By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
The Weslaco High-Pearland matchup in the UIL state semifinals Friday could very well feature the widest disparity in experience among the remaining teams in the tournament.
Weslaco (33-7), which has shattered program records and is the only Valley team still in the playoffs, has no seniors on its roster. Pearland (31-6-1), by contrast, has 14 seniors, all of whom have signed on to play at the collegiate level.
“That’s a lot of seniors,” Weslaco coach Mario Rodriguez said. “But it’s like I’ve always told the girls, your classification doesn’t really matter. Your skills and ability speak for themselves.
“So them having 14 seniors, it doesn’t phase us. And that’s no disrespect to them. They’ve faced tough competition, and we faced tough competition. It’s just a matter of being able to make adjustments in the playoffs.”
The adjustments, for now, will come in Friday’s game, with Rodriguez committed to keeping his practice regimen the same this week. That’s daily practices, for less two hours, mostly focused on fielding and hitting.
With the school year over now, the Lady Panthers are practicing in the evenings to coincide with its 6 p.m. game scheduled for Friday.
Though Weslaco is facing the highest-ranked team (No. 2 in the state) that it has all year, Rodriguez is optimistic about his team’s chances, given the information he and his staff has gathered online, from sites like YouTube and MaxPreps.
“You know, we didn’t have much information on (Corpus Christi) Carroll, so that’s probably why we dropped the first game (of the regional semifinals). Here, we have as much information on Pearland as we did with (New Braunfels) Canyon,” Rodriguez said, referencing the school Weslaco swept on Saturday.
“So playing in those series and playing those types of teams, that carries over from one game to the next, and the girls are piling up the experience. It’s like I told them, it’s not who has the most talent, but who has the most team chemistry. So this situation (facing more experienced teams) is nothing new for us.”
ON A ROLL
Pearland (31-6-1), the No. 2 team in the latest Texas Girls Coaches Association Softball Poll, is making its fifth trip to the state tournament.
In beating Katy, the 2015 state champions, on Saturday, the Lady Oilers secured Friday’s semifinal date against Weslaco, the No. 7 team in the state, at McCombs Field on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin.
Should Weslaco win, it would mark the first time a Valley team has ever reached the UIL state final. If Pearland wins, it would keep alive its hopes of capturing a third state title and its first since 2010.
Pearland last reached the state semifinals in 2011.
NEW FACES
Of the eight teams headed to the state from Class 5A and 6A, three are making their first appearance in the tournament.
Weslaco, which had never advanced beyond the area round of the playoffs prior to this year, is among them, along with Atascocita (6A) and Birdville (5A).