CORPUS CHRISTI — San Benito’s Amira Rodriguez solemnly ran the bases after smashing the most important hit of a three-game series with New Braunfels Saturday night at Cabaniss softball field in Corpus Christi.
After touching the plate and the swarm of smiling teammates descended to the dugout the sophomore finally exploded with a scream towards a sea of purple.
Rodriguez’s grand slam, Emily Delgado’s pitching and a six-run top of the seventh sent the San Benito Greyhounds to the Class 6A Region IV championship. The Greyhounds won the series 2-1.
San Benito lost Game 2 prior to Game 3 by a score of 12-9. Greyhounds head coach Elias Martinez expected a tough New Braunfels team to possibly force a Game 3.
“We knew it was always a possibility,” Martinez said. “It is a great program over there. We knew that they were not going to quit. We expected three games, hoping for two. I told the girls, ‘Game 3 is going to come down to who wants it the most, and who handles the pressure the most at that time’.”
“Fortunately for us, it came out in our favor,” Martinez said.
Game 2 was a slugfest. San Benito were on the wrong end of it despite a three-run home run by Rodriguez and a grand slam by sophomore JoJo Montes. The Unicorns picked up 11 runs in the middle innings against Rodriguez.
The sophomore walked some batters and was tagged up by a New Braunfels team that could make nice contact on the ball. Grace Simons, Veronica Peitersen and Buggie Myer came up with RBIs during that stretch for the Unicorns.
Delgado relieved Rodriguez in Game 2, and after Montes’ grand slam the Greyhounds could not mount a comeback. Delgado started Game 3, only giving up a run in the fifth inning.
“We wanted to come back and win this game so much, every game,” Delgado said. “Everyone has seen it, Amira has done amazing in the circle, so to be able to come back and help her and us is an amazing feeling.”
“We went out there and battled,” Delgado said.
The Greyhounds took a lead in the first inning of Game 3 when Kylie Sanchez ripped a ball down the third baseline to drive in a run despite hurting her ankle in Game 2.
The next few innings sped by before walks loaded the bases for Rodriguez. The sophomore destroyed the ball into deep left-center field. The Unicorns outfielders could only trace the ball with their eyes as Rodriguez’s shot easily cleared the wall.
“I was not planning on hitting it over at all because I was just trying to hit it flat, get a base hit, but I hit it over,” Rodriguez said.
Bethany Aguilar and Elyssa Ruvio helped put the game away in the top of the seventh with RBIs.
Next up for San Benito is San Antonio East Central. The Hornets defeated San Antonio O’Connor 2-1 in their series to set up the meeting with the Greyhounds.
The Hornets are 25-14 and finished second in District 27-6A behind New Braunfels.