to take on Donna North at 5 p.m.
“We need to get back up and they know they battled a good team and we’ll come back tomorrow and give it another shot,” Serna said.