By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
When Hanna got its bats going, it was too much for Edinburg North.
The Golden Eagles scored a total of 18 runs in two games, including eight in Game 3 to defeat the Cougars 8-3 to clinch a best-of-three, 6A bi-district playoff series Saturday at Hanna.
“We know we can hit the ball, it was just a matter of executing,” Hanna coach Eddie Garcia said. “They woke up at the right time. We got going early, and we jumped on (Edinburg North), they’re district champs for a reason. We knew we’d have to swing the bat well and get some big innings to help our defense.”
The Eagles will now face the winner of La Joya Palmview/Eagle Pass in the area round next week.
Hanna defeated Edinburg North 10-3 in Game 2 earlier in the day to force the deciding contest. Edinburg North took Game 1 in a 7-2 over decision Friday night.
After Edinburg North took a one-run lead to start Game 3, Hanna answered in the bottom half of the first and never looked back.
The Eagles scored on an infield error to tie the game and added two more runs in the inning with RBI singles from Lee Alonzo and Efrain Martinez to take the lead.
In the second, Hanna got a two-out, two-run single from Cristian Gonzalez to build a 5-1 cushion.
The Cougars trimmed the deficit to 5-2 in the third on an RBI single from Saul Garza.
“We didn’t do enough of the little things right,” Edinburg North coach Damian Gonzalez said. “We stress those on a daily basis, if you do enough of those in the end you’ll have a chance to win. But we can’t give playoff teams extra outs, extra bases because it’s going to come back and bite us in the butt. That’s what happened (Saturday).”
In the fourth, Hanna tacked on three more runs. Cesar Saldana hit a two-run double and Johnny Balli added an RBI single to push the lead to 8-2.
“We knew they were hitters, it’s just the mental part,” Garcia said of his team’s offensive output. “We focused on timely hitting all week and we’re going to continue to do that because it paid off.”
That run support would be more than enough for Hanna starting pitcher Alec Buitron. He went the distance, allowing three runs on eight hits with two walks and a strikeout. Marc Esquivel took the loss for Edinburg North.
“I told the pitchers to keep hitting their spots, keep them off-balanced and let the defense work and that’s what happened,” Garcia said. “They gave us a chance. We gave them some runs and that was the key, I hope we can keep it going.”
Edinburg North got one back in the seventh inning on an RBI double by JoJo Munoz, but it wasn’t enough against Hanna as the Eagles knocked the District 31-6A champions out of the playoffs.
“You have to give (Hanna) credit, they made a lot of big plays,” Gonzalez said. “They turned five or six double plays in the two games. We did too many little things wrong and it hurt us. … Their pitchers did a good job keeping us off balanced. It’s not so much the stuff we didn’t do, it’s the stuff that they did right.”
Garcia was happy that his team made the most of their scoring opportunities, especially after struggling one night before.
“I’m proud of them after being down (after Friday),” he said. “We came out (Saturday) a completely different team. I don’t think we’re satisfied yet. They better not be, we had a goal and we’re not there yet.”
Game 2: Hanna 10, Edinburg North 3
Hanna got its offense going early and often during three big innings in the Game 2 victory.
The Eagles got a two-run double from Balli, two-run singles from Michael Gomez, Alonzo and Jonathan Castro and RBI singles from Israel Lambarri and Gonzalez in the win.
The Cougars had a pair of sacrifice flies, one each by Garza and Munoz, and scored another run on an infield error.
The offensive outburst for the Eagles backed a complete-game effort by Noe Guerrero. He went the distance, allowing three runs on five hits with a walk and two strikeouts. Frankie Rivas took the loss for Edinburg North.
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.