By ROY HESS | Staff Writer
It’s always nice to have twin sisters on your softball team, especially if they are Alex and Lexi Castro.
The senior sisters were a big part of the Lopez Lady Lobos’ 2-0 victory against Laredo Cigarroa to culminate Thursday’s first day of the Brownsville ISD Invitational Tournament.
The three-day, 40-team event features round-robin play at all six Brownsville high schools, plus five fields at Brownsville Sports Park. Almost every team from the Rio Grande Valley is participating along with five ballclubs from Laredo. Each team is scheduled to play five games. There won’t be a tournament championship game.
The tournament continues at 10 a.m. today and Saturday at the same sites.
Lopez rebounded after opening the tournament with an 11-1 loss at home against La Joya High in the morning. The afternoon went much better as the Lady Lobos again played on their home diamond and won with a shutout against Cigarroa to improve their season record to 8-7.
“I see my team improving and getting stronger throughout all these games of the tournament,” said Alex Castro, who went the distance for the Lady Lobos to earn the five-inning pitching victory and added an RBI double against the Lady Toros. “I hope we come out strong at the end of this tournament, and hopefully, we do well in District (32-5A).
“I felt pretty strong (on the mound),” added Alex, who had nine strikeouts, no walks and gave up four hits. “I think it’s going to be a really good tournament. It really does help (to do well on the mound and also at the plate) because it’s very good to help out the team in more than one place. If you help out in two places, it makes the team stronger.”
The Lady Lobos actually batted first as the visiting team against Cigarroa. With no score in the bottom of the first inning, Alex got off to a solid start by striking out the side. With Alex on the mound, the Lady Toros did very little on the bases. They had a runner reach third base only once and she wound up stranded there in the bottom of the second. Besides that, only three other Lady Toros reached second.
Lopez scored its two runs on RBI hits during the top of the fourth to break the scoreless tie.
Alex brought Lexi home from second base on an RBI double to center field with no outs in the second. Lexi had reached base via a fielding error on an attempted catch of a high fly by the Cigarroa left fielder.
Two batters after the RBI double, with a courtesy runner taking Alex’s spot at second, Lopez’s second run came home on an RBI single to left field by Rosa Sanchez with one out.
The two runs were enough to win, but Lady Lobos coach Jesse Martinez said his team could have easily scored more.
“Our hitting was OK, but we stranded way too many people,” Martinez said. “We should have had maybe 10 runs, or at least seven or eight. Sometimes, we were a little overly aggressive at the plate (and we squandered some chances).”
The Lopez coach said Alex’s pitching was what stood out to him the most against Cigarroa.
“Alex was on and she was hitting her spots perfectly (with her pitches),” Martinez said. “She was confident, she was strong, and that’s absolutely what stood out.”
While the Lady Toros finished with four hits and were led by leadoff batter Kassy Ramirez, who went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles, Lopez’s top hitter was Sanchez, who went 2-for-2 with two singles. In all, the Lady Lobos finished with six hits. Besides Alex’s double, also with a hit each for the Lady Lobos were Becky Ibarra, Jenny Sanchez and Blanca Olguin.
The Lady Lobos are trying to reach the playoffs for the third straight season in 32-5A.
“It feels very positive (to finish up the day with a win) because we put a lot of energy into this second game, and it showed off at the end,” said Lexi, who plays shortstop and also pitches. “We have four new girls, and we’re just practicing every day to get better. I hope we make it to the playoffs again this year.”
“It’s very exciting to have my twin sister on the team with me,” she added. “We’re always competing with each other to see who can do better. We’ll see how we each do tomorrow.
“We did great today, so let’s see if we can (all) do better tomorrow.”