BY TJ GARCIA | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
EDINBURG — Natalie Rodriguez hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to lead the Edinburg North Cougars past the Rio Hondo Bobcats 5-4 in an early season showcase of two of the area’s top programs.
Rodriguez, a junior who pitched the entire game, had just surrendered a one-run lead in the top of the seventh before getting her turn at the plate. She blasted a high fastball over the left-center field fence after an eight-pitch at-bat.
“My last at-bat, my girls told me to wait on it. Relax. Do your thing,” Rodriguez said. “So, with my mom yelling at me from the stands, which I told her to hush, but I stayed calm, saw a pitch I thought I could hit, and it went over.”
The homer negated a dramatic comeback from Rio Hondo, a Class 4A school that advanced to the elite eight last year. Edinburg North improves to 5-3 with the non-district win. Rio Hondo drops to 3-3.
Edinburg North picked up nine hits on the night against Rio Hondo freshman pitcher Kelsey Pizarro. Rodriguez helped her cause by going 3 for 4 with two RBIs. Hope Rodriguez added two more RBIs as she went 2 for 3 from the plate and smacked a home run of her own.
The Cougars jumped to early leads of 2-0 and 3-2 but couldn’t put Rio Hondo away. Edinburg North wasted several opportunities to pull further ahead because of errors in the field and mental mistakes, coach Richard Tressler said.
He added that he was pleased with the home runs but didn’t want the team to grow accustomed to relying on the long ball to get out of jams.
Going into the top of the seventh trailing Edinburg North 3-2, Rio Hondo started with the top of the batting order. Abbie Alvarado slapped a single to get on safely, then Bianca Cruz doubled off the left-field wall. Both scored after a sacrifice and Pizarro’s double to make the score 4-3 Rio Hondo.
In the bottom of the seventh, Seci Lopez drew a walk to set up Rodriguez’s home run.
Rio Hondo coach Brett Esparza said the loss was disappointing but added that he likes facing stiff competition in non-district play.
“We are just looking for opportunities to get better,” he said. “And we’re going to go out and challenge ourselves week in and week out. The only way you’re going to do that is against quality teams like Edinburg North.”
Rio Hondo picked up its four runs off eight hits.