By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
ALAMO — Amanda Aguilar remembers the sparse crowds that peppered the seats at PSJA Memorial’s softball stadium and the general lack of interest surrounding the team in 2013.
The program barely had enough players to fill out a JV team. The varsity squad was eventually whittled to nine players, putting into question whether it would have enough bodies to finish out the season.
“It was a program that no one cared about,” Aguilar said. “We didn’t win many games. We were just kind of there.”
Four years later, Aguilar is enjoying the program’s best season to date — featuring its first playoff berth and an unlikely trip to the area round after having beaten San Benito, a state and nationally ranked team, in the opening round.
“We knew we could make the playoffs, but we didn’t know we could be here (having beaten San Benito),” said pitcher Ashley Castillo, a teammate of Aguilar’s since freshman year. “The program wasn’t that big, and it wasn’t that good either, when I started. But as the years went on, we got better.”
For the past three years, Aguilar, Castillo and Dominique Cantu were part of a Lady Wolverines program that missed the playoffs each time by one game. They went through three coaching changes during that span.
They eventually plucked in Gilberto Rodriguez as their head coach, surrounded the core unit with five freshman in the starting unit, and forged ahead to grab the No. 4 seed in District 31-6A.
With Rodriguez, the Lady Wolverines saw an increase in fundamental drills. Initially, Cantu said, the team questioned whether it was worth devoting so much time to it. “But when we played in the tournaments, we realized it does help,” she added.
Overall, their fielding has improved, as well as their hitting. They put that on display Friday, when they handed San Benito a season-high eight runs in Game 2 to even the series at one game apiece.
“We all had that fire,” Castillo said. “You could feel the energy in the game. It wasn’t just one person. Every single player wanted that game. Everyone wanted it.
“We never had that many fans show up, ever. It was overwhelming at first, but it only helped us go higher.”
As the Lady Wolverines gear up to host McAllen High at 7:30 p.m. Friday, they spent part of Tuesday’s practice batting against the school’s baseball team. Going up against those stronger arms, Cantu said, has inspired the softball team to exert themselves while running the bases.
At this point, they’re looking for anything that will help give them an advantage.
These days, the mood at practice is light, even as the competition continues to get steeper. They find themselves a more serious team than in years past, determined to seize the opportunity before them.
Keeping in mind the “heartbreak” of her first three seasons, Castillo said she’s relishing the opportunity in her final go-around.
“Everyone called us the doormats,” Castillo said. “Everyone thought they could step on us, but not anymore. We’re the team no one could take lightly, that you don’t know what they’re going to do.
“We have a lot of talent on this team. We just need to have the confidence that we could do it.”