Rio Hondo falls short of state tournament with 4-3 loss to Beeville Jones

COPRPUS CHRISTI — Rio Hondo’s historic softball season came to an end Saturday afternoon at Corpus Christi’s Cabaniss Field.

After an emotional loss in Game 1 of the Region IV-4A series against Beeville Jones on Friday, the Lady Cats put forth a courageous effort but still fell one series short of the state tournament.

In Game 2 of the series on Saturday evening, Beeville Jones’ Makayla Mendez hit the go-ahead RBI single in the top of the eighth inning to seal a wild 4-3 series win.

Rio Hondo’s season ends with a 27-7 record along with their deepest postseason run in program history.

“We’re so proud of our girls and what they accomplished,” said Rio Hondo coach Brett Esparza. “It hurts right now, but we’ll take a moment and realize how far we have come as a program. A loss is always hard, but this is something we can learn from and build upon going forward.”

On Saturday, Beeville Jones turned to pitcher Saleen Flores, who held the Lady Cats hitless for three innings until Jennifer Flores singled in the fourth to break up the no-hit bid.

Meanwhile, after three scoreless innings, the Lady Trojans scored two runs in the top of the fourth, highlighted by an RBI single from Allison Gonzalez.

Rio Hondo needed a momentum shift and got one in the bottom of the fifth. After a leadoff single by Tianna Sandoval and a walk from Abbie Alvarado, the offense put the ball in play with both Sandoval and Alvarado scoring on a pair of fielder’s choices.

Rio Hondo kept the momentum going when an error by the Beeville shortstop allowed Bianca Cruz to score, giving the Lady Cats their first lead at 3-2.

The Lady Trojans answered with the tying run in the sixth inning. In the bottom of the seventh, Cruz led the inning off with a walk and wound up on third after a double from Flores with no outs.

Rio Hondo missed on the opportunity with the next three outs coming via a pair of strikeouts and a fly out that forced extra innings for a second straight night.

“Making it this far is something to be proud of,” said senior shortstop Alexa Castellanos. “We’re the last (Valley) team standing and we represented the Valley well. As a senior we left our mark. It was a great four years and now it’s the underclassmen’s team heading into next year.”