LOS FRESNOS — The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers entered Tuesday’s game against the Los Fresnos Lady Falcons in search of a win to ease their playoff berth concerns.
However, a pair of late errors by the Lady Chargers blemished what had been a scoreless pitchers’ duel for five innings, and Los Fresnos took advantage of the miscues to earn a 2-0 victory.
“I think defensively we played a great game,” Los Fresnos coach Traci Blackman said. “We put the ball in play, we didn’t have any strikeouts and that’s all we can ask them to do, is put the ball in play and see what happens.
“In this game sometimes it’s whoever makes the most errors, and we capitalized on those things and we were able to pull out the win. But it was a close game, and their pitcher pitched a great game.”
Maya Guevara scored the winning run during the bottom of the fifth inning. She reached first base on a single to center field and advanced to second on a ground ball by Victoria Loa.
With two outs, Guevara stole third, and when the throw by catcher Harley Morales trickled into left field, Guevara ran home to give Los Fresnos a 1-0 lead.
During the sixth inning, Samantha Padilla gave the Lady Falcons an insurance run. After making it to first on a fielder’s choice, she scored when Dori Alcalde hit a hard ground ball that went under shortstop Rheanna Gomez’s legs, resulting in a two-base error.
“When you play a really elite team like Los Fresnos or any elite team, you have to minimize your mistakes,” Brownsville Veterans coach Ray Cardenas said, “and we made a few key mistakes in the late innings and they came back and they got us.
“But I’m proud of the way these girls fought. To come here where there’s a lot of history and tradition, we knew it was going to be a tough place to win and a tough environment, but I’m proud of my girls. They fought and they played hard, and I really couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Sarah Sandoval reached first with one out in the seventh inning to bring the tying run to the plate for Brownsville Veterans. Darlena Galvan grounded into a fielder’s choice, and again the tying run was up to bat.
Kiwi Silva hit a ground ball to second base, and Loa stepped on the bag for the forceout of Galvan, and the Lady Falcons extended their District 32-6A record to 11-2. The Lady Chargers fell to 6-7. Each team will play its final game of the regular season Friday.
“They needed this win, and we wanted to stay on the winning side going into the playoffs,” Blackman said. “Overall I thought it was a good game.”
For the first five innings, the teams were locked in a pitchers’ duel. The few runners that did make it into scoring position failed to score.
Gomez led off the game with a single and quickly made it to second when Cassie Valdez advanced her on a ground ball. But when Thalia Perez hit a ground ball to the shortstop, Gomez took off for third but fell victim to a 6-3-5 double play to end the inning.
The only other time the Lady Chargers were in scoring position was when Sandoval led off the second with a double. However, she was stranded when the next three batters were retired in order.
The Lady Falcons’ best scoring chance aside from the two runs they tallied came during the second. Alcalde reached first on a fielder’s choice and, after Marisela Gaytan hit a double down the right field line, she took off for home.
However, Gigi Richeson corralled the ball and tossed it to Lydia Fernandez, who fired it home to Morales to get the tag on Alcalde to end the inning and keep the game scoreless.
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.