They had just two baserunners and had not collected a hit against Lewisville ace Maribeth Gorsuch as they trailed 3-0 going into their final at-bat.
But in true Lady ’Hounds softball form, they never gave up and provided as entertaining of a finish to a game that one will ever see.
And it started with perhaps as true, fair and honest of a message from Coach Elias Martinez as they could’ve received at that pivotal moment:
“Play with your heart.”
Indeed, the Lady ’Hounds played to their capabilities, inciting a rally that nearly culminated in a comeback that would’ve been talked about for years. In the end, the bid fell short in a 3-2 loss, but not before the effort and passion the girls had played with all season was on full display, in essence justly personifying their 2015 campaign.
“That’s Lady ’Hounds softball. We don’t give up. Things may not be going our way, but we’re gonna fight to the bitter end,” Martinez said. “We lost, but it wasn’t because of a lack of effort. We just told the girls to put the ball in play and good things would happen and we got two runs across. We did a good job of battling because we don’t give up.”
Putting the ball in play had been an issue for San Benito against Gorsuch. The Lady Farmers’ ace was in command from the get-go, striking out seven of the first nine Lady ’Hounds she faced. Gorsuch, an LSU commit, carried a perfect game into the fourth inning and a no-hitter into the seventh. She finished with 11 strikeouts and scattered three hits.
But, oh, those three hits. The frenzy that ensued brought the sellout crowd of more than 1,300 – two-thirds of it decked in purple and gold – to its feet.
With one out, Joanna Gonzalez doubled, followed by a single from Jav’ana Gonzalez. Audrey Huerta’s fielder’s choice scored Joanna Gonzalez to cut the deficit to 3-1. Then with two down, Alexxis Cavazos reached on a fielder’s choice to load the bases.
Crystal Castillo stepped up and singled to shallow right, enabling Jav’ana Gonzalez to score. On the play, Huerta’s courtesy runner, Kim McCommas, stuttered at second base and then darted for third. A bad throw nearly allowed her to score, but she remained safely at third.
With two away, that brought up Stephanie Contreras, whose grounder to third was fired home to force out McCommas by a hair, ending the game and sending the Lady Farmers to the championship game, which they lost to Katy 3-2 on Saturday.
“Our team gave it all we had in the last inning and we never gave up,” San Benito senior second baseman Melanie Gonzalez said. “We went in there in the bottom of the seventh and did anything we could to get some runs on the board. We felt we were the better team and we had to do anything. This was the biggest game we’d ever had and my team fought to the very end.”
Martinez, in his 18th season at the helm of the Valley’s most successful softball program, now has two state tournament appearances on his resume, as do the four seniors (Castillo, Jav’ana Gonzalez, Melanie Gonzalez and Huerta). He outlined the significance of the feat to his returnees as well.
“Without those seniors, we wouldn’t have been here. They’re a great bunch of girls to see it come to the state tournament is awesome,” Martinez said. “(To the underclassmen) Enjoy the moment because they don’t happen too often.”
They don’t, but in San Benito’s case, do not be surprised if they notch a third UIL state appearance in the very near future.