HARLINGEN — The Brownsville Veterans Chargers had three opportunities to claim an outright District 32-5A championship the last two weeks and the third time proved to be a charm.
The Chargers defeated Harlingen South 8-7 in a back-and-forth eight-inning battle Friday at Harlingen South to win the 32-5A district title outright for the first time in three years.
A Harlingen South (19-8-1, 14-4) victory would have given them a share of the District 32-5A crown, which now belongs solely to the Chargers (21-4-2, 16-2).
“I’m just really proud of the guys for completing it. We got a share of the district title last Tuesday — Friday we didn’t seal it, Tuesday we didn’t seal it, but finally sealed it tonight,” Brownsville Veterans head coach Adam Vera said. “It’s been a couple years since we’ve won it outright, so I’m proud of our guys.”
Brownsville Veterans charged in front with a 6-0 lead after 4 1/2 innings.
Carlos Garza singled in the first and Oscar Rodriguez tripled to bring him home. Sebastian Vela followed with an RBI-groundout to make it 2-0 early for Brownsville Veterans.
In the second, the Chargers put runners on the corners and scored one run on a balk and another on an RBI-single to left field by Lucas Head to push the lead to 4-0.
The Chargers tacked on two more runs in the top of the fifth off a pair of South errors.
But the Hawks had an answer.
South started the bottom of the fifth with a Kris Cruz single and AJ Serna walk to set up a three-run home run by Ryan Porter that cut the lead to 6-3. Back-to-back singles by Colby Martinez and Joaquin Torralba led to a D’Angelo Rodriguez two-run single to make it 6-5.
The Hawks soared in front 7-6 with a two-run single by Torralba in the bottom of the sixth.
The Chargers were down to their last three outs and needed to respond and they did just that.
Brownsville Veterans put runners in scoring position in the top of the seventh and an RBI sac fly by Head scored Anthony Rocha from third to tie things at 7-7.
Brownsville Veterans turned a clutch 1-6-3 double-play during the bottom of the seventh to keep South from scoring and send the game into extra innings.
In the top of the eighth, Brownsville Veterans’ Alfonso Bueno singled to center and Jose Jimenez singled to right field. That set up a Carlos Garza pop up that was dropped for an error and allowed Bueno to score the game-winning run as South went down in order in the bottom of the eighth.
Garza finished 3-for-4 with three runs scored. Oscar Rodriguez went 1-for-2 with one RBI, three walks and one run. Head finished with two RBI for Brownsville Veterans.
“It’s amazing because we were co-champs in my freshman year. Now, my senior year, we’re district champs and we’re ready for the playoffs,” Garza said.
Harlingen South’s Porter finished 2-for-2 with three RBI and one run. Torralba had two hits, two RBI, one walk and one run.
“I told the guys it wasn’t going to be easy. We built a great lead on South and they don’t have any quit in them,” Vera said. “Their bats got hot and they put up five in an inning. The next inning, they took the lead and we could have been down, they had all the momentum, but our guys stuck with it and I’m proud of them for that. I think it’s a great way to go into the playoffs for us because we needed to get a win. Guys got in there and stepped up.”
Brownsville Veterans will now prepare for the postseason and awaits the No. 4 seed from District 31-5A, which will either be McAllen Memorial or Sharyland High.
Harlingen South enters the playoffs as the No. 3 seed from 32-5A and will face District 31-5A’s No. 2 seed McAllen High in the bi-district round.
Matchup details are to be determined.