CLAIRE CRUZ | Special to the Star
HARLINGEN — As quickly as Harlingen High snuck into the playoffs, Edinburg Vela sent them right back to the offseason as the Sabercats clinched the bi-district championship with a 10-2 Game 2 victory over the Cardinals on Saturday afternoon. Vela will now play Eagle Pass in the area round.
“Coming to play Harlingen after we had prepared to play Hanna midweek… it was just a different type of preparation,” Vela head coach Jaime Perez said. “It changed the mentality, but I thought our kids played really well.”
Southpaw Matthew Sessler took the loss for Harlingen in his final start as a Cardinal, but the 10 runs on his stat line give the wrong impression of his outing. Sessler struck out six and had good control over his four innings, but the defense did little to help him out.
Between misplayed routine ground balls, poor reads off the bat and throwing errors, Harlingen fell into a hole too deep to crawl out of.
“(Matt) did great, he was keeping them off balance and they were struggling with him,” Harlingen head coach Juan Rangel said. “We just needed defense to help him out and, unfortunately, it didn’t happen. We gave up a lot of unearned runs.”
Sabercats pitcher Adam Alviso shut down the Cardinals’ offense with ease. He surrendered just three hits over a complete-game effort and struck out eight. After giving up two runs in the third, Alviso recovered flawlessly and sent the Cardinals down in order each of the last four innings.
“Adam’s a big surprise with that different arm angle… he’s just tough,” Perez said. “There’s a reason why he’s 8-0. Our kids really give him a lot of run support so he relaxes a lot and gives us an opportunity.”
Senior first baseman Joey Recio and junior designated hitter Eric Martinez paced Vela at the plate. Recio went 2 for 2 with two walks and drove in three runs while Martinez scored three times, had two RBIs and finished 2 for 3 with a walk.
Though Harlingen’s postseason was brief, Rangel is pleased his team got the playoff experience and thinks that will bode well for next season.
“Just being in the playoffs was good for us,” Rangel said. “Some of the young guys got exposure. Some of them you could see on the field that they were nervous, so next year we expect a lot of good things with a lot of the younger guys coming back.”