By ADAM KUJAWSKI, Staff Writer
PORT ISABEL — Patience paid off for the Rio Hondo Lady Bobcats on Friday night.
Trailing by three runs in the final inning, Rio Hondo (8-2, 2-0 in District 32-4A) tallied five runs during the top of the seventh to defeat the Port Isabel Lady Tarpons 7-5.
After a single and a strikeout led off the seventh, the Lady Tarpons (7-4, 1-1) held a 5-2 lead and were two outs away from victory. But Katherine Nieto — Rio Hondo’s No. 9 hitter — stepped to the plate and blasted an RBI triple to start the comeback.
The next three Lady Bobcats batters recorded hits. First, Jenny Flores singled to score Nieto, thenAnnie Alvarez reached on a double. With two on and still one out, Alexa Castellanos drove in Flores and Alvarez with a single to give Rio Hondo the lead.
Two batters later, Tianna Sandoval added one more run on a single, and upon the completion of the inning, P.I. was down to its final three outs.
“They just found our pitcher’s rhythm and started putting the ball in play, and we made a few errors to help out a bit,” Port Isabel coach Jesus Garza said.
The Lady Tarpons began their half of the seventh quickly, giving up two outs when Gillian Garza stepped to the dish.
Garza proceeded to reach base unconventionally via a strikeout. The Lady Bobcats began celebrating after the initial swing and miss, but the ball was not caught and Rio Hondo failed to complete the play.
Marina Wise-Herring was next up and attempted to capitalize on her team’s good fortune with a single. But with the tying runner on, Natasha Ramirez grounded out to the pitcher to solidify the Lady Bobcats’ comeback.
“We knew we were due. We had to prove that we’re the best team in the district,” Rio Hondo coach Brett Esparza said. “This is a great opponent early on, and we knew this was going to have big implications down the road. We want to stay ahead of the logjam that’s about to happen in our district.
“It’s a great win for our kids, a great program win. For us to come out and go down by as many as four and to keep having to fight to battle back, it says a lot about the character of our kids.”
The Lady Tarpons wasted no time establishing an early lead. Alex Martinez reached base on a walk to lead off their half of first and scored after Victoria Cantu drove her in following a triple to right field.
Cantu then scored when Cecily Niles hit a sacrifice ground ball to shortstop to give the Lady Tarpons an early 2-0 lead.
Port Isabel continued to pile on offense when it added three more runs, including a home run by Amy Colunga in the fourth that prompted a pitching change by Esparza.
Flores, who had pitched 4 1/3 innings, was replaced by Miranda Martinez. Martinezheld Port Isabel scoreless for the remainder of the game, allowing four baserunners.
“(Jenny) just wasn’t hitting her spots,” Esparza said. “She does a great job, she’s battle tested and carried us in the playoffs last year. Both girls have a chance to come out and be our ace, and I thought it would the best matchup for us to throw Jenny. But she was having trouble hitting her spots and they got some big hits early.
“We had Miranda warming up the whole time, and she said, ‘I’m ready, coach,’ and we put her in and she stepped up to the plate.”
Meanwhile, Rio Hondo’s bats, which had been silent during the first half of the contest, awoke in the fifth when they recorded their first runs as Amanda Torres and Nieto scored.
Despite allowing late runs and ultimately surrendering the lead and the game, Garza was pleased with the way his team performed. He would like to see more of a complete body of work in the future.
“We played well,” he said. “We’ve just got to work on finishing as a team and keeping the energy up. And that’s what I told them, we need to keep the energy up throughout and don’t give them a second chance.”
Adam Kujawski covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @adamkujo1.