The Weslaco High Panthers capitalized on several errors and used a near-perfect pitching performance to earn a bounce-back shutout win over the Mercedes Tigers on the road Saturday

MERCEDES — The Weslaco High Panthers needed a bounce-back performance when they hit the road Saturday morning, but it didn’t take long for them to get started.

Two of the Panthers’ first three batters of the game got on base to put runners on the corners and they jumped on their early opportunity.

A double steal of second and home plate gave Weslaco its first run of the day, as the Panthers utilized a near-perfect performance by pitcher Julie Rodriguez and capitalized on several errors to secure a 5-0 shutout road win over the Mercedes Tigers.

“We did really good coming back and hitting today,” Weslaco High center fielder Lexie Escamilla said. “In our last game, we didn’t get a bunch of hits, so just being able to hit it this time was really good. It feels really good being able to score some runs after that tough loss.”

Weslaco was held hitless through the first three innings of the game, but it hardly mattered as Rodriguez tossed a masterful game in the circle.

The Panthers’ pitcher flustered Mercedes at the plate with her rise ball all afternoon and made baserunners tough to come by for the Tigers.

Rodriguez hurled seven shutout innings on an efficient 70 pitches. She struck out seven Tigers while allowing only four base hits, all singles.

“The communication between me and our catcher (Jules Garcia) was really good (today),” Rodriguez said. “She helped me throughout the whole game and gave me a lot of energy to push through.”

Escamilla helped crack the game open for Weslaco during the top of the fourth with the biggest hit of the, and contest, and its first.

She swatted a deep fly ball that bounced off the fence in left field and woke up the Panthers’ bats. The RBI double increased Weslaco’s lead to 2-0 and started an offensive hot streak after the team had been held to just one run in its district-opening loss to Harlingen High on Tuesday.

“I saw it was coming inside,” Escamilla said. “I tried to stay inside and I got it at the right time.”

The Panthers continued to pour it on during the fifth and sixth innings after a number of Mercedes errors extended both innings.

After a walk and an infield single led off the top of the fifth, Mercedes’ center fielder and second baseman collided attempting to make a play on a shallow fly ball that dropped and allowed a run to score and put runners at the corners.

In the next at-bat, the Tigers again mishandled a pop-up between first and second base that plated another run and gave Weslaco a commanding 4-0 edge. In total, Mercedes tallied four errors, which combined with three hit-by-pitches gave the Panthers three unearned runs that came across thanks to aggressive baserunning.

“We did a good job there making sure those balls dropped before we ran,” Escamilla said. “That’s one thing we’ve been working on a lot.”

Mercedes put two runners in scoring position throughout the game, both duringg the bottom of the fourth inning, but stranded them at second and third after Rodriguez forced a foul pop-up and recorded a strikeout to get Weslaco out of the jam.

The win improves the Panthers to 5-1 on the season and drops the Tigers to 2-4, who also lost Harlingen South in the second game of a double-header later Saturday afternoon.

Escamilla and Rodriguez hope the win gives Weslaco enough momentum to start a winning streak when they return to district competition against Donna North on Monday in a deep 32-6A.

“It feels good,” Rodriguez said. “I’m just happy that we won. We’re taking it one game at a time and go from there.”

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