NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
The final chapter of the Mission Fastpitch Festival came with a familiar ending. The San Benito Lady Greyhounds captured their second consecutive festival championship after skating by McAllen High 11-3 at Bentsen Palm Community Park on Saturday night.
The festival’s conclusion arrives after a frantic three-day, 32-team, 69-game tournament featuring the best and brightest in Valley high school softball.
The game did not start off as smoothly as the Lady Hounds would have liked. After taking a 1-0 lead in the top half of the first inning, San Benito starting pitcher Eliana Carrizales ran into early trouble. Carrizales threw a wild pitch that allowed two McAllen High baserunners to scurry home and give the Lady Bulldogs a 2-1 lead following the first inning of play.
After getting rattled, Carrizales settled down and went a total of four-plus innings, giving up two additional hits, one more run and finishing with two strikeouts. The Lady Hounds’ bats came alive in the third inning. With two runners on base, Joanna Gonzalez slapped a double into the gap, scoring teammate Stephanie Contreras to tie the game at 2. Later in the third, Alina Jasso and Alia Rangel produced run-scoring singles of their own to give the Lady Hounds a lead they would not relinquish.
McAllen High starting pitcher Alexis Gutierrez struggled all evening. The normally reliable ace labored to get through the third, fourth and fifth innings, giving up a combined 10 hits, eight runs and three walks. Gutierrez finished with a complete game, despite allowing at least one run in five of the seven innings she pitched.
Perhaps the Lady Hounds’ unsung hero was reliever Diandra Padilla. Later named an all-Tournament selection, Padilla entered the action at a crucial point in the game. McAllen High began the fifth inning with two runners on and nobody out. Carrizales was lifted for Padilla, who would step to the mound and induce three consecutive ground balls to muzzle any hope for a Bulldog rally.
“My plan was to help out my team and pick up the other pitcher,” Padilla said. “No matter where you play, we have to do it together — as a team. And they had my back the whole time.”