BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — Ordinarily, a matchup between two softball stalwarts like Edinburg Vela and Edinburg North will bring the city’s softball community out in full force. A few Edinburg High softball players took in the game on their night off the diamond.
Instead, temperatures in the 40s took some of the heat off, but there was still plenty at stake. Tuesday night was the first of the District 31-6A play in a season that has taken some interesting twists and turns through three weeks.
Weslaco High and Edinburg North always carry heavy expectations, but they sport relatively young rosters in 2019. Already dealing with the losses of the power-hitting Katy Truitt and starting catcher Shayla Garcia to transfer, Edinburg High was dealt another blow when it learned Erika Cortez transferred east to Rio Hondo. Cortez was The Monitor’s All-Area Player of the Year last season.
As for Edinburg Vela, the beat went on. The SaberCats downed the Cougars 9-0 at Edinburg North on Tuesday.
“It was a huge win,” Edinburg Vela coach Jon Maples said. “Our goal coming in was to be 1-0. We bobbled some balls. You can tell we were nervous some in our first district game.”
Edinburg Vela (17-3, 1-0) got its scoring started in the second inning. Karina Guzman led off the frame with a double. Guzman came around to score when No. 9-hitter Kameryn Casares reached on an error to put the SaberCats up 1-0. Casares did more damage to the Cougars when she doubled in Deandra Longoria in the fourth.
Edinburg Vela sophomore pitcher Brianna Salinas got the ball in Tuesday’s pivotal game. Despite the elements, she did not disappoint. Salinas walked three, struck out six and scattered four singles over the seven-inning complete game.
SaberCat senior shortstop Taylor Chavez wasn’t healthy at the start of the season, but she contributed to Tuesday’s win. Chavez drove in a run with a single in the sixth to give the SaberCats a 6-0 advantage.
“I rolled my ankle two days before we played in the tournament in La Joya, so I had to sit out,” Chavez said. “I decided that it was the best thing for our team to come back healthy and help this team win the district. Winning tonight really boosts our confidence as a team.”
“That was awesome to see,” Maples said of Chavez’s run-scoring single. “We’ve been battling injuries since August and we’ve had the ‘next man up’ attitude. We support each other. That’s a great thing to have.”
Edinburg North (13-6, 0-1) formed two serious offensive threats in the third and fifth innings. Both times, Salinas put two runners on ahead of ENHS cleanup hitter Hope Rodriguez, and both times she walked Rodriguez to load the bases to face Patty Davila.
Davila flew out to center to end the third and grounded a pitch back to Salinas to close out the fifth.
“We wanted someone else to beat us instead of Hope (Rodriguez),” Maples said. “We told her (Salinas) to pitch around Hope. It’s nothing against her. That’s us respecting Hope and the type of player she is. We respect her for the four years she’s put in here at (Edinburg) North. If we were going to lose this game, somebody else has to beat us.”
By the time Edinburg Vela established its 7-0 lead after six-and-a-half innings, the handful of Edinburg High players left the stands.
“Out of the nine runs they scored, about three of them were earned runs and the rest were unearned,” Edinburg North coach Richard Tressler said. “It’s not (starting pitcher) Nat(alie Rodriguez)’s fault. She pitched well enough for us. The bottom line is: if you don’t score any runs, you can’t win. Our hitting was atrocious. We couldn’t have played any worse. The way we played tonight is not reflective of the way we’ve been playing.”
Tressler’s starter, Natalie Rodriguez, was part of a scary collision at home plate during the top of the seventh inning. Vela’s Karina Guzman slid in to home while Rodriguez was there covering the plate. Both players were on the grass for a few minutes, but Rodriguez appeared to bear the brunt of it. She had to be carried off the field.
Annabel Segoviano went from the second base to the circle to get the final two outs of the seventh.
“She (Natalie) won’t play against Donna North on Friday. That I can tell you,” Tressler said. “We’ll play it by ear and see what happens.”