WESLACO — The Weslaco East Wildcats hosted their first playoff game in program history Thursday night, but Sharyland High stole the show.
The Rattlers earned a 6-0 victory over the Wildcats in Game 1 of their Region IV-5A bi-district best-of-three matchup to take a 1-0 series lead.
Game 2 between the Wildcats and Rattlers is set for 7 tonight at Sharyland High School in Mission. Game 3, if necessary, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at Weslaco East High School.
Sharyland High senior Kikè Cienfuegos was lights out on the mound as he limited Weslaco East to one hit and three walks while fanning 12 of the 25 batters faced across 6.1 innings.
After Cienfuegos (10-1) racked up his 11th strikeout, which ended the sixth inning, he waved bye-bye to the batter before heading back to the Sharyland High dugout.
“It’s like our coaches say, ‘Be a shark on the mound and try to have my best stuff to help the team.’ The most important thing, I think, is being emotional,” Cienfuegos said. “That’s when I feel comfortable. If I show emotion, I feel comfortable.”
Cienfuegos got stronger deeper into the contest to stifle the Weslaco East offense.
“He didn’t have his regular velocity maybe until midway through the game. He battled and was able to throw some off-speed for strikes and was able to get their big bats out with his off-speed, so that was big,” Sharyland High head coach Barton Bickerton said. “He kept them off base and kept them wondering if they were going to be able to hit at all. He did an amazing job.”
The Rattlers posed an early threat offensively by putting runners on the corners during the top of the first inning. They broke through during the second.
A wild pitch with the bases loaded allowed Jorge Alcala to score from third for a 1-0 lead. After the Rattlers reloaded the bases, Saul Soto drilled a single to right field that was misplayed and resulted in four more runs, including Soto, to cross the plate for a 5-0 advantage.
“That’s really what we wanted to do. None of their kids have been to the playoffs before, and we wanted to try to jump on them early. I thought we were going to do it in the first inning for sure, but we didn’t really come through with runners in scoring position except in the second inning,” Bickerton said. “After that one mistake, I thought they played unbelievable defense the rest of the way.”
Alcala, who finished 2-for-4 on the day, doubled to left field during the top of the seventh to tack on one more Rattlers run to create the final margin. Cole Gerlach also went 2-for-4 with one run scored for the Rattlers.
After a shaky second inning defensively, Weslaco East sophomore pitcher Tonio Balboa and his defense locked in over the final five innings to give themselves a chance. The Wildcats couldn’t solve the puzzle at the plate that was Cienfuegos, however. Javi Garza and Joseph Perez picked up the only two hits of the night for the Wildcats.
