It wasn’t that Chavez pitcher Rebecca Villarreal was throwing every pitch down the middle Friday night.

Indeed, Villarreal hit her spots well for much of  the Lobos’ 5A bi-district playoff game at Memorial. But the Mustangs were patient, and made her work, and work, and work herself into a season-ending deficit.

Memorial (17-10) drew four walks and benefited from three Chavez (13-8) errors, scoring two runs in each of the first two innings and six in the third to roll to a 12-0 win.

“She (Villarreal) located a lot of good pitches and our kids were very disciplined,” Memorial coach Tina Young said. “They laid off everything that was upstairs and they waited for her to come into the strike zone. When she did, we hit the ball very well. We knew what to expect but it was another matter to go out and execute.”

And when the Mustangs executed, matters snowballed.

Two walks, a sacrifice and a single led to the first-inning runs. A hit, bunt, a fielder’s choice and an error made it 4-0 in the second, then the Mustangs used nearly every imaginable way to score in the third.

Suzanne Beltran led off with a single. Hannah Gentry’s bunt was mishandled, advancing her to second and courtesy runner Kate Sloan to third.

Blanche Schwabenland’s infield single scored Gentry for a 5-0 lead.

“We’re healthy for the first time all year … but now that we’re putting a consistent lineup on the field we’re a lot stronger,” Young said. “We’re able to combine our power game with our short game with our baserunning and our speed. When you have kids like Blanche and Anna (Vazquez) who are lefties and Hannah who’s real versatile, their defense has to adjust to every batter.”

Memorial followed with a walk and an RBI on a fielder’s choice before Brittany Chaney lined a two-run single to right.

Leslie LeJune brought Chaney home with a double and LeJune scored on a Meghan Slattery single.

“Our hitting has gotten a lot better in the last few games. We’ve been strong and making good contact and having smart baserunning,” said Schwabenland, who added an infield single in the fourth. “I have to get my hits down and if I can do I usually can get on base.”

Mustangs pitcher Taylor Stewart was outstanding in her four innings, allowing only a fourth-inning double. Stewart finished with eight strikeouts, including seven of the first nine she faced.

Memorial will play Cy-Fair next week in the area round. The Bobcats, the third-place team from District 17-5A, upset 2007 state finalist Katy 7-6 in a one-game bi-district playoff Thursday night.

Dates and times for all area-round games will be determined Monday morning.

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