HARLINGEN — As fast as the Harlingen South Hawks took their first lead, the wind seemed to leave the San Benito Greyhounds’ sails faster.
Errors hurt the Greyhounds and the Hawks took advantage with six unearned runs en route to an 11-3 win Tuesday night at Harlingen field.
From the first inning, things went south for San Benito as a mishandle at second base with two outs allowed South’s Alec Garza to reach first and Nick Reasor to score the game’s first run.
With the inning extended on the error for the Hawks, Alex De La Garza brought in two more runs with an RBI single to give South the early 3-0 lead, which was enough as their defense held San Benito to five scoreless innings and six hits.
“San Benito swings the bat well, but we didn’t panic. The balls didn’t fall for San Benito and they’re a good ball club, “South head coach Tony Leal said. “The balls fell for us on offense and we came out ahead. The kids played well tonight and Ojani (Chacon) threw well tonight, so not a bad job overall.”
Chacon, who picked up the win throwing 7.0 innings while throwing five strikeouts, got help from his defense who had just two fielding errors on the night.
With the win, the Hawks improve to 5-1 in District 32-6A play, while the Hounds fall to 2-4 after losing two of their last three.
While San Benito looked out of sync defensively and at the plate, head coach Ramiro Partida feels it’s a psyche issue which has plagued them during their last three outings.
“South has a great team, but the bottom line tonight was the confidence,” Partida said. “The kids have no confidence right now and they just cannot believe in themselves, but we’re not a bad team. However, if we don’t have confidence, it’s going to continue how it is right now.
“We’re struggling at the plate, on our fielding and we need to back to basics. Hopefully we can turn it around and go from there.”
San Benito looked to tie the game up in the top of the third as Isaac Sanchez and Victor Gaitan came up with back-to-back RBIs to cut the score to 3-2.
The Hawks halted that momentum and got out of the inning with 4-6-3 double play.
The Hawks and Hounds played close during the third and fourth innings, but the Hawks broke it open in the bottom of the fifth inning thanks to a San Benito miscue.
South’s Jacob Atkinson hit the ball to left field where outfielder Ruben Reyes dropped a routine fly ball and allowed runs nine and 10 for the Hawks.