Hawks edge Cowboys in 32-5A battle

HARLINGEN — Harlingen South pitchers Ayden Medrano and Ryan Porter teamed up to throw a two-hitter against the Brownsville Porter Cowboys in a 3-2 Hawks’ victory Friday at Harlingen South High School.

Brownsville Porter took Game 1 of the 32-5A series against Harlingen South 5-1 on Tuesday in Brownsville.

“It’s a really big win for us. That’s a really good ball club over there — their two pitchers that we saw the last two nights against them are really good,” Harlingen South head coach Bryan Aughney said. “I’m just proud of our guys. Ayden threw well. He gave up a hard hit ball but he settled down real nice. We handed the ball off to Ryan Porter who was calm, cool and collected. We made some plays defensively, we were able to scratch a run there and I’m just really proud of our guys tonight.”

The Cowboys (16-4-1, 12-2) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first Friday evening after a hit batter, a single from Alejandro Torres, an RBI-double by Diego Rivera and a sac fly RBI by Angel Cortez.

That was all the offense the Cowboys would generate, however.

South’s lefty Medrano handled the first four innings and gave up the two hits and two earned runs while striking out four. Porter entered in relief in the fifth inning and was perfect over the final three innings with three strikeouts.

“There wasn’t many base runners to begin with, but when there were runners on, pitchers made their pitches and we had a good catcher behind the plate,” the sophomore Porter said.

Harlingen South catcher Josh Ruiz at the plate during a District 32-5A game against Brownsville Porter on Friday, April 12, 2024 at Harlingen South High School. Photo by Andrew Cordero – Special to RGVSports.com.

South (16-7-1, 11-3) evened the score at 2-2 during the bottom of the third on a Josh Ruiz RBI-double and Colby Martinez RBI-single.

The Hawks loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth and Daniel Lopez came through with his lone hit of the day, a base hit into right field, to give South the 3-2 lead.

“We put some pressure on them at the plate. We put some ground balls in play and they didn’t make the routine plays,” Lopez said. “In that at-bat, I was just focusing on the fastball. I saw the fastball high and took it the opposite way.”

Brownsville Porter’s Omar Banda was lights out for the Cowboys and worked his way out of a couple jams with huge strikeouts.

He surrendered one earned run off eight hits and three walks while striking out 11.

Brownsville Porter’s Omar Banda pitches during a District 32-5A game against Harlingen South on Friday, April 12, 2024 at Harlingen South High School. Photo by Andrew Cordero – Special to RGVSports.com.

Martinez and Ruiz both finished 2-for-3 and one RBI to lead the Hawks.

Next for Harlingen South is Edcouch-Elsa at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Harlingen South High School.

Brownsville Porter moves on to a showdown against Brownsville Veterans at 7 p.m. at Brownsville Veterans High School with the district title on the line. The Chargers are one victory away from clinching at least a share of the District 32-5A title. The Cowboys are trailing the Chargers by two games with four games remaining.

bramos@themonitor.com

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