Brawley bats connect for win.
BRAWLEY — The decades-old rivalry between Brawley Union and Central Union highs found its way onto the softball diamond for the teams’ first meeting of the Imperial Valley League season here on Friday night.
The Spartans were looking to bounce back from a tourney loss on Wednesday, while the Wildcats were coming off a solid win on Tuesday.
Similar to Tuesday’s victory, Brawley used strong and timely hitting to defeat Central, 9-1.
“I think this is the first night we’ve been able to string together some solid hits,” said Wildcat head coach Kevin Kerns. “They came out aggressive at the plate.”
Leading the Wildcats offensively in the win was sophomore shortstop Savannah Contreras, who finished 4-4 with two RBIs.
“I wasn’t feeling that well in the beginning, but my teammates brought me up and we all came ready to hit (Friday),” Contreras said.
With the win, the Wildcats improve to 5-6 overall and a perfect 5-0 in IVL action, to remain atop of the leader board.
“We’re getting better at getting hits when we have runners in scoring position,” Contreras continued.
The Wildcats got on the board early in the game scoring their first run in the second inning, with a single from Daisy Varela that brought in Alysia Gallardo.
In the third inning Brawley brought in two more runs and in the fifth innings did the most damage jumping to a 9-0 lead with RBI singles from Contreras, Taylor Carranza and Gallardo.
Central scored its lone run in the top of the sixth when Alyssa Gonzalez scored from third on a sacrifice fly to left field.
While the score perked up the Central offense, Brawley starter Aubrey Ruelas calmly led the Wildcats to the win in the final inning.
“Aubrey has great senior leadership,” Kerns noted. “She’s been awesome for us in all five IVL games that she’s started.”
In the win, Ruelas recorded three strikeouts and gave up just three hits and received solid support from her teammates on offense and defense.
As a team, the Wildcats connected for 13 hits, with Carranza going 2-4 with two RBIs and Gallardo going 2-4 with one RBI.
The Spartans move to 7-6 overall and 2-4 in IVL action and return to the field at 4 p.m. Monday for an away tournament game against Serra, while the Wildcats play at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, traveling to face Calexico High.