By MARK MOLINA | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
MISSION — The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers dressed just 10 players for their series-opening playoff matchup with the Laredo Cigarroa Lady Toros.
Despite being shorthanded, they didn’t miss a beat.
The Lady Chargers were lights out at the plate and junior starting pitcher Mia Anzaldua threw a gem in the circle as they defeated the Lady Toros 19-0, five-inning win in Game 1 of their best-of-three bi-district series Friday night at Sharyland High School.
Lady Chargers head coach Rayner Cardenas said he and his staff prepared for Friday’s game throughput the season with several of his players participating in other school activities.
“We have girls who are fortunate enough to have qualified for regionals in track and we also have girls competing at nationals in chess in Tennessee,” Cardenas said. “We have a well-rounded group of girls who are great at many things, so we prepared them throughout the season to play and get in their at-bats, so when it came time and we knew we would be short on players because of other commitments, we’d have no problems with putting them in.”
Brownsville Veterans racked up 17 hits and 14 earned runs as Cigarroa had just four errors on the night.
“The girls hit the ball well and I think we earned most of those runs with solid base hits and solid base running,” Cardenas said. “I also think it gives the girls more confidence knowing that everything they’ve been working on as far as hitting over the past couple of weeks has paid off.”
Anzaldua pitched five innings, striking out 10 batters and giving up two hits with two walks and a hit batsman in the win.
“I felt pretty good in the warmups and it’s all about starting off in those warmups,” said the junior pitcher. “Our defense was solid today with no errors at all. When you have a strong defense as a pitcher, you relax knowing that if you give up a hit, it’s fine.
“Overall, we executed very well. We didn’t know anything about this team, so us doing our job and posting 19 runs, that’s pretty good.”
With two on and one out in the bottom of the first, catcher Harley Morales hit a single to center field, but a fielding error allowed her to make it to third and Cassie Valdez and Anzaldua to come home, making it a 2-0 game.
Morales would come home on an error after a throw to third sailed into the outfield.
“(Brownsville Veterans) is a very well-coached team,” Cigarroa head coach Esi Castillo said. “I’m not going to take anything away from them, but we had some throwing errors that allowed the early runs, but other than that, we made them hit balls that were playable. It wasn’t until the end that they were able to get timing off our pitchers.”
The Lady Chargers scored two more runs on an RBI double from Christina Gonzalez to make it 5-0 after one complete inning.
Lady Toros starting pitcher Naydelin Laredo gave up four hits in the inning and then three more hits in the second inning, including an inside-the-park home run to Anzaldua, which made it a 6-0 game.
Laredo was pulled in favor of Paulina Rubio.
Brownsville Veterans continued the onslaught in the top of the third inning when Anzaldua brought in two runs on an RBI double, followed by a two-RBI triple from Morales to push the lead to 10-0.
Liz Abete hit an RBI single three batters later and the Lady Chargers led 11-0 after three complete innings.
Brownsville Veterans added eight more runs in the fifth inning, coming on five hits from four different hitters, including a three-run triple from Valdez.
Valdez was 2 for 3 with three RBIS, was walked once and scored three runs.
Anzaldua also was 2 for 3 from the plate with three RBIs, including an inside the park home run, and was walked twice.
Morales was 3 for 5 with two RBIs.
The series resumes today with Game 2 set for 2 p.m. at Sharyland High.
A Lady Chargers win closes out the series.
“I think the girls understand what’s at stake here,” Cardenas said. “They have to come out focused and hopefully we can close out the series (today). That’s a great team over there, they made the playoffs, they’re well-coached and they played hard all the way through.
“We know Cigarroa is going to give us a great game and if we don’t come out playing how we’re supposed to, we’re in trouble.”