By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
Year to year, things change. Players come and go, and the chemistry of the team is subject to change, which is why Edinburg North coach Richard Tressler doesn’t want to compare this year’s playoff series against Eagle Pass to last year’s.
“This is definitely a special team,” Tressler said of his Lady Cougars, coming short of drawing any distinctions. “If we play to our potential, we could make a long run.”
The next step in that process continues tonight, when North travels to take on Eagle Pass in Laredo in Game 1 of their best-of-three area-round series.
A formidable pitching staff featuring Jackie Longoria (13-3) and Haley Dennett (8-1), coupled with a potentially potent offense, have left the Lady Cougars encouraged in trying to avenge last year’s third-round ouster.
Eagle Pass graduated a half-dozen starters while the Lady Cougars returned three seniors, among others, who played well last year.
The concern, as it has been for most of this season, lies on the offensive end, where North hasn’t been as consistent as Tressler would have liked. It’s defense that has gotten the job done for the Lady Cougars, who swept their first-round series against Los Fresnos with 5-3 win followed by a 3-2 close-out victory.
“We played great defense, and that’s what you have to have in situations to win,” Tressler said. “If our defense stays consistent and makes the routine play, I think they ought to do well.”
Tressler said his team has the capability of being “very, very tough offensively,” but in the four games North (22-4, 10-2 in district) lost, it was hitting that ultimately spelled their demise.
Players like Carolina Flores, Abby Hinojosa, Klarissa Lopez and Andreah Ruiz have stepped up at the plate. Across the board, Tressler knows the middle and bottom of the lineup can produce, as they have at several points throughout the year. The goal now, for them, is to see a steady stream of it during these playoffs.
NO SURPRISE
With a nucleus of players from Sharyland High, Sharyland Pioneer coach Orlando Garcia said he felt all along his team was going to do well this year, despite the program’s infancy.
Now, the Lady Diamondbacks are just one of a handful of teams in the playoffs, gearing up for an area-round battle against Castroville Medina Valley tonight, after having beaten Brownsville Porter in bi-district.
“I felt a lot of teams were going to discount us (coming into this season) because we were a first-year program,” Garcia said, “but I felt we had girls with experience that had the drive to play, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Pioneer’s 6-1 stretch in district put it in favorable position heading into the postseason, before enduring a couple of hiccups.
This season, the Lady Diamondbacks’ motto (“One team. One family. One goal.”) hangs in the form of a banner at school, and Garcia said his team has heeded that message in pursuit of winning over doubters.
“We’ve already exceeded our expectation,” said Garcia, whose team finished as the third seed. “Our goal at the beginning of the year was, I don’t want to win a district championship. First year, I wanted to get into the playoffs. I’ve always believed that in sports, people watch the last team standing.
“I tell the players, ‘You’ve already done something great by winning a bi-district championship.’ And we’re going into (tonight’s) game believing we could win.”
The Lady Diamondbacks understand they their strengths. They have capable players across the lineup, but they won’t necessarily pile on runs in bunches. So they emphasize defense, and so far it’s worked for the first-year team trying to forge an identity.