By MARK MOLINA | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Despite taking advantage of a couple of first-inning errors from the Porter Cowgirls, the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers did little from the plate early on as they were held without a hit for the first three innings.
The Cowgirls, however, wouldn’t capitalize and the Lady Chargers put up eight runs in the next three innings on their way to a 10-1 District 32-5A victory Tuesday night at Brownsville Veterans Memorial High School.
Brownsville Veterans struggled to figure out Porter pitcher Brenda Garcia and led just 2-1 before their bats woke up to the tune of seven hits and seven earned runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
“Porter is a really talented team and they put up a lot of fight,” Brownsville Veterans head coach Rayner Cardenas said. “A lot of credit goes to their coaches and players…they gave us a great game. We have to make sure to take everyone’s best shot and respect our opponents. We came out here dull, but we finally got it going and got that confidence going. Overall, we’re pleased.”
Lady Charger junior pitcher Mia Anzaldua had another strong outing in the circle, pitching six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits, a walk and 10 strikeouts.
The junior ace said her and her teammates stayed cool and let the game come to them.
“I warmed up as the game goes along and you just progress from there,” she said. “We started off sloppy, but what made us the better team is that we bounced back — that’s team character.”
The Cowgirls (2-3 in district) put runners on base in each of the first four innings, but brought home just runner in the top of the fourth with the bases loaded and two out.
They had an opportunity for more but stranded two in the inning.
In all, they stranded five batters on the night.
“That was the one thing I told our girls: It comes down to executing plays,” Porter head coach Ariel Arredondo said. “Especially with a pitcher of that caliber, putting the ball in play to give us an opportunity (is important). It wasn’t able to be done, that and baserunning mistakes.
“I feel that my girls played really well for five inning, but Veterans capitalized on errors and we couldn’t recover after that.”
Brownsville Veterans (5-0 in district) got its first two runs of the night by taking advantage of a pair of Cowgirl errors at third base that allowed Anzaldua and Sofia Garcia to come home.
Now leading just 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth, the Lady Chargers got their first hit of the night on a lead-off single from catcher Harley Morales.
A sac fly from Heidi Martinez and an RBI single from Alexus Isais brought in a pair of runs to make it 4-1.
In the bottom of the fifth, Cassie Valdez brought in Gio Leal on an RBI single to make it 5-1 and would cross the plate two batters later on a ground out RBI by Liz Abete.
Leading 7-1 with two on and two out n the bottom of the sixth, Anzaldua hit a double to left field, bringing in Cristina Gonzalez and Leal, highlighting a four-run inning.
Garcia took the loss for Porter in the circle giving up six earned runs and seven hits with one strikeout and three shutout innings.
Isais was 2 for 3 at the plate with an RBI, while Anzaldua had two doubles and two RBIs on the night.