Digging A Deeper Hole

EDINBURG — About the only good news for the Edinburg Coyotes on Sunday was that they finally scored in their series against the Alexandria Aces.

Other than an offensive spurt in the fourth inning, Edinburg’s nightmarish second half continued as Alexandria swept the teams’ three-game series with an 8-3 win at Edinburg Baseball Stadium.

The Coyotes (4-14) have lost 12 of their last 13 and fall 10 1/2 games behind first-place Alexandria (15-4), which took 15 out of 20 games between the teams this season.

“It has a lot to do with confidence,” Coyotes manager Vince Moore said. “Instead of trying to make something good happen, we are waiting for something bad to happen.”

With only 32 games left, Edinburg will need all the help it can get to win the second-half championship, especially since the Coyotes don’t face the Aces the rest of the season.

During the first two games of the series, the Coyotes could point to the potent opposing pitching as contributing to their struggles. Sunday Adam Frey, however, was far from a daunting figure on the mound.

Frey (5-3) won despite entering the game with a 6.38 ERA, but the Coyotes could not capitalize when they had the Aces starter in a jam and hurt their chances with two costly errors.

“Honestly, our pitching staff has come in and picked us up,” Aces manager Ricky Van Asselberg said. “I was looking at our stats earlier today, and we were batting something like .240 in our last 10 games. Our pitching staff has come in and done a real nice job for us.”

Selwyn Langaigne’s RBI double in the first plated Bryan Sabatella, who reached on an error by second baseman Eric Gonzalez.

In the third inning, Sabatella benefited a second time from a Coyotes error on a bad throw by Nelson Teilon and scored three batters later on a Josh Tranum single. That was just the beginning of a third inning in which 10 Aces came to the plate.

Langainge scored in the inning on an RBI single by Palmer Karr. Four consecutive walks by Bryan Heaston allowed three more runs to score, and Alexandria held a commanding 6-0 lead after three.

“They were leading 6-0, and all six runs were unearned,” Moore said. “A team like Alexandria, you can’t give them second chances.”

Heaston (2-4) suffered the loss despite allowing only one earned run.

The Coyotes’ 21-inning scoreless streak came to an end in the fourth inning when left fielder Rodney Medina’s single to center scored Teilon. Edinburg built on the momentum, scoring a second run on a Luis Espinosa double and a third run on a sacrifice fly by Bonner to left-center that allowed Medina to score and cut the Aces’ lead to 6-3.

Edinburg had a chance to inflict more damage in the sixth, but Gonzalez, who was hitting .216 in the last five games, struck out swinging with the bases loaded and two outs.

“Gonzalez is struggling with confidence right now,” Moore said. “He is fighting to get his confidence back right now. He just has to forget about it and come out here and play.”

NOTES: The Coyotes signed McAllen native Carlos Gallardo for the rest of the season. He played last year with Edinburg and was playing for the American Association’s Lincoln Saltdogs this season before being released.

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Peter Rasmussen covers the Edinburg Coyotes for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4448.