By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
Cassie Valdez didn’t worry about letting three runs across during the first inning. She knew her teammates had her back.
The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers rode its offense and a dominant pitching performance by Valdez to a 12-4 win against Harlingen South on Tuesday in Brownsville.
“I feel great. I feel like we did great on defense and offense,” Valdez said. “When we got hits and they hit off me, my defense was there to support me and have my back.”
The sophomore threw seven innings for Brownsville Veterans, allowing six hits and four runs and striking out 10 batters. She also went 4 for 4 from the plate with one home run, one double and three RBIs.
Valdez wasn’t the only player to shine for Brownsville Veterans.
Third baseman Sarah Sandoval went 3 for 4 with three RBIs and two runs, and Gigi Richerson drove in three runs.
Seven Chargers scored in the game, with the 1 through 5 hitters in the lineup scoring twice.
“It was a great team victory, great team victory,” Brownsville Veterans coach Ray Cardenas said. “Cassie put on a performance again. She pitched her heart out. She dominated as she usually does. She’s becoming a dominant pitcher. The great thing about that, as dominant as she is, to come out and see the girls come out and hit the ball and get her the support that she does and get runs on the board, it makes me feel good.
“It’s a team victory. Everybody did their job. It makes us feel really, really good about their job.”
Leeanne Ledesma put Harlingen South on the board first by hitting a two-out, three-run homer during the top of the first inning.
The Lady Chargers scored a run during the bottom of the first to pull within two of the lead, but it wasn’t until the second inning that their offense caught fire.
Alondra Toledo led Brownsville Veterans’ rally with a leadoff triple, and Gigi Richeson knocked her in with a groundball RBI on the following at-bat.
Rheana Gomez drove in Harley Morales to tie the game at 3, and Valdez drove in the go-ahead run on a two-run single to give Brownsville Veterans a 5-3 lead .
Two more runs went across by the end of the second to give the Lady Chargers a 7-3 lead heading into the third.
Valdez produced another run during the fourth inning with a solo shot to right-center field.
“My adrenaline is like, ‘OK, Cassie,’’’ Valdez said. “Now you got to help our teammates because you caused those runs by missing a pitch or something. Now you got to help out your team and hit.”
Brownsville Veterans put together another strong inning from the plate during the bottom of the sixth by scoring four more runs to put the game out of reach for Harlingen South heading into the seventh and final inning.
Sandoval hit a two-run single and Richeson hit a two-run double to cap the Chargers’ final score.
“I would like to say that when we get things rolling, we can put a lot of pressure on defenses,” Cardenas said. “We have a pretty good little small-ball game. The girls hit the long ball pretty well. For some reason, you just got to get those innings started and the girls know how to make sure they can finish them.
“Those two innings were great, but, like I said, the girls understand that they have the ability to do that.”
Harlingen South had a hard time getting runners on base after the first. The Lady Hawks had three hits and one run during the final six innings of the game.
“We were hitting the ball well (in the first inning), but after that I don’t know,” Harlingen South coach Elias Martinez said. “I have no idea. I’m at a loss of words. That’s just tough. (Brownsville Veterans was) down, they never panicked. They plugged away, got one run here and one run there.
“They waited for that one big inning, and they took advantage of that. After that, there was no looking back.”
Joshua McKinney covers high school sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @joshuabvherald.