Eagle Pass-Maverick County Little League Junior Softball All-Stars (Texas West) Fall to Texas East 12-2 in Semifinal Game at Southwest Regional Championship, Remain Alive in Double-Elimination Tournament
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2022
The mighty Eagle Pass-Maverick County Little League Junior Softball All-Stars (Texas West) fell to the Columbus, Texas All-Stars (Texas East) 12-2 via the 10 run rule in five innings in the semifinal game of the Little League Junior Softball Southwest Regional Championship tournament on Sunday, July 24, 2022 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, dropping to the elimination bracket and will play again today on Sunday, July 24, against either Louisiana or New Mexico for the right to play Texas East in the Championship game on Monday, July 25, 2022.
The Little League Junior Softball Southwest Regional tournament is a double-elimination tourney and Eagle Pass-Maverick County All-Stars (Texas West) remain alive, but will now have to earn their ticket to the Championship game through the elimination bracket. If Eagle Pass-Maverick County All-Stars should win their next game and advance to the Southwest Regional Championship game on Monday, July 24, at 9 a.m. (MST), the Championship game will only be a one-game winner take all in order to clinch the berth to advance to the Little League Junior Softball World Series next week in Kirkland, Washington. A loss in their next game or in the Championship game tomorrow will conclude their Little League Junior Softball tournament run.
Texas East tallied three runs in the bottom of the first inning on two bases on balls and two hits, taking an early 3-0 lead they would never relinquished. Eagle Pass-Maverick County All-Stars starting pitcher, Mayte Figueroa, walked the two first batters of the game before being relieved by Emily Valdez, but the first batter faced by Valdez tripled to bring in the two base runners and the following batter singled to bring in the third run. Eagle Pass-Maverick County, the visiting team, got one base runner on a walk, but could not capitalize on the offensive mark.
Eagle Pass-Maverick County plated one run in the second inning to narrow the score 3-1 as Emily Valdez doubled to center field with one out, the next batter grounded out, and Daisy Garcia belted an RBI single to right field to score Valdez before making the third out.
Eagle Pass-Maverick County All-Stars scored another run in the top of the third inning and threatened to add more runs but could not get timely hits to bring in base runners left stranded on the base path. Sofia Gonzalez led off the inning with a walk, the next batter flied out for the first out, Claritza Leija got on base on a walk, Karina Gomez slammed an RBI double to center field to score Sofia Gomez and advance Claritza Leija to third base, but the next two batters struck out to end the inning.
Texas East All-Stars added two runs in the bottom of the third inning, increasing their lead 5-2.
Eagle Pass-Maverick County All-Stars threatened in the top of the fourth inning as Itzel Luna led off with a single to left field but was caught attempting to steal second base for the first out, then Daisy Garcia doubled to center field but was caught stealing third base for an out, and the next batter struck out, ending a potential threat to score.
Texas East added three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to extend their lead to 8-2, taking momentum of the game.
Eagle Pass-Maverick County went three up, three down in the top of the fifth inning. Meanwhile, Texas East tallied four more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning with one out to end the game via the 10 run mercy rule. Sofia Gomez came in relief of Emily Valdez in the bottom of the fifth inning, facing only one batter before the game was called off to the 10 run rule.
Eagle Pass-Maverick County All-Stars (Texas West) will regroup following their first loss in the Southwest Regional tournament (1-1) as well in their Little League tournament run (8-1) and prepare to battle the winner of Louisiana against New Mexico for a ticket to the Championship game on Monday, July 25.
Mayte Figueroa took the loss despite facing only two batters.
On offense for Eagle Pass-Maverick County, Daisy Garcia went 2 for 2 with a single and double plus an RBI, Karina Gomez went 1 for 3 with a double and an RBI, Mayte Figueroa went 1 for 2, Emily Valdez went 1 for 2 with a double, and Itzel Luna went 1 for 2 with a single.
Go Eagle Pass-Maverick County Little League Junior Softball All-Stars!
