HENRY MILLER | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
McALLEN — Good-natured talk around the McAllen High dugout was that Chris Bernal Jr. had only “warning-track power.”
The Bulldogs third baseman must be sneaking some extra time in the weight room. Bernal hit a three-run home run that easily cleared the left-center field fence to extend McHi’s lead to 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth, and the Bulldogs went on to a 10-3 victory against the PSJA High Bears in Game 1 of a Class 6A area round series on Friday.
Game 2 will be played at 1 p.m. Saturday at PSJA High. A third game, if necessary, will be played 30 minutes after the end of Game 2.
The Bulldogs cranked out 12 hits against the visiting Bears and got help from four PSJA errors. McAllen scored three runs in the first, fourth and fifth innings, with its 10th run coming in the sixth.
“This was good offensive baseball,” McAllen coach Eliseo Pompa said. “When you come out of the gates with three runs in the first, that certainly is a good start. Chris has been looking to get one out all year. He sure got it today.”
Pitcher Abanny Garcia earned the win, going 5 1/3 innings. He gave up three runs on eight hits and pitched out of a mild jam in the top of the fifth inning, during which McAllen let a ball drop between three fielders, missed a pop foul and committed an infield error. With one run in and runners on first and second, Garcia struck out Justin Morales to end the inning.
Down 3-0, PSJA’s Vicente Castillo homered to left-center with the bases empty to put the Bears on the board. Garcia sat down the next three batters to end the inning.
The Bulldogs struck for three more runs in the bottom of the fourth. Robbie Maldonado reached on an error and Bernal doubled to put runners at second and third. Jacob Vela drove in a run with a sacrifice to left, and with two outs, Aaron Nixon singled and advanced all the way to third on an outfield error as both runs scored to give McHi a 6-1 lead.
Nixon entered in relief with one out in the fifth and retired all five batters he faced, getting some defensive help in left from Maldonado, who crashed into the outfield wall while hauling in a long fly ball from PSJA’s Ariben Gutierrez.
“We put the ball in play, hit it well and threw strikes and didn’t walk too many players, so we are happy with the effort today,” said Pompa, adding that he wasn’t sure who was going to pitch in Saturday’s first game. “We have four kids who can throw, so pitching isn’t our problem.”
Moreno, Nixon and Garcia led off the game with two singles and a double as McHi’s bats were hot from the start.
“That just got us going right there,” Pompa said. “It was very productive and got us on the right track. Hopefully we can get 12 hits tomorrow, too.”