RIO HONDO — Lyford handed Rio Hondo its first loss of the 2023 season and took over sole possession of first place in District 32-3A with an 11-2 victory Thursday at Rio Hondo High School.
The Bulldogs improve to 15-7 overall and 4-0 in district, while the Bobcats drop to 22-1 on the year and 3-1 in 32-3A.
“Our team’s been battle-tested. We’ve played teams from all over the Valley — 5A, 6A, some of the best 3A teams from the Coastal Bend — so we were ready for it,” Lyford head coach Jose Rocha said. “We came out and played a complete game. Our sophomore pitcher came out, pitched lights out. We had another sophomore come in in relief, and our bats were on. When you hit the ball the way we do, play defense the way we do, it’s going to be hard to lose games and we proved that tonight.”
Lyford took a 5-1 lead into the top of the seventh inning and tacked on six more runs to stack the deck against Rio Hondo.
“I think we just had a meltdown there early on, put ourselves in a hole and we never recovered. Not to take away from Lyford, they’re a great ballclub and we knew that, but we had about three errors that really cost us and gave some runs away,” Rio Hondo head coach Sergio Gonzalez said. “Their pitcher did a great job. We hit the ball hard to players and it just didn’t happen for us today, but we do have a second opportunity at the end of the season, so we’re looking forward to that.”
Lyford sophomore pitcher Jacob Reyna threw a one-hitter with four walks, one earned run and seven strikeouts across six innings for the win.
“I was just trying to throw strikes and letting my defense work because I know they got my back,” Reyna said. “We need to keep working hard and focus on our defense.”
Lyford was active offensively with multi-hit games from Aiden Olivas-Romo, Isaias Gonzalez, Armando De La Garza and Gael Silva. Gonzalez led the Bulldogs with three RBIs, and Olivas-Romo and Silva drove in a pair each.
The Bobcats scored one run during the first on a bunt by Chris Galvan and another during the bottom of the seventh on a wild pitch. Rio Hondo starter Caleb Laster struck out 10 in five innings and surrendered just two earned runs.
Rio Hondo will look to bounce back in a district matchup against Progreso at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Rio Hondo High School.
Next for Lyford is a home game against Port Isabel at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Lyford.