By MARK MOLINA | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Like all teams in the softball playoffs, the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers have goals of reaching the regional and state tournaments.
In order to continue on their road towards said goals, the Lady Chargers (24-10) must get by a team that has been there and done that in the Gregory-Portland Wildcats (20-9) in a best-of-three area playoff series starting today in Portland at 6 p.m.
The task brings both a tough test and a chance to avenge last year’s loss to Tuloso-Midway, another team from the Corpus Christi area.
“(Gregory-Portland) is two-years removed from a state (tournament berth) where they lost by one run (8-7 to Birdville in the state semifinals),” Lady Chargers head coach Rayner Cardenas said. “There is a lot of history in that program and a lot of great talent and it’s one of those measuring sticks. We’ve done well, but just like last year (in a loss to Tuloso-Midway) a Corpus team is our Achilles heel when it comes to playoffs.”
“We want to play well, show that we can compete with them and we feel good about our chances, but we know it’s going to take a complete game.”
Brownsville Veterans comes into to today’s fresh off a dominating bi-district sweep of Laredo Cigarroa.
In that series, the Lady Chargers outscored the Lady Toros 36-1, racking up 27 hits in the process.
Pitchers Mia Anzaldua and Cassie Valdez each had 10-strikeout games and allowed a combined three hits and no earned runs.
Valdez also was a combined 5 for 7 at the plate, including a three-run home run in Game 2.
Sarah Gomez also has a three-run homer in the second game.
“We played a great series,” he said. “I thought Cigarroa played well, but I think the difference in the series was our pitching. I think we hit the best we have in a long time this season. It was timely hitting and all sorts of offense. It was one of the most complete games we’ve played in a long time.”
On the other side, Gregory-Portland is coming off a two-game sweep of Uvalde.
The Wildcats will present a challenge to the Lady Chargers pitching as they come off a strong series at the plate as well, racking up 18 hits and 12 runs.
Leading the way was junior Sydney Ouellette, who was 4 for 8 with three RBIs. She also pitched, recording 11 strikeouts, nine hits and three earned runs in two games.
As a team, the Wildcats are batting .296 on the season.
The Lady Chargers are confident, but understand that the Wildcats will present a tough matchup.
“We know what we’re facing with G-P,” Cardenas said. “We know that (Ouellette) is extremely talented and that she throws extremely well…hits will be tough to come by in this round. Pitching neutralizes good hitting on both sides. I think it’ll be a great series as far as pitching goes. If we can get that timely hit and get runners on base by moving them around, it’s going to help us.
“As far as confidence goes, we have it, but we also understand that this series is going to be completely different than our last series.”
Game 1 is tonight at 6 p.m. and Game 2 will be at Brownsville Veterans Memorial on Friday at 5:30 p.m. with Game 3 following 30 minutes after if necessary.