By ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
LOS FRESNOS — It’s become quite a baseball playoff series between the Los Fresnos Falcons and the Mission High Eagles.
The Falcons won 12-5 on their home field in Friday’s Game 2 of the Class 6A best-of-three area-round series to set up a Game 3 at 1 p.m. today at Mission High’s Leo Najo Alaniz Ballpark.
The Eagles won Thursday’s series opener 12-2 in five innings in Mission.
“That’s all we had to do was win this game and (now) we’ll see what happens in Game 3,” Los Fresnos coach Rene Morales said. “We were a little bit more focused in this game. The team that plays the best in Game 3 is going to win (the series), so let’s see what we can do.”
The District 32-6A tri-champion Falcons improved to 25-9 with the victory, while the District 30-6A third-place Eagles are now 15-14-1.
Los Fresnos led 4-0 after two innings and 8-1 after four frames.
In the bottom of the second, a two-RBI single to center field by Sebastian Ledesma made it 2-0 for the Falcons before a fielding error by the Eagles first baseman allowed two more runs to come home, and that’s what got the home team started.
An RBI sacrifice fly to right field by Ian Danielson in the bottom of the third made it 5-0.
Gradually, Mission High scored some runs to make it a game, starting with a Los Fresnos balk in the top of the fourth for a 5-1 tally.
It was later 8-1 after four innings and then 8-2 when a Mission High run came in from third on a wild pitch in the top of the fifth. A two-run single by Gerardo “Yayo” Cardoza later in the fifth pulled Mission High to within 8-4, but that’s as close as the Eagles could come to the lead.
Four runs by the Falcons in the bottom of the sixth for a 12-4 advantage sealed the Eagles’ fate.
Los Fresnos finished the night with eight hits while Mission High had four.
Ledesma and Hugo Sanchez led the way at the plate for the Falcons as each collected a pair of hits. Ledesma went 2-for-3 with three RBIs, while Hugo Sanchez batted 2-for-3 with one RBI. Danielson had two RBIs on a pair of sacrifice plays and also had a hit.
No one had more than one hit for the Eagles with Cardoza’s two-RBI single to left field in the fifth being the big blow for his team.
Falcons starter J.J. Sanchez picked up the pitching victory with relief help from Victor Loa. Sanchez lasted until there were two outs in the top of the fifth inning and switched to playing center field with his team up 8-2. He wound up with seven strikeouts while throwing a three-hitter with three walks.
In all, Sanchez and Loa combined for 11 strikeouts.
The Eagles used five pitchers with starter Andy Martinez suffering the loss.
The winner of the series between Los Fresnos and Mission High advances to next week’s 6A regional quarterfinals and will go against either Edinburg Vela or Eagle Pass.