PORT ISABEL — The Port Isabel Lady Tarpons have grown a lot over the course of the season, and their development was on full display Tuesday.
Port Isabel was playing host to the Raymondville Lady Bearkats in a District 32-4A seeding game, with the winner taking the No. 2 spot and the loser the No. 3 seed for the playoffs starting Thursday.
The game was tied at 1 heading to the bottom of the seventh. Port Isabel’s Layni Mata laid down a leadoff bunt, and a throwing error by Raymondville’s pitcher allowed her to reach second. With the game-winning run in scoring position, Whitney Zaloski stepped to the plate and delivered a hard-hit RBI single up the middle for the 2-1, walkoff win.
“I just try to stay confident in the box all the time because that’s really what you need. I knew I could do it, I just knew it. And I did,” Zaloski said. “It was great. (My teammates) always look up to me, and I’m glad I could do that for them and prove myself and be a leader. We feel pretty confident (heading into playoffs). We just have to stay strong all throughout the game, keep fighting and just be us and have fun.”
Port Isabel pitcher Allison Gonzalez worked quickly through Raymondville’s lineup. She kept the Lady Bearkats scoreless for six innings, issuing no walks and 10 strikeouts with just three hits.
Raymondville’s Desiree Cavazos was solid in the circle, too, allowing one run through six innings with one walk and four strikeouts. But throwing errors by the Lady Bearkats and some solid contact by Port Isabel gave the Lady Tarpons an edge in the third. Zaloski scored the run, sliding into home safely after a passed ball ricocheted off the backstop.
The Lady Bearkats tied things up in the top of the seventh thanks to well-executed hitting behind runners and some help from Mother Nature. Emily Perez led the frame by reaching first on a misplayed slow roller to the pitcher. Back-to-back sacrifice bunts from Jolie Dominguez and Gabby Chavez advanced Perez to third.
With two away after a good battle at the plate, Maddi Carranza hit a high infield pop fly that got caught in the wind and sailed away from Port Isabel’s second baseman, scoring Perez.
“It just shows the heart that they have. That’s what I’m proud of right now. It is a loss and it does sting, but they’re giving everything that they have and they’re playing seven innings. It shows their resiliency,” Raymondville coach Jaime Salazar said.
Port Isabel coach Danno Wise said early in the season, that comeback would have derailed the Lady Tarpons’ squad that was working through a “rocky start” and slow-developing chemistry. But they showed their fighting spirit in a close second-round loss to Rio Hondo, and they used that mentality to seal Tuesday’s victory.
“We hadn’t demonstrated prior to (the Rio Hondo game) the ability to fight back and stay focused,” Wise said. “Since then we’ve played in some tight games, this being one of them, and continued to make plays and keep pushing and keep fighting. That’s been the biggest area of growth for us, without a doubt. That relentless effort to keep coming and not get down.”
Next, Port Isabel will use that relentless effort to try and defeat Robstown in a one-game bi-district playoff at 6 p.m. Thursday in Robstown.
“Everything’s coming together,” Wise said. “We’re doing exactly what our goal is every year, and that’s playing our best softball when we’re getting to playoffs. We’re peaking at the right time.”
Raymondville will be playing host to Corpus Christi Tuloso-Midway in a single-game bi-district playoff at 6 p.m. Friday. Salazar said battling through seeding games in consecutive days helped the Lady Bearkats mentally and showed some things to focus on in the postseason.
“Defensively I think we’re pretty much where we need to be,” Salazar said. “Offensively, we’re going to try to shorten things up a little bit. Get a quicker swing and try to get that two-strike approach throughout, especially with a team like Tuloso-Midway coming up on Friday.”
