BY MARK MOLINA | The Brownsville Herald
Rain postponed the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers’ game with the Lopez Lady Lobos, but after patiently waiting two extra days, they came out and delivered.
Junior pitcher Mia Anzaldua was money in the circle and Brownsville Veterans hit early and often as they rolled to an 11-1 District 32-5A win over Lopez in five innings Thursday night at Brownsville Veterans Memorial High School.
Anzaldua struck out 12, walked one, allowed three hits and one earned run in five innings of work.
Though the timing of the game felt off, the junior pitcher said she simply needed to go out and deliver.
“You just play the game,” Anzaldua said. “Our defense was solid (Thursday). Lopez had a few good hits, but we got up from it and got three up, three down. Other than that, it all worked out.”
The Lady Chargers scored three runs in each of the first three innings and scored 11 runs on 10 hits on the night, including a two-run home run from Valeria Ruiz in the bottom of the third inning.
“We try to score early, open the lead and put the pressure on (Lopez),” Brownsville Veterans head coach Rayner Cardenas said. “It was a delay from Tuesday and the girls had to wait another day to play this game and I was proud of the way they came out.
“They were aggressive at the plate, played solid defense and we got started early so we were able to keep that momentum going.”
The Lady Chargers move to 11-0 and are a win away from clinching a share of the district title, while the Lady Lobos fall to 7-4 and into a tie with Edcouch-Elsa for third place with three games to play.
After Ruiz led off the bottom of the first with a triple, she was brought in on a fielder’s choice RBI after Cassie Valdez put the ball in play to give Brownsville Veterans a 1-0 lead.
Valdez came in to make it 2-0 on a wild pitch from Rubio after the ball slipped out during a delivery and then Sarah Gomez made it 3-0 on an RBI single three batters later.
In the bottom of the second, Valdez crossed the plate again, this time on an RBI double from Anzaldua to make it 4-0.
After Anzaldua came home on an error for another run, Lexi Isais recorded and RBI single to make it 6-0.
Ruiz smacked a two-run shot over the right-center field in the bottom of the third to bring in two more runs for the Lady Chargers.
Brownsville Veterans led 9-0 after three, forcing Lopez starting pitcher Kassi Rubio from the circle in favor of Alex Castro.
Rubio took the loss after giving up 10 hits and five earned runs with two strikeouts and a walk.
Lopez did get a hit in each of the final three innings, including an RBI single to deep left from Rubio to make it 9-1 in the top of the fourth inning, but would get little else.
“We were not swinging at good pitches and were letting pitches go,” Lopez head coach Jesse Martinez said. “Our confidence was low to begin with, but (Anzaldua) did a great job. She came up with her riser outside, high and we were swinging at those, so she was able to control the top of our lineup to begin with — I give her all the props.
“She did her job (Thursday) and we didn’t. We expected (good pitching), but we didn’t come through (Thursday).”
The Lady Chargers closed the game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Valdez scored four runs on the night and was 2 for 4 at the plate with an RBI.
Ruiz was 2 for 3 with two RBIS, while Anzaldua was 2 for 3 with an RBI.
Despite the blowout win, Cardenas believes Lopez will be trouble for teams down the stretch and join them in the postseason
“Lopez is a good team with great coaching, great kids and they gave a great effort (Thursday),” Cardenas said. “I consider them a playoff caliber team. I think they can take care of business in the playoffs. Even though the score didn’t show the reality of the game, I thought it was a lo closer than it looked.
“We never felt comfortable what the score was…they’re going to be handful.”