Tigers end with win to shake up standings
E theL CENTRO — The Imperial High softball team went out swinging in its final Imperial Valley League game of season to defeat league-leading Central Union High, 2-1, here on Tuesday night.
Imperial’s victory creates a two-way tie for the No.1 spot in the league race as both Central and Southwest have records of 9-2 with one game left in the season for both teams.
On Tuesday, Imperial’s Victoria Alarcon found herself in a tough pitching duel with Central’s Karmina Becerra.
The freshman hurlers were neck-and-neck through 4 ½ innings of play before Central broke the 0-0 tie in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Central’s Janyssa Martin tripled with two outs and was brought in by Viviana Morales, who also tripled to give Central the one-run advantage.
Alarcon then worked to retire the next batter on a groundout to the right side to end the inning and give the Tigers a chance to jump on the board in the top of the sixth.
Imperial did just that and also rallied with two outs to eventually bring around both of the Tigers’ two runs.
Sarina Cardona singled with two outs to start the rally and moved to second on a line drive up the middle by Cassandra Valle.
Julyannah Ramirez then singled to bring in Cardona to tie the game. Valle and Ramirez then moved up 60 feet on a passed ball to open up first base for Karissa Holguin, who was given the bag intentionally to load the bases and bring up Natalia Anguiano.
Anguiano drew a walk, unintentionally, to bring in Valle and ultimately, the game-winning run.
Alarcon and Imperial’s defense then tightened up in the final inning to close the game, stranding two Central runners on the base paths.
“I felt really nervous, but I felt that we could pull through,” said Alarcon of the final inning.
Alarcon finished with five strikeouts and said her teammates helped her get through the bottom of the seventh.
“Just hearing the girls talking to me and telling me that I could do it that we could all do it and having confidence in myself helped,” she said.
Imperial is a very young squad, carrying just two seniors this season and struggled a bit the first half of league going 2-4 against local teams.
The Tigers turned it around, however, in the second half, going 5-1 to finish with an IVL record of 7-5.
“We really didn’t make any changes (in the second half) we just kept pushing,” said firstyear Tiger Head Coach Joe Nuñez. “A lot of those first-round games we lost by one or two runs at most, so we just kept playing hard and pushing forward.”
Nuñez said he was proud of Alarcon’s effort in the circle, saying he knew she’d be able to pull through.
“All of our pitchers have been pitching well for us, so we knew (Alarcon) could throw a good game, and she did,” he said.
Imperial finishes the season with an overall record of 12-11-1, while Central moves to 17-8 overall and 9-2 in IVL.
Central will close the season on the road at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, traveling to face Brawley Union High.