Laredo United fends off Corpus Christi London rally in 9-8 win at Border Olympics

The Lady Longhorns led by as many as seven runs, but had to fight to fend off a late rally by Corpus Christi London to secure a 9-8 win over the Pirates at the Border Olympics softball tournament in Laredo

LAREDO, Texas — Laredo United opened the 2023 Texas high school softball season with one of its best starts in recent program history, winning each of its first six non-district tournament games. 

The Lady Longhorns added another victory to their growing early-season winning streak in tournament play by taking down Corpus Christi London 9-8 at Zachary Softball Complex to open the second day of the 21st Annual Border Olympics Softball Showcase.

Laredo United pitcher Brianna Alvardo picked up the victory after going the distance in the circle for the Lady Longhorns and giving up five hits in five innings.

“London is a good team, but we came out early and scored some runs,” Laredo United head coach Javier Morin said. “In the last inning, we fell apart to be honest with you and we should have been out of that inning a long time ago. We had a couple of errors but our pitcher is a little firecracker. She kept on fighting and never put her head down and eventually we got the third out.”

Laredo United (9-2) had hits from Karina Mejia, KK Cox and Desy Perez while Corpus Christi London’s offense came from Kaitlyn Luis, Noran Garcia, Rebecca Grant, and Sarah Elizondo.

After two solid innings where both teams played great defense, plus a pitching duel ensued on the court between Alvarado and Corpus Christi London’s Maddie Perez. They hit the corners of the plate and threw off speed pitches that paralyzed batters.

It was not until the third inning when Corpus Christi London utilized two hits to get on the board. Grant started things off at the plate and ripped a double. She would score on a homerun by Luis. On a full count Luis ripped a homerun over the left centerfield to give the Lady Pirates a 2-0 lead.

Laredo United came back with Perez who had a hard single to started the Lady Longhorn rally. Perez, Alvarado and Regina Rodriguez scored on a hit by Mejia that cleared the bases and gave the Lady Longhorns a 3-2 edge.

Corpus Christi London went silent the fourth inning just as Laredo United started to score runs. The Lady Longhorns went on to score six runs on two hits and a barrage of defensive errors to take a 9-2 lead.

The Lady Pirates fought back scoring six runs in the fifth inning to make it a 9-8 ball game but Laredo United was able to get the final out to secure the victory.

“I am really happy that the girls came out to fight the fight,” Corpus Christi London Marianna Avila said. “Right now we are trying to figure out a lot of things and playing a good team like Laredo United, gave us a good opportunity to work on different aspects of the game.”

The Lady Longhorns also shut out crosstown foe Laredo Nixon in a 7-0 victory to extend their tournament-game winning streak to eight.

Laredo United (9-2) will wrap up play in the Border Olympics when the Lady Longhorns take on the Zapata Hawks (4-3) at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25, in Laredo.

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

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PHOTO GALLERY — LAREDO UNITED 9, CORPUS CHRISTI LONDON 8

All photos by Clara Sandoval