By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
EAGLE PASS — Del Rio was finally able to score its first run of the Babe Ruth Baseball 13-15-Year-Old World Series, but there wasn’t much more that went right for the team on day two.
After dropping their first game of the pool play 15-0 Wednesday afternoon, Del Rio returned to the City of Eagle Pass Patsy Winn Sports Complex Thursday afternoon to face the Mid-Atlantic Region champs from Mifflin County, Pa.
After a competitive first two innings, Mifflin County pulled away from Del Rio, outscoring them 16-0 over the next three innings to win, 19-1, and drop Del Rio, the East Texas State representatives, to 0-2 in pool play.
Del Rio needs to win its next two games if it hopes to advance to the single elimination tournament that begins Monday. The top three teams from each division of pool play advances to the smaller tournament.
Down 3-0 headed in the bottom of the second inning, Del Rio started things off with one out as Julius Flores worked his way on base via a walk. He was replaced on the bases by the speedy Zane Hughes.
Hughes promptly made the move pay off by swiping second base and putting himself into scoring position. J.P. Rios brought the Del Rio fans to their feet as he smacked a single to right field. Hughes never broke stride, sprinting to third and then home, crossing the plate and cutting the Pennsylvania lead to 3-1.
Eliseo “Cheo” Ortiz would give Del Rio a second base runner with two outs, but Mifflin County was able to get Mark Peña to pop up to end the threat.
Del Rio would only get one more person on base over the next three innings as Flores singled to right field to become the only person on the team to reach base twice in the game, but Del Rio could not score another run.
Flores was the only Del Rio player to reach base safely twice and was named Player of the Game for the team by tournament officials.
Del Rio was able to keep Pennsylvania off the scoreboard in the second inning, but Mifflin County exploded for 16 more runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings combined. They scored three runs in the third, six runs in the fourth and seven runs in the fifth inning.
As a team, Mifflin County pounded Del Rio pitching for 15 hits and took advantage of four walks, two hit batters and six errors to roll to the win in five innings via the run rule.
Del Rio will next face the New England Region champions from Trumbull, Conn. That game is set for Friday at 5 p.m. at the Winn Complex in Eagle Pass.
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Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
