RIO GRANDE CITY — The Rio Grande City Rattlers secured at least a share of the District 30-5A championship with a 5-1 win over Mission Veterans Memorial on Tuesday night in Rio Grande City.
The Rattlers are undefeated in District 30-5A with an 11-0 record and only three games remaining in district play.
“Huge win,” Rattlers head coach Nicole Lopez said. “They are a very tough opponent, very solid team — not going to take anything away from them. We were able to come out and get runs when we needed them and play really solid defense as well.”
Rattlers pitcher Denzy Saenz finished with nine strikeouts on the night and picked up extra run support in the bottom of sixth because of errors and advantageous base running by the Rattlers.
Saenz did not need the extra runs.
“She did really good,” Lopez said. “I know she had a lot of walks in there, but a lot of them were against tough hitters. In certain situations where it called for it, we were not going to give certain hitters a nice pitch. We were going to pitch around them as much as we could and get them to chase.”
Lopez said if they did walk, the defense was ready to step up. In the seventh, the defense pulled off a nice double play to help end the game before Saenz struck out the last batter.
Mission Veterans pitcher Mickey Castillo also had a great night in the circle. Castillo struck out 13 Rattlers. The pitcher just did not have the run support, and Rio Grande City took advantage when having runners in scoring position.
Rattlers leadoff hitter Jorja Fuentes drove in a run in the bottom of the fifth after Jaylen Gonzalez moved the runner into scoring position after laying down a bunt. Fuentes’ RBI gave the Rattlers a 3-0 lead.
Defense was the name of the game for most of the night. The Rattlers picked up their first two runs of the night all the way back in the first inning. Designated hitter Dayra Lazos drove in both runs with a blooper over the first baseman’s head to give the Rattlers the 2-0 lead.
“They are a veteran team and have been here before,” Lopez said. “We are trying to get that third district title in a row. We set our goals in the beginning of the season and every practice has worked up to this point, so I am very pleased.”
Rio Grande City is going to be on the road to close out the season. The Rattlers face Laredo Martin at 6 p.m. Friday in Laredo. Mission Veterans is set to face Roma at 6 p.m. at Mission Veterans.