BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
As the spring break holiday continued into its second weekday, the Edinburg North Lady Cougars (14-6, 3-0) played with a business-like aggression in their 16-0 shutout win in 4 innings against the PSJA North Lady Raiders (10-7, 0-3) at PSJA North softball field on Tuesday night. The victory comes as the Lady Cougars were playing their second road game in two days after defeating PSJA Southwest 18-1 on Monday.
“The girls have gelled well,” Edinburg North coach Richard Tressler said. “They buy into the program. Everybody’s on the same page.”
Edinburg North jumped on Lady Raiders starting pitcher Megan Lizcano. Lizcano surrendered four runs on six singles in the first inning, carving out a hole from which PSJA North was unable to escape. The Lady Cougars would go on to score three runs in the second and third innings and the final six runs in the fourth. Edinburg North starter Jackie Longoria scattered three hits over four shutout innings, walking one and striking out three to get the win.
Out of Edinburg North’s 21 hits in Tuesday night’s game, catcher Hope Rodriguez accounted for four of them. Rodriguez hit an RBI single in the first, a two-run home run in the second, a run-scoring single in the third and a two-run double in the fourth.
“When I go into the batter’s box, you just try to find a pitch you can drive,” Rodriguez said. “See a few pitches. It’s good to be aggressive, but not too aggressive, like swinging at the first pitch. Letting the pitcher pitch to me a little bit, try to get her speed and pitch spin down. After that, it’s just looking at the ball and driving it.
“I’d rather hit the ball on the ground or on a line drive and force them to make a play than in the air. All they have to do is catch it and it’s an out.”
With the rescheduled game behind him, Tressler is ecstatic about his team’s upcoming district game against Edinburg Economedes on Thursday night for more than one reason.
“I became very ill because of it (the weather),” Tressler said. “We were killing ourselves all day and late into the night for the games that were cancelled, trying to get our field ready. We just got it ready today. So it’ll be ready for us to have practice tomorrow, and then our game against Economedes on Thursday at home. And that’ll be our first home game of the year. March 16: that’s unheard of. We’ve usually had a couple by then.”