Big first inning leads Brownsville Veterans past La Joya Palmview at PSJA Softball Tournament

The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers utilized a four-run first inning to spark an offensive explosion in a 9-2 win over La Joya Palmview on Saturday morning at the PSJA ISD Softball Tournament

SAN JUAN, Texas — Brownsville Veterans Memorial utilized a big first inning to jump out to a 4-0 lead and never looked back as the Lady Chargers picked up a 9-2 victory over La Joya Palmview at the PSJA ISD Softball Tournament on Saturday morning.

“Our pitcher is a freshman and did her job by throwing a lot of strikes and let her defense work,” Brownsville Veterans Memorial assistant coach Eddie Rodriguez said. 

“Our bats finally turned it around. We have good leaders and our girls came together at the right time. The overall tournament we saw great competition and we are just trying to get better.”

The Lady Chargers (4-3) got their bats going from the inception of the ball game and banged out nine hits to ignite the offense. Itzel Rodriguez led the way for Brownsville Veterans Memorial and went 3 for 3 at the plate that included two singles and one double to go along with one RBI.

On the mound Ariana Garcia went the distance, five innings in tournament play and limited La Joya Palmview to three hits and finished with three strikeouts.

La Joya Palmview struck first and scored in the opening inning to take a 1-0 lead. After the Lady Chargers forced La Joya Palmview into three outs, they utilized a walk issued to Andrea Chapa to put her on first base. Rodriguez ripped a single to score Chapa.

Alesandra Santibanes drew a walk to put runners on first and second base. Sofia Perez strolled to the plate and banged out a single to score Rodriguez to give Brownsville Veterans Memorial a 2-1 lead.

Rebecca Izeta's sacrifice fly moved the runners over one base. Alexis Tamez helped her own cause with her double to make it a 4-1 ball game at the bottom of the first inning.

La Joya Palmview had a hard time getting anything going at the plate with Tamez throwing fire down the pipe and moving the ball to hit her corners. The Lady Lobos offense stalled and never fired up again and only had two sporadic hits the rest of the way.

The Lady Lobos fought back and added a run in the third inning as Brownsville Veterans Memorial lead 4-2 and that proved to be the last time La Joya Palmview crossed the plate the rest of the game.

Brownsville Veterans Memorial went on to tack three more runs in the third inning as Izeta, Garcia and Sofie Martinez all crossed the plate to make it a 7-2 game.

The Lady Chargers scored two unearned runs in the fourth inning as Brownsville Veterans Memorial drew back-to-back walks and moved around the bases on wild pitches. 

Martinez then strolled to the plate and ripped a single to score Perez and Izeta to score the final runs of the game.

Brownsville Veterans (3-3) will return to action when the Chargers host the Brownsville Porter Cowgirls (0-1) at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 21, in Brownsville.

La Joya Palmview (1-5) will look to bounce back when the Lobos take on the Donna Bravettes (0-2) at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 23, in the opening game of the La Joya ISD Softball Tournament.

Check out SBLive's exclusive photo gallery from the game:

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PHOTO GALLERY — BROWNSVILLE VETERANS 9, LA JOYA PALMVIEW 2

All photos by Clara Sandoval