Porter blanks La Joya

Series resumes today at Porter field

By CHRIS COBB

The Brownsville Herald

LA JOYA May 13, 2006 The Porter Cowgirls exploded for seven seventh-inning runs to turn a tight game into a 9-0 blowout Friday over La Joya to take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three Class 5A regional quarterfinal series.

We knew it was just a matter of time before we could string some hits together, said Porter coach Luis Guevara, whose team improves to 30-4. All of sudden we just started scoring in bunches. When it rains, it pours.

Porter ace Alicia Guevara got the better of La Joyas Aysha Soliz in a pitching duel that lived up to its billing.

Guevara threw a complete-game shutout, allowing four hits and striking out five Lady Coyote batters. She also helped her team out at the plate by going 2-for-4 and driving in three runs.

Soliz was solid for six innings for La Joya, before strong Porter hitting and numerous fielding errors finally combined to blow the game wide open in the seventh.

Its tough, said La Joya coach Carlos Rodriguez, whose team committed five errors on the night, with three of them coming in the seventh. I thought Soliz did a good job most of the way.

Guevara hit a double off the fence in left-center field in the second to give Porter an early 2-0 lead.

Dalia Marroquin, Amanda Garza, Cassie Acevedo and Priscilla Pedraza all registered RBIs in the sev-enth, as Porter rolled to victory.

Dating back to last years regional quarterfinal series, La Joya has failed to score in 20 innings against the Cowgirls. The Lady Coyotes fall to 25-9.

The series resumes at 6 p.m. today at the Porter softball field.

ccobb@brownsvilleherald.com