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Raul Vega is the third softball coach in three years at Cholla and he appears to have the Chargers headed back in the same winning direction that former coach Mario Gastellum had them going before he left to work at Palo Verde a couple of years ago.

Likewise, Pueblo head coach Mike Garcia has his squad playing fundamental softball and is constantly teaching and coaching from the dugout and coaches box.

The Pueblo/Cholla rivalry is one of the best in Tucson and this game proved no different as each team spent a few innings feeling each other out.

Cholla pitcher Luisa Silvain held Pueblo scoreless through five innings until Danielle Alvarado hit a solo home run with two outs in the top of the sixth inning but Pueblo had plenty of chances and left seven runners on base in the first four innings.

Pueblo had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the third inning on a single by Benita Broughton, a hit-by-pitch awarded to Briana Sanchez and an infield hit from Nickole Robles but back-to-back ground outs to third base erased the threat.

Meanwhile, Vanessa Duarte held Cholla down until the Chargers scored three unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Cholla had left five runners on base with no action until Alyssa Cervantes singled to start off the bottom of the fifth. Duarte picked up a strikeout but Teresa Altamirano reached on an error, sending Cervantes to third base on the play.

Monique Salazar reached on a fielder’s choice but the another error loaded the bases and an error on a throw on the same play allowed Cervantes to score for the first unearned run of the game.

Silvain helped herself out and hit a double to bring in Altamirano for the second run. Duarte picked up a ground out for the second out but Angelica Cruz singled in Silvain for the third run.

Cholla added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth on a double by Salazar that brought in Erykah Vega and Cervantes and then Silvain singled in Altamirano.

Down 6-1, Pueblo added one more run in top of the seventh on a single by Broughton and an RBI single by Robles.

Broughton went 2-4 with 2 stolen bases, Robles went 2-4 with an RBI and Alvarado hit a home run to lead Pueblo.

Cervantes went 2-3 with a double, Salazar hit a 2-RBI double, Silvain went 2-4 with a double and an RBI and Cruz went 2-4 with an RBI to lead Cholla.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 4th, 2013 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.