By MARK MOLINA | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Both the Pace Lady Vikings and the Porter Cowgirls had their struggles on defense in the early innings due to costly errors.
But it would be the Lady Vikings who would recover and let their bats see them through.
Leading by one in the bottom of the fourth, the Lady Vikings blew the game open with four runs in the inning, leading them to an 11-6 District 32-5A win over the Cowgirls Tuesday night at Pace High School.
After a Porter error led to a run and put runners at the corners, Pace’s Savannah Borland hit a 2 RBI single, bringing in Geaceli Orive and Sheng Martinez to make it 9-5.
Pace added another run on the next at-bat via error, but had its best inning of the night at the plate with three hits.
“We were a little more selective with our at-bats,” said first-year Pace head coach Boris Vega. “At first we were anxious and swung at pretty much anything. We settled down and usually the second time through the lineup is a little easier. You’ve seen a few pitches, so you eye those and want to put them in play.”
On the other side, Porter couldn’t get out of its own way, committing eight errors and recording just six hits.
“The team that deserved to win won,” Porter head coach Ariel Arredondo said. “Pace came out determined and played very hard from the very beginning hitting-wise and defensively. I told the girls that just because those of you have been here for three and four years beat them before, doesn’t mean you’ll bet them again. I give it to Pace, they were the better team tonight.”
Borland also had a big night in the circle, giving up just three earned runs, three walks and striking out seven in the win.
Taking the loss for Porter was Brenda Garcia, who gave up nine hits, five earned runs and struck out three.
Pace improves to 1-1 and will host Mercedes Friday night in a big game early in the district season.
After the game, Vega stressed the importance of his first district win.
“It (feels good), but this district is so tough and you don’t want it to get out of hand,” he said. “You kind of want to stay in the hunt and take it one game at a time. That’s what we tried to do tonight. We had defensive miscues, but that’s what we’ll work on tomorrow.”
Porter falls to 0-2 in district play and faces Donna North on the road Friday night, while
In the top of the first inning, it was the Cowgirls taking advantage of Pace miscues in the top of the first.
After Porter’s Ivanna Cortez scored the game’s first run on a passed ball, Erika Salazar appeared to ground out, but a Pace error on a throw to third put her on first while teammates Brittny Federico and Andrea Zapata crossed the plate to make it 3-0.
Pace answered in the bottom of the inning as Lauren Mares scored on an error at third base and Martinez on a passed ball to make it 3-2.
Orive and Mares would put Pace ahead in the bottom of the second with back-to-back RBI singles to make it 5-3.
Brenda Garcia led off the top of the third with a double and Zapata followed with an RBI single to make it 5-4. Zapata came in two batters later on a groundout RBI from Perla Cardona to tie the game.
Pace scored five runs over the next five innings, while Porter managed just one more on a Cardona RBI single in the top of the fifth to make it 10-6.
Porter stranded eight batters on the night, including four in the final two innings.
“We have to be more focused during practice,” Arredondo said. “I told the girls that there is no magic pill, there’s no magic drill that’s going to make you get base hits and hit home runs. It’s how we come into practice and your mentality. Are you going to be focused or are you going to be playing around and tonight it showed.”
Martinez was 2 for 4 at the plate with 2 RBIs and Mares was 2 for 3 with an RBI.