By ADAM KUJAWSKI, Staff Writer
LOS FRESNOS — With a runner on third and one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, Karina Gonzalez delivered her second RBI of the game to win it for the Los Fresnos Lady Falcons.
Kaylin Szpak reached third after entering the game as a pinch runner following a walk by leadoff batter Marisela Gaytan. Gonzalez hit a sacrifice ground ball to first base that scored Szpak and gave the Lady Falcons a 2-1 victory over the Harlingen High Lady Cardinals on Tuesday.
“I thought we did a better job,” Los Fresnos coach Traci Blackman said. “It took us a while to put the ball in play and string some hits together, but I thought it was a good game for both teams overall.”
The Lady Cardinals finished the inning by working their way out of a situation with runners on second and third after forcing Dori Alcalde to ground out to third for the final out.
With two innings remaining to tie the game, Harlingen High was retired in order in the sixth. But at the start of the seventh, the Lady Falcons allowed leadoff batter Brianna Garza to reach on a ground ball to third base.
After Victoria Rodriguez tracked down a long fly ball to deep center field and Gonzalez caught a popup in foul territory, Gaytan earned a strikeout to end the game.
“We didn’t hit the ball in timely fashion,” Harlingen High coach Lance White said. “We had an inning where they made some errors, and we had a baserunning error that took us out of the inning. We made contact, but we didn’t really hit the ball in situations where we had runners on base to deliver.”
The Lady Falcons scored the first run of the game in the third inning. Maya Guevara reached second on a throwing error and was driven in by a sacrifice fly ball to center field by Gonzalez.
The following inning, Harlingen High had three straight runners reach on consecutive infield errors by the Lady Falcons.
“(I told them) just to shake it off. We have a saying, ‘Just flush it,’ and go get the next one,” Blackman said regarding a timeout she called amidst the flurry of errors. “I thought they did a good job of getting out of that inning without too much happening.
“We’re a little rusty because of the weather. It’s a whole lot different when you come out and play the games than it is in practice. We’ve been in the gym. We’ve only been on our field one time in the past week to practice, and I know a lot of (teams) are going through the same thing right now.”
The Lady Cardinals failed to capitalize on what could have been a gainful inning.
Briana Garza drove in one run on a ground ball to third base but a baserunning error by the Lady Cardinals ended the inning prematurely.
The contest then remained knotted at 1 until the Lady Falcons scored the game-winner in the fifth.
Adam Kujawski covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @adamkujo1.