McALLEN — The Sharyland Pioneer Diamondbacks showed their St. Patrick’s Day spirit by donning green jerseys during a 5-0 victory against McAllen High on Tuesday at McHi.
While luck is commonly associated with the holiday, the Diamondbacks (16-1, 2-0) used skill to shut out the Bulldogs (12-4, 1-1) in a battle of top District 31-5A teams.
“We were looking forward to it. That’s a very good team over there,” Pioneer head coach Casey Smith said. “I texted (McHi coach Eliseo Pompa) last night ‘iron sharpens iron,’ and good competition is going to make you better and that’s something that we look forward to because we do want to continue to grow and be the best we can be.”
Sharyland Pioneer senior right-handed pitcher David Lopez picked up his fifth win of the season, racking up 13 strikeouts during 6.1 innings of work. Lopez’s strikeout total jumped to 52 after the victory.
“He’s a horse, man, he really is. He’s our guy, he’s our No. 1. He did a real good job of mixing it up versus a really good hitting team. He struggled a little bit early on, had guys on the first three innings, but did a real good job of battling out of it and getting out of some tough spots.”
Senior right-handed pitcher Tristan Cavazos started for the Bulldogs and was in a groove early, allowing no hits through the first three innings.
When the fourth inning rolled around, however, the Diamondbacks’ bats began to find a rhythm of their own.
Pioneer opened the top of the fourth with three consecutive hits by Angel Larrañaga, Lopez and Santiago Ortiz, and RBIs by Ortiz, Joshua Benitez and Stevie Quintanilla to take a 3-0 lead.
“We kind of stayed on top of the ball, we had a little better at-bats. … Sometimes early on you struggle, then all of a sudden you start to time it down and get it up and figure it out a little bit,” Smith said.
Lopez added a pair of Pioneer runs on a two-RBI double during the top of the seventh.
Damian Cortez, Caleb Killian and Noah Villarreal led the Bulldogs with two hits apiece.
Next for Sharyland Pioneer is a home game against Valley View (3-6, 0-2) scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday.
Meanwhile, McHi will look to bounce back against PSJA Memorial (4-3, 1-1) at 2 p.m. Thursday at PSJA Memorial High School.
