By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
SAN JUAN — At the start of the season, Alissa Abitua set out two goals for her senior year — to hit a home run during a playoff game, and to hit a homer on a field that stretched 220 feet.
On Thursday, the PSJA High infielder crossed both items off her checklist, smashing a three-run shot over the left-field wall to lift the Lady Bears to a 3-2 victory over Rio Grande City in Game 1 of their Class 5A bi-district series.
Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Abitua crushed her second home run of the year on an 0-0 count with two outs, giving PSJA High a 1-0 series lead with their best-of-three match shifting to Rio Grande City at 7:30 tonight.
“I remember just looking at the ball, and I heard coach shout, ‘It’s out!’” Abitua said. “It was exciting.”
Abitua, whose previous home run came at PSJA Southwest (190-foot field), was admittedly surprised when the ball sailed over the wall, driving in Gabie Fonseca and Jennifer Lopez. Abitua was just 0-for-2 at the plate prior to that hit, including a strikeout. But her lone hit sparked a huge fifth inning for the Lady Bears, who had four hits during that stretch to finish with 12 on the night.
Valeria Gonzalez also came up big for PSJA High (21-5), the 32-5A co-district champions. The senior pitcher allowed just five hits and no walks while striking out four.
Gonzalez was coming off a seeding game in which she had tweaked her hamstring running between first and second base. Prior to that, she sat out 10 days after getting hit by an inside pitch during a game against Mercedes.
Despite the noticeable limp in her step, Gonzalez pitched a complete game and finished 3-for-3 at the plate on Thursday.
“She’s just a die-hard,” PSJA High coach Teresa Thibodeaux said. “It’s her senior year, and she wants to leave everything on the field.”
Though the Lady Bears generated enough offense to win Thursday, Thibodeaux said her team still needed work. They did well hitting the outside pitches from Rio Grande City’s Anikah Garcia, Thibodeaux said, “but we just couldn’t capitalize with them on the bases.”
In fact, PSJA High stranded nine runners in total, including four in scoring position.
“Defensively, we did good,” RGC coach Nicole Smedley said. “We had one error there (in the fifth inning), and that’s what cost us there in the field.
“We played a solid game, but it came down to that one error and that one hit (by Abitua).”
The Lady Rattlers (14-13), making their second straight playoff appearance, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Nadine Rios scored from first base following a throwing error.
In the following inning, Kassidy Ramirez, the seventh batter in the lineup, got on base via an error, and eventually stole third before Dana Gonzalez’s base hit drove her in for a 2-0 lead.
Down 1-0 in the series now, the Lady Rattlers return home looking to avoid another first-round playoff exit after Mercedes won last year’s series 2-0.
“There’s always room for improvement,” Smedley said. “We scored in the first and second innings, but I don’t want them to be satisfied. I feel part of them became that, and we’ve got to preserve. You’ve got to push through it. And in a seven-inning game, especially in a playoff situation, two runs against a really good team is nothing.”
“Hopefully we come out with a vengeance (tonight) and get a ‘W’ to move onto (Game 3 on) Saturday,” she added.