By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
EDCOUCH — Even though she wasn’t part of the Edinburg Vela softball team the previous three seasons, Taylor Chavez was fully aware of what was being described as the program “curse” — a string of first-round playoff exits beginning with the school’s inception in 2012.
On Friday, however, Chavez did her part to end that drought, crushing a two-run shot during the fifth inning to lift her team to a 5-1 victory over Edcouch-Elsa to sweep their Class 5A bi-district series.
“I just felt the power extend from my hips, and the dinger went over the fence,” Chavez said. “(Pitcher Sarah Rodriguez) left it perfectly down the middle for me to crush it.”
Chavez’s home run was her sixth of the year, and it came on her third plate appearance of the night, after going 0-for-2 in her first two at-bats.
With the game tied at 1 and a runner on first, Chavez’s shot over the left-field wall put Edinburg Vela (24-6) ahead for good, setting up an area-round matchup against Gregory-Portland later next week.
“She was huge,” Lady SaberCats interim coach Joe Ortiz said. “She’s a big hitter. She’s come throughout the whole year and has had big hits for us.”
The Lady SaberCats finished with eight hits on the night, while Edcouch-Elsa (18-9) totaled seven.
Backup pitcher Naomi Reyes recorded seven strikeouts to pick up the win, a night after Shayla Abbott helped Edinburg Vela hang on for a 4-1 victory in Game 1.
“Our pitchers have kept us in every game,” Ortiz said. “It’s just great to have that kind of consistency as far as pitching goes, and then we get some hits and play some defense, as you saw on that last catch (to close out the game). If we do that, we’re going to be OK.”
Edinburg Vela now advances to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in its four-year history. The Lady SaberCats are doing it as the No. 2 seed in District 31-5A, a year after being swept out of the playoffs by Mercedes on the heels of a district title and a 22-1 regular season.
“They wanted to avenge last year’s loss,” Ortiz said. “They felt a little embarrassed, actually, about it because they had such a great season (in 2015). But luckily we did well. I give a lot of credit to Edcouch-Elsa. They’re a feisty group. They just play hard. It’s been a good test for us.”
Down 1-0 heading into the bottom of the second inning, Amber Guerra and Areisy Carrillo got on base, respectively, with singles before Julia Cordon drove in the team’s first run.
Then in the sixth, Reyes and Cordon scored on what would’ve been a triple by Evan Perez before the freshman was tagged out at third to close out the inning.
There were 15 players stranded on base between the two teams, including seven by Edcouch-Elsa, which had four in scoring position.
“It’s been an issue all year,” E-E coach Ruth Flores said. “We’ve been trying to work on it hard, trying to come up with clutch hitting. I mean, it’s been a struggle all season long. We fought hard enough and did what we had to do to make the playoffs, but it was one of our weaknesses in the playoffs.”
Flores, nonetheless, took solace in a season that came with measured expectations. The first-year coach was hired in December after seven years as an assistant — replacing the retiring Joey Palacios, who oversaw eight playoff runs in the previous nine seasons — to lead the Lady Yellowjackets to No. 3 seed in District 32-5A.
“I just hope we could build on this next year and get to the same place or further,” Flores said. “I did start off real late in the season, so it was hard to get to know each other. I think we started to get to know each other — myself and the girls — how we wanted to run things. But I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish.”