BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — The Edinburg Vela SaberCats have made it to the fourth round.
Some are still surprised that the SaberCats are one of two Valley teams left standing in the UIL softball playoffs. Vela finished second in District 31-6A behind Edinburg High, which swept the SaberCats. Vela was also the ninth-ranked team in RGVSports.com’s softball top 10 during the last week of the regular season.
Edinburg Vela had to get by perennial Valley powers like fifth-ranked Weslaco High and fourth-ranked Harlingen South to get here. But Vela is here.
The calendar reads mid-May, but these SaberCats aren’t the least bit fatigued.
“A lot of us already play travel ball,” catcher Darissa Buenrostro said. “For me, I’d take a day’s rest, and after that, I’m good. I just keep going, and I don’t stop. Every weekend, year-round.”
The nonstop schedule has helped players like Buenrostro, who also goes by the nickname Doritos, which was given to her at an early age.
“When I was in kindergarten, my brother was in the fifth grade,” Buenrostro said. “His teacher could never say my name. At that time, he was eating a bag of Doritos, and the teacher decided that they were going to call me Doritos. It’s stuck with me ever since. I barely even respond to Darissa anymore.”
Buenrostro handles the catching duties for Naomi Reyes, a senior who will pitch at Texas Southern next year.
“Moni (Reyes) makes it very easy, because she’s such a talented pitcher,” Buenrostro said. “All I have to do for her is frame, block and get runners out. I see who is where on the plate, so I can suggest to her a certain pitch. If she’s not on with a pitch, I can tell her not to throw it, because I know what she can and cannot pitch. Sometimes, she’ll shake off one of my calls, just to mess with the batter.”
While some coaches choose to call an entire game’s worth of pitches from the dugout, SaberCats coach Jon Maples has given most of the power to the battery of Buenrostro and Reyes.
“Doritos (Darissa) has been great all year,” Maples said. “She’s taken over the catcher position really well, because her and Naomi have a great relationship. Doritos can be honest with Naomi and tell her what’s working and what’s not working, and Naomi can tell Doritos to call something more. We’ve only called a couple games all year, but they have taken it and run with it.”
Buenrostro’s .380 batting average is fifth best on the team, and she ranks second in runs batted in with 30. But the junior has dealt with her share of change. Earlier in the season, Maples moved Buenrostro from the No. 2 spot in the lineup down to fifth.
“We had her second in order to get her more at-bats,” Maples said. “She did really good things for us, but we decided to move her down, because opposing teams were pitching around Taylor Chavez (No. 3 hitter). By moving her down, Doritos would get a lot more RBI chances, and she’s taken advantage of those.”
In Vela’s bi-district series against Weslaco High, Buenrostro wasn’t herself. She went 0 for 7 through the first two games, which led to a winner-take-all Game 3 on the road.
“I was in a slump, and Moni gave me a pep talk before Game 3,” Buenrostro said. “I can hit better, and she knew I can hit better. After that, I started hitting. If I can catch Moni, then I can hit off of anyone.”
Buenrostro went 3 of 4 with a run scored in the decisive Game 3. She came up huge again last Friday, going 2 for 4 with three runs batted in during Vela’s one-game playoff against Harlingen South.
“She was having good at-bats,” Maples said. “It was one of those things where it might not show it numbers-wise, but her at-bats were good. She hit balls that were going gap to gap, but they made really good catches defensively. As long as she has good at-bats, works the count and makes the pitcher work to get her out, then that’s all we want from Darissa.”
Buenrostro and the SaberCats (32-6) will kick-start their three-game series against San Antonio Warren (25-5) at 7 tonight with all games taking place on the Texas A&M-Kingsville campus. Edinburg Vela might be newbies to playing in a new round of the playoffs for the second weekend in a row, but that didn’t stop them against Harlingen South.
“They’ve (San Antonio Warren) got a really young freshman group, but you can tell their first and third basemen are the leaders of that defense,” Maples said. “They’re very disciplined. They don’t put up that many runs, but they don’t give up a lot, either. I think we match up pretty equally with them.”
“We have to be smart at the plate,” Buenrostro said. “Pick our pitches and drive ‘em. That’s all we need to do.”