EDINBURG — San Benito needed a spark. Something to get them going. They got it in two forms by one individual on Friday.
Sophomore Sarah Garcia etched her name in the Lady Hounds’ playoff lore with a dandy of a performance. The leadoff hitter stymied Edinburg Vela in the circle and was clutch at the plate to help lead the Lady Hounds to a 12-0 bi-district sweep over the Lady SaberCats.
San Benito will now face South San Antonio in the area round sometime next week.
Garcia helped fuel the Lady Hounds’ offense with a 3 for 5 performance at the plate, including three RBIs and two runs scored. Meanwhile in the circle, Garcia pitched four innings of shutout ball, allowing just one hit and striking out four. Diandra Padilla came on in relief for the final two innings of the six-inning contest, allowing one hit with two strikeouts.
“Sarah has thrown in big games for us before and she was prepared for tonight,” said San Benito coach Kristy Leal. “She is very capable of going out there and getting the job done. That is why we gave her the ball tonight and she did very well for us. She is clutch, she is our leadoff and she has really left a mark here.”
Both Garcia and Vela senior Naomi Reyes locked horns early on. Reyes, who pitched in Game 1 on Thursday, kept the Lady Hounds’ offense at bay with her changeup early and often. Reyes didn’t surrender a run until the third inning on a sacrifice fly that gave San Benito a 1-0 advantage.
Meanwhile, Garcia held her own. In the bottom of the third with two on and one out, she wiggled out of the jam by retiring the next two batters on ground ball outs to get out of the inning unscathed.
San Benito finally found its offensive form in the fifth inning. Much like in Game 1, the Lady Hounds used one big inning to shift the momentum in their favor.
Once again, the patient approach paid off. After back-to-back walks, San Benito took advantage of a missed fly ball in right field to score one and go up 2-0. The Lady Hounds then loaded the bases and plated two more runs on an infield single and hit batter.
The big inning was capped off by back-to-back two-run knocks. Garcia drove in two on an RBI double then Deztiny Hernandez laced in a two-run single to push the lead to 8-0.
The seven-run fifth was followed by a four-run sixth, putting the game out of reach at 12-0 while Padilla did the rest in the circle.
“This team is all chemistry and they’re playing with intensity, and they’re excited to be here,” said Leal. “Tonight they saw the ball well and for us to get a bi-district title is big for us going forward.”
