HARLINGEN — It was a playoff-like atmosphere as the Harlingen South Lady Hawks and San Benito Lady Greyhounds met on the field for their first district matchup of the season.
In comparison to the cool weather was the offense of the Lady Greyhounds as they fell to the Lady Hawks 3-1 on Tuesday evening.
The win puts South at 3-1 in District 32-6A play and Hawks head coach Elias Martinez was ecstatic to rack up another win.
“I can’t say enough about how hard our girls have worked up to this point,” he said. “When it got tough during the stretch, the girls never let their guards down and made plays when they needed to.”
After a scoreless two innings of play, the Lady Hawks turned up the heat when freshman Kelsey Rivera hit a ball deep to midfield to drive in teammates Kaityln De La Fuente and Jasmin Gallegos.
Rivera eventually made it home as a hit to left field from Krystal Gonzales gave the Lady Hawks a 3-0 lead after three.
The score remained 3-0 until the sixth inning when the Lady Greyhounds had a grand chance to get back into the game.
With the bases loaded and two outs, all eyes were on San Benito’s Alina Jasso as she slammed the rock deep into left field but only drove in the one run on the night.
The Lady Hawks defense was superb on the night not allowing a base hit until the fifth inning and managed to recover in the sixth with the bases loaded.
“Our freshman (Rivera) came up big in the third inning and Daisy Gallegos pitched a great ball game tonight,” Martinez said. “In this district, it’s so tight that every game is big and it’s a huge win for us because our girls hadn’t beaten them in awhile.”
The Lady Hawks will try to continue their run against the Weslaco Lady Panthers on Thursday at 7 p.m.
