Cardinals run-rule Bobcats, take 1-0 series lead

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EDINBURG — Harlingen High’s bats were hot from start to finish Thursday, racking up 19 hits en route to a 17-4 thrashing of Edinburg High during Game 1 of a best-of-three Class 6A DII bi-district playoff series at Edinburg High.

A total of 10 of Harlingen High’s batters recorded a hit during the win, including six athletes with multiple hits. The Cardinals finished 19-of-38 at the plate as a team.

“We’ve been building the program from the day I got in and changing the culture,” Harlingen High head coach Kevin Ledesma said. “The girls are extremely excited to be in this position. This is one of the best brackets we’ve gotten. Our girls have a fire lit under them. We came out strong and then motored down a bit in the third inning it looked like. But our girls are just excited to be here. Playoffs is are a little different.”

The Cardinals wasted little time getting on the board, pouring in 10 runs through the first two innings to take a commanding 10-0 lead. A two run bomb by Amanda Mares made it 4-0 after one, with Charlise Ybarra adding another homer during the second to make it 5-0.

Harlingen High added five more runs during the second behind RBIs by Jozalin Bravo, Amaris Gomez, Bethany Hernandez and Kim Lara.

Despite trailing 10-0, the Bobcats wouldn’t go away early, scoring a trio of runs during the bottom of the second to make it 10-3 after two. The Cardinals responded immediately, adding three more runs during the top of the third to go back up 13-3.

“I just told the girls to stay grounded,” Ledesma said. “Its the playoffs, so every team is here for a reason. The girls did a good job of responding. They just had a couple of innings that they had where they put some runs up. They’re not a bad team. They’re in the playoffs for a reason, like I said. Our girls just seemed to pick it up when they needed to.”

With a 10-run lead in tow, the Cardinals had a chance to put the Bobcats away during the bottom of the fourth. Errors by Harlingen High’s defense kept the Bobcats alive, however, with Edinburg High extending the game another inning after a score by Rebecca Torrez on a wild pitch.

The Cardinals regrouped after the shaky fifth inning, with Ybarra sparking a three-run sixth inning with her second home run of the night. Ybarra finished 2-of-3 at the plate Thursday, bringing in three runs.

“Softball is a funny game sometimes,” Ledesma said. “Sometimes the ball just rolls a certain way. It comes down to fundamentals. We’ve been working on them a lot. Our girls just have to communicate. If they’re not talking, a lot of the times our pitcher might feel like she’s by herself. Our team just has to come over and they did tonight. They woke up. The bats woke up again and just a big home run by Charlise that set the tone again. It was one of those games. Our girls will be ready for Game 2 back at home.”

The victory gives the Cardinals a 1-0 advantage of the Bobcats as the series shifts to Harlingen for the next two contests. They’ll look to close out the series at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at Harlingen High’s softball field.

Game 3 is slated for 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Harlingen if necessary.

“This is where you want to be,” Ledesma said. “We talked about tournament games and things like that that we played to get us ready for critical moments. We played against teams like San Benito and Brownsville Vets and just all these games that were getting us ready for games like this. It’s the playoffs so the energy is going to be up. The next game is at home, so all the girls friends are going to be there. The community will be there to support them. At that point I think it’s going to be a little different. We’ve only lost one game at home so far this season so it is a good environment for us.”

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