By MARK MOLINA | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
While the beginning of March means a little rest and relaxation, the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers showed that they were all business.
Behind a Cassie Valdez no-hitter and powerful bats, the Lady Chargers cruised to a 12-0 District 32-5A win in six innings over the Lopez Lady Lobos Tuesday night at Lopez High School.
Valdez looked strong and fell into a rhythm early on and finished the night with nine strikeouts and two walks in the win.
“I just stayed relaxed, kept focused and trusted my defense,” Valdez said. “I’m getting stronger after having a little injury during the season, but I’m coming back and better.
“I’m proud of myself, but I’m really proud of my defense because whenever there was plays, they showed up.”
Brownsville Veterans (4-0 32-5A) put on a clinic at the plate, roughing up Lopez starting pitcher Kassi Rubio to the tune of 15 hits, 10 earned runs and three innings of at least four hits.
“I’m very proud of the leadership on the team and I’m very proud of the girls overall,” Lady Charger head coach Rayner Cardenas said. “They know what’s important right now and that’s these games in district play. We have to take them one game at a time and one win at a time. I like the way they focused today at practice. They were focused, quiet and focusing on what they were doing and it showed during the game.”
Lopez (2-2) head coach Jesse Martinez said the early momentum from the top of the Brownsville Veterans lineup paired with Valdez was just too much to overcome in the end.
“They are top heavy,” he said. “Their first four or five hitters are tremendously talented. You can pitch it anywhere and they’ll put it in play hard. If we give them anything, they’re going to take it and run with it.
“I also have a lot of respect for their pitcher, who is a tremendous kid, a very talented young lady who is cool as a cucumber. It’s hard to read her, but we gave it our best effort. We had opportunities to put the bat on the ball, but we couldn’t do it.”
The Lady Chargers wasted no time getting started, opening the top of the first with four straight hits, including an RBI double from Valdez to right field and an RBI single from Mia Anzaldua down the first base line to make it 2-0.
Rubio would retire the next three batters to get out of the inning.
Leading 3-0 in the top of the second, Valdez smacked one into deep center field, hitting the wall and bringing in Jocelyn head to make it 4-0.
One batter later, Anzaldua made it a 6-0 game after a two-run homer over the right-center field wall.
After adding two more runs, Lady Chargers lead-off batter Valeria Ruiz started the top of the sixth with a solo shot to left field to make it 9-0.
Later in the inning, Anzaldua, Harley Morales and Cristina Gonzalez all put the bat on the ball to bring in the final three runs and Valdez recorded two of her strikeout and ended the game in the bottom of the sixth inning
Anzaldua was 3 for 3 at the plate with a home run and four RBIs, while Valeria Ruiz was 3 for 4 with a solo home run.
Valdez was 3 for 4 with two doubles and two RBIs.