BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — After 3 1/2 innings Tuesday night, Sharyland High and Sharyland Pioneer were mired in a 1-1 pitcher’s duel. While Pioneer senior Mariah Youngblood allowed four hits, one run and struck out six batters, Sharyland’s Kayla Ramirez gave up her lone run on only three hits.
As the bottom of the fourth began with the flickering of lightning and the threat of a storm nearing, the floodgates opened for Lady Diamondbacks hitters. Pioneer (20-4, 13-0) piled on nine runs in the inning on the way to defeating Sharyland High (14-8, 10-3) 13-3 in six innings at Pioneer softball field.
“The fourth inning is usually big for us,” Sharyland Pioneer coach Orlando Garcia said. “I told the girls, ‘This is traditionally when we come through. You guys need to come around and start playing our brand of softball.’”
The inning began with Ramirez walking Illiana Casanova. First baseman Sarah Odale came up next and smacked a home run clear over the left-center field fence to give the Lady Diamondbacks their first lead at 3-1.
On Tuesday morning, Odale competed in the shot put and discus events at the District 31-5A meet in Laredo. After placing sixth in both events, Odale got back to Pioneer at 5 p.m., giving her enough time to make a contribution in the eighth spot in the order.
“We were looking to wake up our bats,” Odale said. “Once someone starts hitting, everybody gets their bats going.”
Pioneer sent 13 more hitters to the plate, scored seven more runs and chased Ramirez, who could only register one out in the inning.
The Lady Diamondbacks have completed one of their toughest stretches on their league schedule, facing the second- (Rio Grande City), third- (Sharyland High) and fourth-place (Mission Veterans) teams in 31-5A. Tuesday’s game was also a welcome test for Pioneer, which hadn’t played a late-inning game in quite some time.
“We want to make sure that we can adapt to any pitcher,” Garcia said. “That’s probably our team’s biggest issue right now. Whether it’s a slow pitcher or a fast pitcher, we want to make sure that we can hit off everybody.”
Sweeping the team’s crosstown rival was also a major coup in Garcia’s eyes.
“We certainly don’t want to lose to them (Sharyland High),” Garcia said. “Coach (Paul) Cruz has been there for quite a long time, and I coached under him. They’ve got a lot of pride over there, but I told the girls, ‘We’re the only sport that’s 6-0, and haven’t lost, against Sharyland in three years.’ You gotta have a lot of pride in that, because I certainly do.”