By ADAM KUJAWSKI, Staff Writer
RIO GRANDE CITY — It took five innings for Brownsville Veterans Memorial to gain the lead, but Tania Castro took it away with two outs in the top of the sixth.
The Laredo LBJ catcher hit an inside-the-park home run that scored two runs and gave the Lady Wolves a 6-5 advantage, and they held on to defeat the Lady Chargers in an area-round game Friday.
“We kept battling the whole game,” Laredo LBJ coach Francisco Quiroz said. “We came with a mission to win and go back to the third round, and now we have San Benito and they’re a great ballclub.
“We’re never out of any game, and we’re going to fight until the last out.”
The home run was the eventual game winner, but one inning after the Lady Chargers fell behind they nearly tied the game.
Lydia Fernandez reached on an infield single and Cassie Valdez hit a scorching line drive that was caught by pitcher Karina Moreno. The play happened so fast that Fernandez did not make it back to first base, and she was picked off for the second out of the inning.
“The ball was hit so hard, I didn’t even see it go from (Valdez’s) bat to (Moreno’s) glove,” Brownsville Veterans coach Ray Cardenas said. “It was instantaneous, and it was one of those reaction plays. But you’ve got to give that girl credit. She put out her glove, and if you make plays, you deserve to win.”
Despite the catch, the Lady Chargers proceeded to load the bases when Sarah Sandoval and Thalia Perez hit back-to-back singles, and Harley Morales was hit by a pitch.
Yisel Richeson stepped to the plate with the tying run on third but hit a floater to shortstop Mel Gamboa, who dove to record the final out.
When Brownsville Veterans initially took the lead during the fifth inning, it was Sandoval who delivered a bases-loaded hit that — coupled with an error by the Laredo LBJ left fielder — cleared the bases and tied the game.
Then, Perez hit a line drive to center field one batter later and scored Sandoval to give the Lady Chargers a 5-4 edge.
Brownsville Veterans surrendered the lead during the next inning and failed to put any additional runs on the board during the sixth and seventh frames.
Sandoval led the Lady Chargers with four hits, including three singles and one triple. She also scored a pair of runs and recorded three RBIs.
Perez also had multiple hits for Brownsville Veterans. She had two singles, was hit by a pitch and tallied an RBI.
Two players had two hits for the Lady Wolves. Castro collected a single and a home run to go with a pair of runs and two RBIs. Gamboa had two singles, one run and one stolen base.
The loss marks the end of the season for the Lady Chargers, who needed to win a play-in game to earn the No. 4 seed in District 32-6A. They advanced to the bi-district round, where they defeated the No. 1 seed from District 32-5A, Weslaco High, in a best-of-three series.
“The girls have grown up, they’re truly coaches’ players,” Cardenas said. “They listen, they want to learn, they believe in what we’re doing and they’re great athletes. They just needed to believe in themselves to get our program where we want it to be. All the credit goes to those girls. I’m looking forward to next year. I can’t wait, and the girls are excited also.
“Our girls are very smart, they’re very educated, so they understand and they can see the big picture. For being so young and inexperienced, they understand that there’s progress to be made.”
Adam Kujawski covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @adamkujo1.