BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
HARLINGEN — San Benito, Weslaco High, Harlingen South and Rio Hondo are some of the Mid-Valley programs that have gone four rounds or deeper into the playoffs this decade. They have cultivated rich traditions, and postseason runs have become commonplace.
When Edinburg Vela third baseman Alyssa Cedillo collected a ground ball and completed the out to first base to end the one-game regional quarterfinal playoff, the RGV softball landscape shifted back west.
The SaberCats, who took two of three games from Weslaco High in round one, are no longer giant slayers. After beating Harlingen South 5-3 on Friday night, they became a giant.
“All year, we’ve talked about taking this team three or four rounds deep,” Edinburg Vela coach Jon Maples said. “Everybody kept telling us about Weslaco (High), Harlingen South and EHS (Edinburg High), but it’s us now. The people who believed in us from the beginning — our players and our administration — they believed that we were going to do what we said. If people don’t recognize us now, I don’t know what else we need to do to prove that we’re for real. We’ll be here for a long time.”
The SaberCats (32-6) jumped on Harlingen South pitcher Kaitlynn De La Fuente and took a 4-0 lead. Vela right fielder Gabby Villarreal hit her second home run of the year over the left-center field fence in the third inning.
“Gabby showed off her power,” Maples said. “If you throw her an outside pitch, she can drive it. That wasn’t one of those things where the wind carried it. That was straight power. She’s only a junior, but that’s a heck of a power hitter that we’re fortunate to have at the top of our lineup.”
Villarreal’s bomb was sandwiched between two run-scoring singles from catcher Darissa Buenrostro.
“I had been practicing all week on hitting outside pitches,” Buenrostro said. “We knew that all she was going to throw were outside pitches. I waited on them, and I knew I had to hit them to the opposite field so our girls could come home to score.”
Buenrostro finished the night with three of Vela’s five runs batted in.
“We’re a great team because any one of us can pick up the slack and hit the ball,” Buenrostro said. “We saw it from Deandra (Longoria), who hit a sac fly to move runners over. This is what we do.”
Vela pitcher Naomi Reyes was sharp early, allowing two hits over the first four innings, but Harlingen South (27-9) turned up the pressure in the fifth.
Two SaberCats errors helped the Hawks load the bases with nobody out. Leadoff hitter Natasha Canales cranked a two-run double to cut Vela’s lead to 4-2, and De La Fuente chipped in another RBI double to make the score 4-3.
With South’s tying run at third base and two out, Reyes struck out cleanup hitter Kytana Muniz to end the frame.
“I told Darissa that we were just going to pitch for outs. Pop-ups, groundouts, anything we can to get an out,” Reyes said. “I was trying to relax as much as I could.”
“We weathered the storm,” Maples said. “That’s a quality team out there in Harlingen South. We made plays when we needed to make plays. We bent, but we didn’t break. We got one of those runs back in the next inning.”
Reyes finished the night out like she has for every other Vela playoff game.
“My arm is surprisingly not tired,” Reyes said. “I have to continue to get treatment like always, but there’s nothing bugging me at the moment.”
The Sweet 16-bound SaberCats will await the conclusion of the series between San Antonio O’Connor and San Antonio Warren today to learn the identity of their next opponent.
“Both of those teams are in the same district and they happened to split the season series,” Maples said. “There’s a lot of freshmen and sophomores on both rosters. We’ll be up there (Saturday) morning to scout them.”