HARLINGEN — Two weeks ago, San Benito head baseball coach Ram Partida spoke of his team needing to be more confident.
The Greyhounds showed that confidence and more as they held Harlingen to one hit in a 5-0 shutout Tuesday night at Harlingen’s KEYS Academy.
The Greyhounds scoring was steady and the defense made plays all night to keep Harlingen at bay.
“We’re playing great defense right now and we had great pitching tonight,” Partida said. “I told our guys that championship teams have good pitching, defense and hitting. In the first half of district, our kids were being kind of shy, but now I hope a win like this continues to give us confidence going forward.
“Losing isn’t fun, but winning is. Right now, we’re having fun.”
The Greyhounds (6-4 in district) grabbed their fourth straight win, while the Cardinals fell to 2-8 in district play.
Leading the way on the mound was Victor Gaitan.
Gaitan finished the night with the win, while registering seven K’s and didn’t allow a hit in 5 2/3 innings in.
He walked four batters and hit three more to put runners on, but was relieved to have his defense making plays when needed.
“My defense played great. We started off great and I felt on tonight,” Gaitan said. “I want to thank my team for backing me up on the field and giving me run support. I trust that if there is a deep shot or something, my team will be there and make a play.”
For Harlingen, Tuesday was once again about mistakes.
“We took a lot of good pitches and chased a lot of bad pitches. They (San Benito) did a good job of getting us to chase those pitches by getting ahead in the count,” Harlingen head coach Bryan Aughney said. “Our guys refused to get up there ready to hit. We have also made a habit of shooting ourselves in the foot on routine plays.”
From the start, it looked like a tight game as Harlingen’s starting pitcher Jaedon Wynn allowed just one run on one hit, while striking out three.
However, San Benito came alive in the top of the third.
The Greyhounds got four consecutive hits, started off by a Gaitan single.
David Vargas and Ismael Gaitan each followed that up with RBI singles to make the score 3-0.
A Jon Robles sacrifice bunt brought in a third run in the inning and put Harlingen in a 4-0 hole.
Vargas added his second RBI of the night and brought in Isaac Sanchez for San Benito’s last score of the night in the top of the fourth.