BY TJ GARCIA | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
MISSION — New season. New coach. Same old result.
The San Benito Lady Greyhounds, arguably the Rio Grande Valley’s best softball team the past several years, served noticed that it is a squad to be reckoned with by running roughshod over the competition on it’s way to claiming the 22nd annual Mission Fastpitch Festival championship Saturday.
San Benito muzzled the Edinburg North Lady Cougars 16-6, powered by a 16-hit attack and six-run first inning, at Bentsen Palm Park. The Lady Greyhounds won five straight games en route to the title and remain undefeated on the season at 6-0.
“It’s always good to start like this and get some wins early in the season,” said first-year San Benito coach Krystal Leal, previously an assistant at Weslaco High. “We are a young team, but they have all the potential to go as far as they did last year.”
They certainly showed some moxie over the weekend and against a quality team — although depleted — like Edinburg North, which had only nine healthy players.
Still, San Benito came to play and opened the title game with six runs in the first inning — five coming with two outs. The Greyhounds’ arsenal did more damage during the third and fourth innings by crossing home plate four times in each of those frames, powered by plethora of hits — singles and doubles scattered throughout.
Twice, San Benito went up by 10 runs, only to see Edinburg North battle back and not allow the contest to get completely away from them. The Lady Greyhounds finally put the game on ice with the 10-run rule with two more scores during the 6th for the final tally.
Right fielder Alina Jasso led the offensive attack with three hits and three runs, and leadoff batter Sarah Garcia scored four times to help lead San Benito. Meanwhile, sophomore third baseman Joanna Gonzalez also added more offensive muscle with three hits.
“We worked as team. All us,” Gonzalez said about the squad going unbeaten in the tourney. “We picked each other up. We just kept going at it.”
Even though the 10-run rule was eventually evoked to close the game, Edinburgh North never gave up and knocked in four runs off San Benito pitching during the fifth inning after being down by 12 runs. Lady Cougars coach Richard Tressler said the effort was a good takeaway from a 32-team tournament in which they finished second to a state power.
“I thought the girls played extremely well and I couldn’t be prouder,” Tressler said. “We have a 5-1 start. We beat two district opponents in Weslaco (High) and PSJA Memorial that are very good teams, and that’s the thing I’m most happy with.”