The Lady Jaguars beat St. Michael’s in Roseanne Noedel Memorial Softball Tournament.
Lady Jaguars beat St. Michael’s, 11-1, to secure fifth place
A year ago, Marley Cardenas would have wilted at the sight of batters making contact and reaching base.
On Saturday, the Capital freshman pitcher showed she can handle a little adversity.
Even though the Lady Jaguars provided Cardenas the comforts of an 11-1 lead over St. Michael’s in the fifth-place game of the Roseanne Noedel Memorial Softball Tournament, she had an opportunity to show how much she has matured. Cardenas pitched her way out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fourth inning, then retired the final Lady Horsemen batter with runners on the corners to secure an 11-1 win in five innings and the tournament consolation championship.
Cardenas admitted that she struggled when she gave up hits and allowed baserunners while pitching on the junior varsity last year as an eighth-grader.
“When they started hitting and squaring up my pitching, I’d get down and start falling apart,” Cardenas said. “I learned that I got to keep my game face and my composure.”
And what batter way than to bare down when St. Michael’s (1-2) threatened to cut into the 10-run margin in the fourth with singles by Karissa Baca and Reyna Leyba that sandwiched a walk by Rhiannon Salazar. Cardenas responded by getting Athena Archuleta to pop up to second baseman Adaline Carrasco and striking out Jodi Gormley.
Then came an eight-pitch at-bat with Claudine Noedel before getting the St. Michael’s right fielder to go down swinging for the third out.
The patience of Lady Jaguars head coach Sig Rivera paid off.
“I kinda wanted to stick with her. That way she learns how to battle and come through,” Rivera said. “And that is going to make her better for district [play].”
The week was made for battling for Capital, which suffered a pair of mercy-rule losses to Los Lunas (10-0 in five innings) and Bernalillo (13-0 in five) before winning the final two games of the tournament.
The Lady Jaguars (4-2) already have one player playing through a back injury in catcher Emma George, who did it during the wrestling season in January, and left fielder Yamile Cota hurt her back against the Lady Spartans.
George went 3-for-4 against the Lady Horsemen and scored during a six-run second in which the Lady Jaguars managed four hits and took advantage of two errors, two passed ball and two wild pitches committed by St. Michael’s.
Cardenas aided her own cause with an RBI double to give Capital a 1-0 lead, then Lady Horsemen ace Lynnsey Glidewell uncorked a wild pitch that scored Alex Hernandez for 2-0.
George’s infield single allowed Cardenas to score the third run of the frame, and she eventually scored when Noedel misplayed JoJo Bowannie’s fly ball for a three-base error and a 5-0 edge. George said she still experiences pain in her back, but it is going to be there regardless of whether she plays.
“My dad made me sit out for a couple of weeks to make sure I was all right to play softball,” George said. “Once I came out for softball, it started to hurt but I just pushed through the pain. It’s going to be there, because it’s a back injury. It’s not going away.”
Still, Rivera said he knows how to gauge his catcher’s pain threshold.
“You can read her eyes,” Rivera said. “She’s never gonna tell you she’s hurt, but now I know how to read her.”
Meanwhile, Lady Horsemen head coach Billy Perdue said his team has to learn to translate what it learns in practice to the field, especially when it comes to defense. He pointed to the first three innings of Friday’s 11-7 win over Moriarty, in which Glidewell was dominant before errors allowed the Lady Pintos to rally.
“Lynnsey was on, she pitched a great game and the defense was solid,” Perdue said. “They have to believe they can do that every day and every game. If they show up that way, show up confident, then we’ll be OK. The rest of the things will fall into place.”
In other games:
CHAMPIONSHIP BERNALILLO 5, RATON 3
Lady Spartans ace Shauncey Masawiestewa survived a rough fifth inning to lead Bernalillo (7-1) to a repeat tournament championship. After allowing just two hits and two walks through the first four innings, Masawiestewa allowed a single and three walks and an error allowed the Lady Tigers (2-1) to score three times and cut into a 4-0 lead. However, she recorded a big out at home plate when her flip home on a sacrifice beat Raton’s Natasha Ortega to keep it 3-1 at the time.
Masawiestewa retired the last six batters to secure the win.
THIRD PLACE ABQ. ACADEMY 9, ESPAÑOLA VALLEY 7
The Lady Sundevils (2-5) built a 7-4 lead through three innings, but the Lady Chargers (7-4) rallied with five combined runs in the fifth and sixth innings to win a battle between District 2-5A foes. The breaking point for Española came with three errors during a four-run sixth that erased a 7-5 lead.
SEVENTH PLACE POJOAQUE 19, MORIARTY 16
The Lady Pintos led 16-10 heading into the sixth inning, but the Elkettes (2-4) rallied for nine runs to secure seventh place. Moriarty (1-6) was victimized by nine walks in the final frame, including a stretch of five in six batters that gave Pojoaque a three-run lead.