PRESS Staff Report
Jesse Garza, the Lady Tarpon Varsity Softball Coach could hardly contain his excitement Friday night, and who could blame him?
After an impressive 7-2 smashing of the Robstown Lady Cotton Pickers in Raymondville, Coach Garza and his squad of young Lady Tarpons accomplished what they had set out to do – not only win but put plenty of runs on the board.
A few weeks prior, at the conclusion of district play in which Port Isabel walked away with the 32-3A title for the first time in the program’s history, Garza told the Press that his young squad, which boasts no senior players, needed to work on putting the ball in play, and they did that in a big way against Robstown last week.
What was the coach’s secret? Well it took some prying, but the coach ultimately came clean, explaining that knowing his girls would likely face a left handed pitcher for the first time this season, he moved the pitching machine a tad to the left as if the players were facing a lefty during batting practice. That and the extra rotations in the batting cage helped make a difference last week and he hopes the offensive charge will continue this week as Port Isabel faces the Kingsville Lady Brahmas at Edinburg Economedes for a best of three series which commenced Friday, May 10th at 7 p.m. Game two is set for 2 p.m. Saturday and game three, if necessary, will get underway immediately following game two all at the same location.
Last week, Port Isabel (18-6), never looked back after at scoring five runs in the second inning to walk off the field with the Area crown. Robstown, meanwhile entered play finishing third in District 30-3A with a 15-14 record.
Kingsville, meanwhile, knocked off La Feria last week to advance. The Kingsville Lady Brahmas swept the La Feria Lady Lions in the Bi-district round of the State 3A playoffs over the weekend, finishing the series off in La Feria Saturday, 5-1. Kristi Rangel picked up the win in both games, striking out 11 in Game 1 and another six in Game 2.
Daniela Salinas once again went the distance for the Lady Tarpons on Friday and recorded five strikeouts with one walk and surrendered four hits.
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