MISSION — Sharyland Pioneer kept Harlingen South off the scoreboard for the first five innings Thursday night, but the sixth belonged to the Hawks.
South’s offense erupted with a five-run sixth inning to take down Pioneer 6-4 in Game 1 of their Region IV-5A bi-district playoff series Thursday at Sharyland Pioneer High School.
Game 2 is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday at Harlingen South High School. Game 3, if necessary, is set for 1 p.m. Saturday at Sharyland Pioneer High School.
“Their guy did a really good job of keeping us off-balance and mixing his pitches. Our message to the guys was just to stick with it and find a way,” South head coach Bryan Aughney said. “We found a way to find some barrels and plate some runs in the sixth inning, and put a five-spot on the board.”
The Diamondbacks (25-6-1, 15-4) led 3-0 entering the sixth after an RBI groundout by Diego Chapa in the second and a two-run double by David Cavasos in the fourth.
Pioneer pitcher Ruben Lopez shut down the Hawks for the first five innings, but the Hawks loaded the bases during the sixth. An RBI single by Colby Martinez made it 3-1, then Matt Flores followed with a two-run double to left field. Diego Garza gave South (21-9, 14-5) the lead with a two-run single to center.
“This one took a lot of heart and dedication. This is our first playoff win in a long time, and I’m just proud of the boys and the way we competed,” Flores said. “After we were down 3-0, we came back and fought offensively and I couldn’t be more proud of these guys.”
“It was stressful. We were down in the beginning, but we had to come back and start a rally and we kept it going,” Castillo said.
Pioneer had the game-winning run at the plate with two outs during the seventh before an Ayden Medrano strikeout shut the door to give South a 1-0 series lead.
South’s Daniel Lopez finished 3-for-4 with one run. Flores drove in three on 2-for-3 hitting, and Castillo went 1-for-1 with two RBIs. Medrano struck out three in two innings to secure the win.
The Diamondbacks will look to bounce back in Game 2 on Friday.
“Baseball’s a tough game, and we hit some balls hard and it just happened to find where they’re at. They found some holes in the field where we weren’t,” Pioneer head coach Adrian Leal said. “Even when things like that happen, you have to power through. I think we showed some fight in the last inning, but I felt like when we were up 3-0, we took our foot off the gas pedal a little bit.
“That team is here for a reason, and you have to understand that each pitch, each inning is very important and you can’t let up at all. You got to win two games in the series and nobody has ever advanced in a best-of-three series with one win, so that’s our message to our guys, and I think they’ll regroup and get a chance to go over there and do the same thing they did to us and fight for another day to play on Saturday.”
*Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article stated David Castillo gave South the lead with a two-RBI single. Diego Garza was the correct batter who gave South the lead with a two-RBI single.