After dropping Game 1, 9-0, in Pharr on Thursday, Brownsville Rivera bounced back with a 4-2 come from behind victory to take Game 2 on Friday at Rivera High School to send the best-of-three series into a decisive Game 3.
Game 3, weather permitting, is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Brownsville Rivera High School.
“Resilient. We talked about it in pregame, we said a don’t let it be our last night, and these boys took it to heart and fought,” Rivera head coach Travis Parker said. “When adversity hit in that fifth inning down 2-0, this group showed a lot. They showed a lot to come back and score in the next two innings. That’s a real good ball club over there, so for us to take one from them, it’s huge, but it’s not over. We believe we can take the series now. I have a dugout full of believers, man, so I’m excited about getting to Game 3.”
Rivera trailed North 2-0 in fifth after giving away a pair of runs in the top half of the inning off Axel Cantu and Diego Aparicio singles and two errors.
Rivera then took advantage of a North miscue with two on and two outs in the bottom of the fifth as Jonathan Solis hit a hard ground ball to third, but the throw to first was off and allowed one run to come across cut the lead in half at 2-1.
Rivera kept the momentum at the plate rolling into the bottom of the sixth after a Marcos Guerrero grounder was mishandled, Andres Rocha singled into right field, and Enrique Rey was hit by pitch to load the bases with no outs. Freshman Raul Reyes tied the game with a chopper towards short that took a high bounce into left field to bring the tying run in.
“We started off slow, but we got hot late,” Reyes said. “I believe in my team. We all got hyped up, got turned up at the end, and that’s how we’ve been doing it all season. I trust everybody here.”
A balk gave Rivera a 3-2 lead, and after another walk and fielder’s choice, Solis came up big with a single into left field to tack on another run for a 4-2 advantage.
North had the tying at the plate in the top of the seventh after a leadoff single by Cantu, but a strikeout, groundout to short and pop out to first ended things to send the series into a decisive Game 3 on Saturday.
Rivera pitcher Guerrero tossed a complete game and allowed two runs, both unearned, off four hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. He also scored one run.
“It was possibly our last game, do-or-die, so we just came out here and did our job. We just wanted a third game, that’s all we wanted, and we got it done,” Guerrero said.
Rocha finished 2-for-3 to lead Rivera, while Reyes and Solis both had one RBI each.
North’s Cantu led the Raiders with a 2-for-3 game and one run scored. North starting pitcher Erik Herrera had one hit and threw 5.1 innings with two earned runs off four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Game 3 is currently scheduled to be played at 2 p.m. Saturday at Brownsville Rivera High School, weather permitting. A Brownsville Rivera win would send them into the area round for the second time in three years. A PSJA North win would send them into the second round for the first time since 2012.
“We have to play with a never say die attitude,” Parker said. “The effort was a lot better tonight. Not to take away anything from them last night, but I think our effort wasn’t as good and as sharp as it was tonight. Playing at home has a little bit to do with that, so I’m expecting them to be excited to wake up and play in Game 3 and try to upset these guys. We are the underdog so we’re taking that role and trying to run with it. W... Click here to read full article
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