Coyotes finish off sweep

SAN JUAN - Much like Game 1, the La Joya Coyotes jumped out to an early lead Friday, but this time they had to hold off a late charge by PSJA High.

The Coyotes defeated the Bears 9-4 to sweep the teams' area-round series 2-0 and advance to play the winner of the Brownsville Lopez-McAllen High series in the regional quarterfinals.

La Joya pulled ahead 9-0 after 5 1/2 innings, but the Bears scored three unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth inning off of two errors by third baseman Lupe Lopez and added one more in the seventh.

PSJA had the bases loaded with no outs when Coyotes starter Adrian Garza was replaced by Game 1 winner Miguel Peña, who struck out the next three batters to end the game.

Peña now has 40 strikeouts during his last 20 innings pitched. Despite the shaky ending, Garza picked up the win and struck out six in the process.

"I just want to thank God for blessing us and giving us an opportunity to get clutch hits when we had to," Coyotes coach Reuben Farias said. "We made plays when we had to. Adrian pitched a great game, had them off balance.

"In the last couple of innings they made some clutch hits here and there, but they are a good team."

During the first inning, Peña was caught in a rundown. Before he was tagged for the final out, third basemen Lupe Lopez scored from third for a 1-0 edge.

An error by Bears second baseman Danny Orozco allowed Adrian Peña to reach safely and Robert Mariscal to advance to third in the second frame. Mariscal scored on an RBI single by Leo Gonzalez, and Jesus Treviño brought in Adrian Peña on a ground out.

To top off the inning, Gonzalez scored on a wild pitch to give the Coyotes a 4-0 advantage.

La Joya added three more runs in the fifth and one in the sixth to pad its lead.

"I am not going to take anything away from La Joya, they did a great job," Bears coach Steve Flores said. "I wish them all the luck in the world. We just got to get better. The good thing is that we have three more years to do it."

Peter Rasmussen covers high school baseball for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4448.