BY JOSHUA MCKINNEY, Staff Writer
It’s been an up-and-down season for the talented Los Fresnos Lady Falcons, but coach Traci Blackman and the girls are keeping their heads up.
“We’re just all trying to stay positive, trying to find the good things that they do and learn lessons from the not so good things,” Blackman said. “It’s not easy, because some of them are down. We just have to come back.”
Los Fresnos (14-7-1, 3-3) faces the Hanna Lady Golden Eagles (7-10, 3-3) tonight in a game between two teams in the thick of the District 32-6A playoff race.
“We have Hanna to finish off the first round (of District 32-6A) and we’re just going to hope and pray we have a better second half,” Blackman said. “Hopefully, we’ll finish off strong (today) and come back strong in the second round. I have a feeling in this district it’s going to be up and down. It’s always been like that in our district. We’ve always had ties for first, second, third or even fourth. We’ve had to have playoff games for those. We’re just going to take it one game at a time and try to do the best we can one game at a time.”
THREE ACES
A district title is a possibility for the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers, and depth inside the pitcher’s circle is the key to their strong form.
Senior Sarah Sandoval, sophomore Cassie Valdez and freshman Mia Anzaldua all take turns pitching for Brownsville Veterans (15-5, 5-1).
Valdez gets a lot of attention for her fearless pitching, but Anzaldua started in Brownsville Veterans’ 5-4 loss to San Benito, the Texas Girls Coaches Associations No. 2 ranked softball team in Class 6A, last Tuesday.
“We’re extremely blessed here at Brownsville Veterans with great pitching,” coach Ray Cardenas said. “We have a senior leader in Sarah Sandoval. She’s been the leader of this team since she was a freshman. Mia’s coming in and learned the game and played at this level quickly. She competed hard and earned a spot on varsity. Then we have Cassie, what can I say about her? She’s a phenom.
“We’re blessed we’re able to keep them all healthy. We understand that it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon to the playoffs and we’re blessed that we have three girls who at any moment can come in and pitch for us.”
Brownsville Veterans is ranked No. 20 in the TGCA poll and sits one game back from San Benito in the 32-6A race.
MOVING FORWARD
The Rivera Lady Raiders also look forward to the second slate of District 32-6A games starting next week.
It hasn’t been the best season for Rivera (1-13, 0-6), but coach Bobby Rocha sees the positives in their last game.
“It’s been disappointing as far as our inconsistent pitching and defense. It seems we take one step forward and two back,” Rocha said. “However, (Tuesday) against Hanna we played good defense and lost 3-0 as opposed to getting run ruled. That’s what we can do when we make the plays we should.”
Tuesday night’s game was the first full district game the Lady Raiders have played this season. Rocha envisions a second-half turnaround in 32-6A play if the team fixes its pitching and defensive issues.
“We keep working hard at it every day in practice and then transfer that to game night like we did tonight,” he said. “Never give up. We are looking forward to the second half of district to be competitive and go for some wins.”
Joshua McKinney covers high school sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @joshuabvherald.