MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — Once again, Harlingen Cardinals pitcher Jaedon Wynn and the defense behind him had a solid outing.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, it wouldn’t be enough as they only managed two hits in a 3-0 loss to the Brownsville Veterans Chargers and the arm of starting pitcher Noe Solis Tuesday night at Harlingen Field.
Solis fanned nine batters and walked only one in seven shutout innings to pick up the win for the Chargers (17-3, 11-1).
“Defensively we did a fantastic job in the outfield and the infield,” said first-year Veterans head coach Eric Gonzalez.
“We came up with some good defensive plays because I know (Harlingen) can hit. We took them out of some innings and Noe (Solis) did a fantastic job hanging in there — it was a good defensive team effort.”
The Cards (12-12, 4-8) were able to put a couple of runners on in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a walk and a dropped third strike, but they were unable to get on the board.
Mistakes on defense, which led to runs for Vets, made it a long night for Cards head coach Bryan Aughney.
“We just didn’t have the right energy today from the get-go for whatever reason,” Aughney said. “We don’t bring our best game and we held them close. Jaedon Wynn was outstanding on the mound and we played really solid defense. We made some mistakes that gave (Veterans) a couple of runs late.”
Wynn tossed four shutout innings, allowed three earned runs and four hits, while striking out four in the loss.
Right now, it’s all about pride for the Cardinals, who have now lost two in a row and, with the Tuesday’s loss, were eliminated from playoff contention after San Benito (11-7, 7-5) beat Brownsville Lopez (9-12, 3-9) 3-0 on Tuesday night to go up three games with two to go.
The game’s first hit was an RBI single from Chargers designated hitter Omar Ponce in the top of the second inning, which scored Baltazar Guzman for a 1-0 lead.
Vets went hitless the next three innings as Harlingen’s Wynn held things down on the mound despite a pair of Cardinal errors, which reared their head later in the game.
In the top of the sixth, a pickoff attempt by Wynn went bad after his throw flew over the head of first baseman Michael Noyola.
That put Veterans’ Jimmy Moody in scoring position, allowing him to come in moments later on a David Anaya ground out RBI to make it 2-0.
After Vets added a third run in the top of the seventh, the Cards made a little noise in the bottom of the inning as Boedy Flores got on base on a walk and Nathan Ramon advanced to first on a dropped third strike.
However, it wasn’t meant to be as Damian Wells finished the game on a 6-3 out.