By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
Lopez Lady Lobos freshman Alexa Castro didn’t expect to be among the area’s top batters by the end of the season.
But the aggressive hitter has slugged her way to The Brownsville Herald’s All-Metro Offensive Player of the Year honors.
Castro, a 32-6A first-team all-district selection at third base, ended the season with a .563 batting average, two home runs, 26 RBIs and 29 runs scored.
“It was kind of scary at first because I didn’t know what was going to happen, if we were going to do good or do horrible,” Castro said. “I think this year we did pretty good . It was a pretty hard transition because I was pretty scared.”
There was a brief adjustment period at the beginning of the season due to Castro’s aggressive nature at the plate, but coach Jesse Martinez said that she started to improve after learning to be more selective when hitting.
“It was somewhat of a surprise,” Martinez said. “I expected her to do well. She came out here with incredible skills. She was rough when she came in. She was overly aggressive. Her pitch selection wasn’t where it should have been. We worked really hard on that, to find the zone that she liked to hit in. She started getting better quality at-bats and was able to hit better balls.”
Castro was handed the responsibility of hitting cleanup for Lopez early on in the season and handled clutch situations despite being nervous at times.
“It was a really big thing because you could have runners on bases with two outs and they’re all depending on you to bring in the runs,” Castro said. “It’s kind of scary.”
For Martinez , Castro’s success and growth as a hitter are signs of what’s in store for Lopez’s rising softball program.
“To me as a coach, I’m as proud as a spring chicken,” Martinez said. “To see that one of my kids was able to earn that accolade … it’s exciting to me because it’s something the community can see that we have the potential and the students to do such a thing.”
The freshman is looking forward to being a part of what could be one of the area’s better teams in the near future.
“It’s really awesome and I think it’s going to be a really good turnout with the years that are coming up,” Castro said. “With the girls that are coming up, they have good experience too. I think we’re going to be pretty good and I think the teams from the Upper Valley region shouldn’t look down on us.”
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