MISSION — The Mission Eagles won their District 31-6A opener in their last at-bat to take down the defending district champion, La Joya High, by one run last Tuesday.
The Eagles pulled off another thriller with a 1-0 walk-off win against Edinburg North on Tuesday at Mission High School to improve to 2-0 in district competition.
First baseman Tony Fuentes drew a walk to start the bottom of the seventh inning and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Mission third baseman Joey Galvan then stepped to the plate and delivered the game-winning base hit with a blast to right field that allowed Fuentes to score the game’s only run.
“The real big change from last year is they believe in themselves,” Mission head coach Leo Salinas Jr. said. “They’ve worked hard all offseason and keep battling and they don’t give up. Two games in the last inning and we score runs to win the ball game — you can’t ask for anything more.”
“Tony got on base and that was big for us. All I was thinking was base hit to bring him in,” Galvan said. “Our energy paid off at the end.”
The first six and a half innings was a pitchers’ duel between Mission lefty JR Soto and Edinburg North’s Gilbert Hinojosa.
Both delivered complete game performances, but Soto earned the win with 12 strikeouts while allowing just two hits and one walk. Hinojosa surrendered one run on three hits and three walks while striking out four.
“It was a team win, everyone did their job tonight. We just have to keep working week by week so we can keep performing the way we are and hopefully make a run at a district championship,” Soto said.
Mission High moves on to face Edinburg High at 7 p.m Friday at Edinburg High School.
Next for Edinburg North is a home game against Edinburg Vela at 7 p.m. Friday.
