MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
SAN BENITO — The Harlingen Cardinals did not light it up at the plate and had just one big inning, but it was enough.
Harlingen pitcher Jaedon Wynn pitched with a big lead most of the night and held off a late San Benito rally, securing a 6-4 Harlingen win Tuesday night in San Benito.
Harlingen registered just two hits on the night, but five walks and a trio of San Benito throwing errors in the bottom of the second inning led to a 6-0 lead the Cards would not relinquish.
Those errors proved to be the difference in the game for the Red Birds, who avoided mental lapses of their own on defense.
“I think we’re playing looser and allowing ourselves to play,” said Harlingen head coach Bryan Aughney, “I think we’re a very good team. We were able to take advantage of some San Benito errors. San Benito pitched great, but we were just fortunate enough to take advantage of some situations and played some runs in that one inning.
“Jaedon (Wynn) continued to be a bulldog on the mound and defensively we took care of the baseball.”
Meanwhile, San Benito saw its five-game win streak come to an end, but head coach Ram Partida knows it’s because his team opened the door.
“We had three throwing errors in that inning and that’s a good ballclub over there,” said Partida. “You have three errors against a team like that and they’re going to take advantage and they did— good job on them.
“At the end of the day, it’s only a game and we have to continue fighting and having fun.”
The win gives Harlingen(12-10, 4-6) its first back-to-back district wins of the year and puts them just two games behind San Benito (10-6, 6-4) and Brownsville Hanna, who also improved to 6-4 after beating Brownsville Vets 4-1 Tuesday night.
Wynn tossed 7.0 innings, allowing six hits and four earned runs while striking out two to pick up the win.
In the top of the second inning San Benito’s ace pitcher Erick Arizpe struck out Harlingen’s Alex Hinojosa to start the inning, but walked the next two batters and followed by giving up a two-RBI single to Justin Reta after an error on a throw to first advanced the runner into scoring position.
Arizpe walked in another run soon after and followed that up with another two RBI single to Boedy Flores, scoring runs four and five, with the sixth coming on another San Benito error.
That turned out to be the worst of it for Arizpe, who finished the night with 10 strikeouts while allowing two hits and walking seven for the loss.
Wynn got into some jams, having the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth and then a pair of runners on in the fifth.
There were no outs in both instances, but hitting into a 4-3 double play and a base-running flub which forced a run down in between second and third following an RBI sac fly kept the ‘Hounds from cashing in more than a run each time.
He also gave up a two-RBI single to San Benito’s JR Gaitan in the bottom of the seventh.