By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Sometimes one bad inning is the difference.
That was certainly the case for Rivera on Tuesday night.
The Raiders were down late, but still within striking distance of visiting Harlingen High when the Cardinals exploded for seven runs in the sixth inning. Rivera couldn’t match the offensive output in a 10-1, District 32-6A loss.
“(Ricky Ibarra) was up on his pitch count, but I think he fatigued a little bit,” Rivera coach Travis Parker said of his starting pitcher in the crucial sixth. “He was throwing well, but it was a tough five innings.
“He gave us everything he had. I’m very proud of the way he threw the ball.”
Harlingen High moved to 2-0 in District 32-6A on the season and the loss puts Rivera at 0-2 in district play.
With a 3-1 lead, Harlingen High capitalized in the sixth inning and broke the game wide open. After back-to-back walks,
Isaias Ibarra connected for a two-run double to left to give the Cardinals a 5-1 advantage.
That knocked out Ricky Ibarra, who took the loss for the Raiders after allowing six runs on four hits. He walked four and struck out seven.
Harlingen High wasn’t done and roughed up relief pitchers Rey Rivera and Adrian Lozano for four more runs in the inning on four consecutive run-scoring hits by Alexandro Hinojosa, Punky Ortega, Nathan Ramon and Hayes Duffy to finish out the scoring.
“We preach our offensive approach the same throughout and in that inning it worked for us,” Cardinals coach Bryan Aughney said. “We got out of who we are early … (Ricky) Ibarra threw well, he’s a good pitcher, so we had to take advantage of some walks and get back to what we are. I think we got to him a little and took advantage of some defensive mistakes.
“We hit the pitches we needed to hit when we needed to hit them.”
But Rivera couldn’t answer in its final two at-bats and the Raiders are still searching for their first district victory.
Despite the final score, it was a tight game early on. Harlingen took an early 2-0 lead in the second inning, one run scoring on a wild pitch and the other on an RBI-single by Marco Hernandez.
Rivera responded with an RBI-single by Raul Rosales in the bottom half of the inning, but didn’t get anything else.
The Cardinals added a run in the fourth on a balk to push the edge to 3-1.
The Raiders had a chance to get closer or even the score in the fifth inning. With a runner in scoring position and two outs, a ball hit down the right field line appeared to be fair, but was ruled foul. The Cardinals snuffed out the threat with a strikeout that seemed to shift the momentum right before their game-clinching scoring outburst.
“I truly believe the game turned on that one bad call,” Parker said. “That possibly scores a run and makes it a 3-2 game. But that’s baseball. We had to bounce back and we didn’t.”
The win kept Harlingen High unbeaten in district play.
“It’s big for us,” Aughney said. “Getting two Ws out of the way … it’s going to be a tight race. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day, so we have to get back to work on Thursday.”
Despite the loss, Rivera isn’t down. The district season is only a couple games old with 12 more to play.
“We lost to a quality ball club, we’ve taken two losses, but both against teams that will probably find themselves in the playoffs,” Parker said. “We have to stay upbeat. The results weren’t what we wanted, but we have to figure out how to finish.
“We can compete for four or five innings, but we have to put together a complete game.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.