KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN—-Iliana Saucedo and Alexa Saucedo were made to play softball.
It won’t take you long to notice the sisters when they trot onto the field.
Iliana, tall and with a strong arm and a knack for hitting homers, teamed up with older sister Alexa, who plays third base and wears a mask over a face covered in eye black.
The two just go hand-in-hand with the game of softball.
“I think our dad makes us click,” Iliana said. “He is our hitting coach, our pitching coach — our everything coach. Softball is everything to our family and I think if our dad wasn’t involved in softball, we wouldn’t be involved. His love for baseball really makes us involved. That is another thing we do; we watch a lot of baseball in our house.”
Alexa, who was born February 5th, is one year older than Iliana, who was born January 22nd. The two grew up playing the game together and have both had an impact on this year’s Harlingen South team.
They are a pair of true softball players and it is their only sport. When they made the move from Niceville, Florida to Harlingen, the two had an idea on what they were walking into and what could be.
“We always thought about it,” Iliana said. “Our old team was really good and we knew we could go far anywhere we go, but when we learned we were moving back home to Harlingen, we knew we had a shot. But then when we got here and saw the team, we knew we really had a shot.”
The two have plugged in right away with the Lady Hawks and through five postseason games, the two have helped South to Round 4.
Iliana, who hits in the heart of the Lady Hawk order, is batting .471 with eight hits in 18 at bats. She has four doubles, two triples and four runs. Alexa, meanwhile, is hitting .375 with a team-high two homers (both in the playoffs) with six hits and four runs.
“This has been a very exciting ride,” Alexa said. “Especially with the girls; we all get along and we are a family on the field.”
“We like the traveling,” Iliana said. “The farther we go in the playoffs, the more we get to travel.”
Along with their playoff run, the sisters are getting ready to watch the NCAA Woman’s College World Series, which is a part of softball they don’t agree on as Alexa is a University of Florida fan and Iliana cheers for Florida State.
However, they do find some common ground.
“I do like Florida State’s coach, Lonni Alameda,” Alexa said. “We had a chance to work with Coach Alameda. She is a super nice person and she is all about her girls and we learned a lot about her, but I really like Gators because they have a really good infield.”
The Saucedos will continue their playoff journey Friday at 7 p.m. when the Lady Hawks take on New Braunfels Canyon in a best-of-three series at Tuloso-Midway High School in Corpus Christi.