By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
It might look like an upset, but it was not in the Lady Chargers’ eyes.
It’s just taking care of business.
Brownsville Veterans Memorial beat the San Benito Lady Greyhounds 4-2 in a District 32-6A game Tuesday at Brownsville Veterans.
The Lady Chargers (19-6, 7-2) handed San Benito (24-1, 10-1), ranked No. 1 in the Texas Girls Coaches Association Class 6A poll and Maxpreps Xcellent national softball poll, its first loss of the season.
“The last time we played them we had that game and if it wasn’t for a few errors in that last inning,” Cardenas said. “We had that game for six innings. We were on top. The same thing in this one. We fell that we dominated. We feel that we played well. I think our pitching staff is the best in the Valley. I think our hitters are up therewith everybody else and can score runs with tough opponents like against San Benito. “
Cassie Valdez kept San Benito’s line up off-balanced in her 5 1/3 innings pitched, striking out nine batters and not giving up an earned run in the game. Mia Anzaldua pitched 1 2/3 relief innings and struck out two batters.
“It’s very challenging because they all have batting practice and they all have their own batting coaches,” Valdez said. “It’s just tough trying to surprise them every pitch because they know what’s coming and you’ve got to change it up.”
The sophomore pitcher also came through at the plate, going 3 for 3 with 2 RBIs. Sarah Sandoval went 2 for 3 with an RBI and made an athletic catch in deep center field to rob a San Benito hitter in the top of the seventh inning.
Cardenas doesn’t think his team has played its best ball yet.
“We still have a long way to go,” Cardenas said. “I feel that there’s a lot more potential. The girls haven’t reached it yet. Our goal right now is to keep working. We had a slip up against Harlingen South and when you have those kinds of losses, it kinds of motivates the girls to wake up and snap back to working hard.
“We’ve done that. We were able to pull this thing out and stay focused, and I still don’t think we’ve reached anywhere near where we’re capable of.”
San Benito pitchers Diandra Padilla and Erika Cortez combined to allow seven hits in six innings and struck out four hitters. Deztiny Hernandez had two hits and a run in three at-bats, and Alina Jasso scored the Lady Greyhounds’ first run of the game.
Brownsville Veterans came to the plate trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the second and scored twice to grab the lead.
Valdez drove in Sandoval on a double and scored two batters later on an error by San Benito’s catcher.
Continuing her big night, Valdez hit an RBI double in the third to bring in Rheana Gomez and give Brownsville Veterans a two-run cushion.
San Benito loaded the bases with one out in the top of the fourth but a strikeout and groundout ruined the rally.
The Lady Greyhounds rallied again in the sixth inning, with Hernandez scoring a run on an error to cut The Lady Chargers’ lead and putting runners on the corner with one out.
Brownsville Veterans brought in Anzaldua from right field to pitch, and she retired the next two batters with a groundout and a strikeout to end the inning.
The freshman fought nerves to close out the game and give Brownsville Veterans, which is one game away from its regular-season wins record, a big victory.
“Honestly, yes I was (nervous),” Anzaldua said. “It’s a great team effort. They were scoring on us. From the game before, they were hitting (well). I didn’t know what to expect.”
Joshua McKinney covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @joshuabvherald.