No. 2 McHi routs top-ranked Sharyland

MISSION — A few more timely hits and Thursday’s showdown between Sharyland and McAllen High may have reached run-rule territory.

Although McHi’s 8-0 victory over top-ranked Sharyland went the full seven innings, it took nothing away from the dominating performance the Bulldogs posted.

“I told our kids not to let those opportunities go to waste because we might pay for it later in the game,” McHi coach Eliseo Pompa said. “Our kids picked it up and did a great job.”

The Bulldogs, ranked second by Valley Freedom Newspapers, squandered a few opportunities for big innings as they left the bases loaded in the third, fourth and fifth innings in taking a 4-0 lead. But McHi pitcher Alexis Garza showed that whatever offense his teammates could scratch out would be more than enough.

“We got out of a lot of self-inflicted trouble early — walks, errors and we missed two opportunities for double plays,” Sharyland coach Bart Bickerton said. “You are only going to escape that for a certain amount of time.”

Garza had nine strikeouts, allowed three hits and walked one against the Rattlers’ power-packed lineup. Garza retired nine of the first 10 batters before Sharyland garnered its first hit on a dribbler down the third base line that opened the Rattlers’ fourth. Garza allowed another hit before the Bulldogs eventually ended the inning with a double play. Garza then retired seven in a row before the Rattlers’ banged out a harmless hit in the seventh inning.

“We got hits when they counted, our defense was amazing and I was confident on the mound,” said Garza, who improved to 3-0. “When you get runs, you always feel confident and I knew that I could stop these guys and I knew my team could get some hits on them.”

McHi scored two runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings. Armando Garza and R.J. Garcia, who was 3-for-3, had run-scoring singles in the fourth. McHi scored two in the fifth on the strength of five walks and two Rattlers’ errors. The Bulldogs added a run in the sixth with Marcos Hinojosa’s RBI single. McHi put up three in the seventh.

“It still early in our district,” Pompa said. “It just happened that tonight Sharyland was on our schedule. I know that people were making this game to be big, but every game we play is big in our district.”

The Bulldogs (17-2, 2-0 District 30-5A) don’t get much time to savor Thursday’s victory because they play host to Donna tonight. Sharyland (17-2, 1-1) lost for the second time in a row. The Rattlers lost to Corpus Christi Carroll, 8-1, in the final of the Sharyland tournament on Saturday.

“We didn’t show much tonight,” Bickerton said. “Once we fell behind, we were pretty much done, which is not a good night. … You are only as good as your last game and our last two games have been terrible.”