By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Another day, another chance.
That’s the way the Porter Cowgirls must now view their Class 5A best-of-three bi-district softball playoff series with Sharyland Pioneer after dropping Friday’s opener 8-2 at home against the Lady Diamondbacks.
The second game of the series is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Pioneer with the third game, if necessary, to follow 30 minutes after Game 2.
District 31-5A champion Pioneer (22-8) thrived on the longball as five of its first six runs came via three home runs. They sailed over the left-center and center wall.
“After a little while, once we picked up some rhythm, we started hitting the longball (in the fourth inning),” Pioneer coach Orlando Garcia said. “We later came back to ‘small ball,’ and that seemed to work for us, too.
“Like I told our girls, we wanted to get Game 1 over here in Brownsville because we know that Porter is tough,” Garcia added. “It was important for us to win the first one going into the next game, and possibly a third game, at our home field. Hopefully we can finish things off in Game 2.”
The winner of the best-of-three series advances to next week’s area round to play Calallen or Eagle Pass Winn.
Meanwhile, District 32-5A fourth-place Porter (15-14) turned in a fairly solid showing defensively apart from allowing three homers, but could never really get anything going at the plate, finishing with only three hits compared to seven — four of them for extra bases — by the Lady Diamondbacks.
“We need to be more aggressive at the plate — plain and simple,” Porter coach Ariel Arredondo said. “Even if we have the best defense out there and Pioneer comes up and gets base hits or home runs, and we don’t hit the ball, we’ll still lose, even if we play errorless softball.”
Pioneer led 1-0 after two innings thanks to an RBI single to right field in the second by Ashley Briseno before it became 3-1 after four. The Lady Diamondbacks went up 4-1 in the top of the fifth inning and then erupted for four runs in the top of the seventh before the Cowgirls added their second run in the bottom of the seventh.
Pioneer was sparked by Emily Michki, who hit a solo homer in the top of the fifth and added a two-run shot in the top of the seventh. Previously, teammate Fabiola Gonzalez, No. 9 in the batting order, sent a two-run blast over the left-center wall in the top of the fourth to put her team ahead 3-0, and that was pretty much all the scoring Pioneer needed.
A passed ball allowed Brissa Rivera to sprint home from third base for Porter’s first run in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead to 3-1.
A double to the left-center wall in the bottom of the seventh by Porter’s Krista Quiroz advanced Marquel Rivera to third base and she then came home on an error by the center fielder to account for the Cowgirls’ second run to make it 8-2.
Pioneer’s Mariah Youngblood went the distance for the victory on the mound with six strikeouts and two walks. Brissa Rivera also went the distance in taking the loss for Porter with one strikeout and four walks.
The Lady DIamondbacks had swept Porter in two games last season in bi-district and had beaten the Cowgirls 3-2 earlier this year during the opening round of the Laredo Tournament.