By STEFAN MODRICH | Staff Writer
Brownsville Veterans Memorial coach Rayner Cardenas emphasized two objectives for his players in his team’s district opener against rival Brownsville Pace — start off the season with a District 32-5A win, and be more patient at the plate.
The Lady Chargers accomplished both in a dominant 18-0 performance behind Mia Anzaldua, who struck out 11 batters in five innings and earned the win for the Lady Chargers. Junior starting pitcher Lauren Mares took the loss for the Lady Vikings.
“With Mia on the mound, our objective is — she does what she does, and she does it extremely well,” Cardenas said. “She pitches phenomenal, she’s a great athlete all the way around. She’s very dominant. We have to get her the runs. We’ve preached to the girls that we have to scratch out runs here and there.”
The senior left-handed starting pitcher allowed just two Lady Viking baserunners, both coming off of second-inning singles by senior third baseman Geaceli Orive and senior first baseman Lessly Saldana.
Brownsville Veterans jumped ahead 4-0 in the first, scored three runs during the second, third, and fourth innings, and took a 13-0 lead into the fifth inning.
“We’re trying to get the girls to understand what their job is,” Cardenas said. “They came out working on being patient at the plate, and it worked out for us today.”
Lady Chargers leadoff hitter and junior first baseman Mariangel Barbosa (4-for-5, a double, triple, and three runs scored) and senior left fielder Gio Leal (3-for-4, three singles and four runs scored) led the way for Brownsville Veterans at the plate.
During their final at-bats, the Lady Chargers scored five runs, with back-to-back singles by sophomore second baseman Sarah Gomez and center fielder Jocelyn Head starting off the late rally.
The Brownsville Veterans lineup bashed 16 hits and walked twice. Cardenas said the consistent production from top to bottom is a result of equal attention and effort in practice.
“Anybody in the dugout, in the lineup, they work as hard as anybody else,” Cardenas said. “They get the same number of reps, same number of cuts, same number of pitches off of live pitching. So everybody’s prepared to do their job when their number is called. So you saw today, we made substitutions and they came through.”
Cardenas said he and his team will build upon the decisive victory going forward in district play.
“You want to start off with a win in district,” Cardenas said. “Our district is very competitive, there’s a lot of teams, they’re working hard. Just to get that first victory out of the way in the district race really means a lot to us.”