Rodriguez Leads the Mounties Over El Camino In a Big Way

"Lucia! Lucia! Lu-ci-a!!"

Mountie outfielder Lucia Rodriguez, with the help of relief pitcher Diane Ortiz helped to keep El Camino away from any attempt in coming back as the Mounties beat the Warriors by a score of 15-8.

Mounties pitcher Shelair Rowell took control on the mound early against each Warrior that came up to bat for the first few innings. By striking out a number of the ladies and holding the Warriors scoreless, the Mounties lineup responded by putting on a clinic with their numerous base hits, especially in the second.

The quartet of Mandy Pongs, Francesca Gonzales, Rowell and Rodriguez instigated the first few runs of the game and took a 3-0 lead before more runs from the Mounties came about later during the next couple innings.

With Rowell taking control most of the way, left-handed pitcher Lisa Hernandez relieved Rowell midway thru the game but unfortunately had trouble with control against the first few Warrior batters. Hernandez resulted in giving up one run in the fourth inning, two runs in the fifth and five in the sixth.

With two women on-base for El Camino, the next Warrior batter smashed a shallow texas-leaguer towards center field when Rodriguez made a stomach-first dive and caught what could've been a much closer end-result from a eight-run attack by El Camino.

The comeback from El Camino led to Mountie head coach Kelly Ford in bringing in Ortiz for Hernandez to help close out the Warriors once and for all.

With additional runs needed to ward off another El Camino comeback in the seventh, Ortiz came at-bat and smacked a liner to the outfield bringing in Gonzales, who hit a base-hit earlier and provided the extra insurance run.

However, Rodriguez came after another Mountie made on-base and unleashed a right-field bomber out the park for a home run thus closing the book on any chance for El Camino to comeback as the Mounties held off the Warriors with Ortiz finishing the pitching job for the win.

Thanks to Rodriguez's late-game actions and the contributions of the ladies, the Mounties are back in their winning streak since their loss to Sacramento City last weekend.