BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
MERCEDES — Mercedes coach Kristy Leal believes a good catcher is fearless and has a strong command of the game.
Leal said she found these qualities in freshman Makayla De La Torre when she was an eighth grader.
“Obviously, the game’s a little bit slower at the middle school level. I knew she was a talented player, but naturally, varsity softball is a different animal,” Leal said. “She came in here on the first day and proved that she belonged with our upperclassmen. She’s just going to play the game. She progressed so much from the beginning of the year to now that you can’t even tell she’s a freshman anymore.”
One of De La Torre’s biggest challenges has been balancing a large pitching staff. The Tigers have had six different hurlers take the circle so far this season.
“It’s really different,” De La Torre said. “The speed of the pitchers, by itself, was a lot. You have to get used to their different styles and different variety of pitches that they might throw. I got used to it, adapting to their pitching styles.”
Kassidie Rodriguez was where De La Torre is in 2019. Rodriguez was a freshman starting pitcher last year at Mercedes.
“She came in like I did: already able to play at the varsity level, but still a little scared to play,” Rodriguez said. “Not only the pitchers, but the whole team helped her out of her shell and gave her the confidence that she needs. These past few weeks, she’s been a lot more vocal. She does a great job behind the plate.”
De La Torre and Rodriguez have experience as teammates, but they haven’t been teammates since they were both in elementary school. They were teammates on the Mercedes Rage, a 10-and-under team.
“We were mostly girls who had barely started to play softball,” De La Torre said. “That was one of Kass’ (Kassidie) first years as a pitcher, but she quickly became one of our best pitchers.”
This season, Rodriguez is 4-3 with a 1.35 earned run average and 59 strikeouts in 46.2 innings of work. The Tigers’ team ERA is 1.09.
“We already grew up together, so it wasn’t hard to bond with her, but playing together was something we hadn’t done recently,” Rodriguez said. “Beginning last fall, we had to rebuild that connection. It’s just grown more and more throughout the season.”
De La Torre has also held her own in the batter’s box. She is second on the team in batting average (.410), hits (25) and runs batted in (13).
De La Torre went 1 for 3 with two runs batted in and a run scored in Mercedes’ 9-2 win over Brownsville Porter on Wednesday.
“She’s batting second in our lineup and she’s been at that spot,” Leal said. “I put her in that position because I know she’s going to swing the bat. She’s a force when she goes up there. You can see it in her eyes. That’s why I put my trust in her.”
“I had to put in a lot of work,” De La Torre said. “I’ve been to summer workouts, went into the weight room and put in some summer conditioning. It took a lot of dedication to get here. This is where I wanted to be. It’s always been my dream to be a varsity starter as a freshman. My grandpa told me that he really wanted to see me play on varsity, so I promised him that I would. He’s been to almost every single game this year.”
Mercedes (17-8-1, 8-1) is in the midst of its most important stretch of the season. After defeating the Cowboys, the Tigers head out on the road to meet Brownsville Veterans tonight and will then host archrival Edcouch-Elsa next Tuesday.
The first-place Chargers (20-6-1, 9-0) are one game ahead of the Tigers in the District 32-5A standings while the third-place Yellow Jackets (18-8, 7-2) are just one game behind Mercedes.
“We don’t want to overlook anyone in our district. It seems like everyone is out to get everybody right now,” Leal said. “We’re going to approach every game exactly the same. Of course, we want to get a win against (Brownsville) Vets and keep our lead over Edcouch(-Elsa). But we can’t overlook anybody after those games, either.”