By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
After a stellar non-district schedule, the Del Rio Queens softball team waded into district competition this week.
Del Rio finished off its non-district run over the past weekend with a tremendous showing in Carrizo Springs at a tournament there. Del Rio went 5-1 at the tournament with the only loss coming to the host team from Carrizo Springs.
That loss to Carrizo Springs snapped a five-game winning streak, but the Queens would bounce back and defeat Medina Valley to make it six wins in seven games.
Tuesday night the Queens traveled to Laredo to face the LBJ Lady Wolves in the district opener for Del Rio. The two teams had already met once this year with LBJ edging the Queens in the championship game of the SAISD tournament.
Ithalia Ozuna put the Queens’ first run on the scoreboard as she led off the game with a single, advanced to second on a Syann Casillas sacrifice bunt, moved to third on a Hope Martinez single and then took home for a 1-0 Del Rio lead.
The score remained that way until the top of the fourth inning when Del Rio went up 2-0 when Rebekah Alcaraz, who’d reached on a fielder’s choice, scored on a heads up play during Miamor Salazar’s at-bat.
But in the bottom of the fourth the Lady Wolves struck for four runs of their own to grab a 4-2 lead, which they never surrendered. That 4-2 score wound up as the final as Del Rio would be unable to make up any ground.
Ozuna and Kayla Mendoza each had a pair of hits for the Queens who finished with nine hits as a team. Jada Bishop, Martinez, Salazar and Naylea Santana each had one hit for Del Rio while Martinez and Salazar were credited with RBIs.
Alcaraz was saddled with the loss, allowing four runs on nine hits and two walks in just over three innings of work. She also had to work around four Del Rio errors that added to her troubles.
The Queens will host the Laredo United Lady Longhorns tonight at the Queens Softball Field. According to head coach Nufie Rodriguez, game times have been moved up half an hour. Junior varsity is slated to start at 4:30 p.m., with varsity following at 6:30 p.m.
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Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
