By Brian Argabright
One five-run deficit is tough enough to come back from, but two? That’s a recipe for disaster.
For the Del Rio Queens softball team, it was a challenge the players readily accepted Tuesday night.
Del Rio survived two big at-bats by the Laredo Alexander Lady Bulldogs and countered with three big at-bats of its own to earn the win, 19-13, and keeps their slim playoff hopes alive.
The win was the Queens’ second straight and puts them one game out of the final playoff spot in District 30-6A with two games left to play.
The game didn’t start off the way the Queens would have liked as Alexander used four straight hits to help build a 5-0 lead in the first inning.
Del Rio had an answer in its half of the first. Jada Bishop and Alexis Salinas hit back-to-back two-run singles to help the Queens tie the game at 5-5.
Alexander kept rolling in the second inning, scoring six more runs to reclaim its lead, 11-5. However, only two of those runs came in after Del Rio swapped starting pitcher Rebekah Alcaraz for her older sister Ari Alcaraz. The older Alcaraz took the ball after the Lady Bulldogs’ first five batters of the inning had reached base. She then allowed just a single while retiring three of the first four batters she faced to douse the Alexander attack and keep the Queens in the game.
Del Rio made it an 11-6 game after Desi Rodriguez doubled and scored on a triple by Giselle Valdez.
After Alexander failed to score in the third, the Queens went right back to work in the bottom of the inning.
The Queens scored six runs with two outs to take a 12-11 lead. Rebekah Alcaraz extracted a measure of revenge when sister Ari was intentionally walked to load the bases and get to Rebekah. She then singled to right field to bring home two runs.
After Rodriguez was hit by a pitch to load the bases again, Valdez cleared them with a triple to right field that tied the game at 11-11. Valdez would score on an error by the Alexander first baseman to put the Queens up, 12-11.
The Lady Bulldogs would tie the game in the fifth inning, but Del Rio went ahead for good in the sixth.
The Queens sent 11 batters to the plate in the sixth inning, scoring seven runs to take a 19-12 lead. A dropped pop fly by the Alexander centerfielder with the bases loaded scored the first two runs of the inning, and then Valdez came through again, ripping her second bases loaded triple to bring home three more runs to make it 17-12.
Valdez would score on an infield single by Hope Martinez, and Martinez would follow on a triple by Alexis Salinas to make it 19-12.
Alexander was able to score once more in the seventh inning, and loaded the bases with two outs, but Ari got the final batter to ground out to end the high-scoring affair.
As a team, the Queens pounded Alexander pitching for 15 hits. Valdez had the biggest bat for the Queens, hammering three triples, driving in seven runs, and scoring three times as she reached base all five times she came to the plate. Rodriguez also reached base in all five of her at-bats albeit a little more painfully as she was hit by a pitch in three straight plate appearances. She scored four times.
Alexis Salinas had three hits, Ari Alcaraz and Kayla Mendoza each had two hits, and Rebekah Alcaraz, Martinez, Bishop and Syanna Casillas each had one hit.
The Queens will look to make it three wins in a row when they travel to Laredo Friday to face United South at 5 p.m.
Del Rio’s final regular season game will be Tuesday, April 20, at 6 p.m. at the Queens Softball Field against district-leading Eagle Pass High.
