By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers’ pitching and hitting came together for another strong performance in district play.
Brownsville Veterans beat the Los Fresnos Lady Falcons 11-1 in a District 32-6A game Tuesday at Los Fresnos.
Ray Cardenas, Brownsville Veterans’ coach, thought it was a sign of all the elements of good softball coming together to earn a road win.
“I want to give credit to everybody. All the girls.” Cardenas said. “Maybe they didn’t get the hit but they moved the girls to second and third, and then we came up with a big hit after that. It was a great team victory where nobody really outshined anybody other than the pitching we had that kept them off-balanced. Offensively, I wanted to credit all the girls. They really executed top to bottom, left to right.”
The Lady Chargers were strong Tuesday night, with the team’s two young aces taking control of Los Fresnos’ lineup.
Sophomore starting pitcher Cassie Valdez and freshman relief pitcher Mia Anzaldua combined to strike out 10 batters while allowing four hits and one run.
Lydia Fernandez led the charge from the leadoff spot with two hits and two runs, and Rheana Gomez hit an RBI double in the seventh.
Valdez had two runs and stole two bases, and Sarah Sandoval also scored two runs each for the Lady Chargers (15-5, 5-1).
“I think it was pitching. We have two, three solid pitchers who can go in at anytime,” Cardenas said. “We have good hitters. We have a good defense from infield to outfield. We’re getting smarter around the bases, knowing to execute hits and runs, bunts and squeezes. We’re getting better at what we do. We haven’t reached our potential yet. There’s a lot of work left to do, and the girls understand that but we’re coming along pretty comfortably.”
It was a frustrating night for Los Fresnos, which committed eight errors and failed to drive in runners in scoring position.
“We can’t have errors and not hit the ball when we play decent teams.” Los Fresnos coach Traci Blackman said. “(Brownsville Veterans) did a good job. Their pitcher kept us off-balanced. They didn’t have errors. We did. You can’t do that.”
Stephanie Perez led Los Fresnos (14-7-1, 3-3) with two singles, and Maya Guevara had a hit and a walk.
Brownsville Veterans put runs on the board early, bringing in Fernandez and Gomez to grab a 2-0 in the top of the first.
Los Fresnos loaded the bases and had Jianna Calvillo as the go-ahead run on third in the bottom of the second inning, but a pop-fly with to left field with two outs ended the Lady Falcons’ scoring threat.
“We had the bases loaded,” Blackman said. “I think we had an opportunity, but we just couldn’t put the ball in play and get any runners across.”
Brownsville Veterans extended the lead to four with runs in the third and fourth innings, and three runs in the fifth put Los Fresnos in a deep hole.
“We played awesome. We played together as a team and didn’t let anything stop our momentum. We just kept charging no matter what, each inning.”
The Lady Falcons scored their only run of the game in the sixth inning, when Melanie Loa hit a two-run double to drive in Perez.
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.