BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — Sharyland Pioneer was in the middle of busting the game wide open in the fourth inning. Eleven batters stepped to the plate, and all of them reached base. Eight of them had already come around to score.
The bases were packed, and third baseman Sarah Odale dug in for her second at-bat of the inning. Standing down the third-base line, Pioneer coach Orlando Garcia said something to Fabiola Gonzalez, the Diamondbacks runner on third.
“Coach told me, ‘Sarah’s going to hit this next pitch over the wall, and we’re going to be district champs,’” Gonzalez said. “Next thing you know, Sarah hits it over the fence, and we’re district champs. It feels amazing.”
“I told her (Gonzalez) to be ready,” Garcia said. “‘We’ve got the bases loaded. You know Sarah’s due. She’s going to end it.’ Coincidentally, she does. Unbelievable.”
When Odale put bat to ball, the only question was how far the ball would travel beyond the fence in left-center field. The Diamondbacks walked off with a 15-0 win Friday as well as a share of the district championship — the third in the program’s four-year history.
“I give all the glory to God,” Odale said. “He’s the only reason I was able to do this. I’m so proud of my team. I’m glad we’re moving on to the playoffs.”
Friday’s game played out similarly to how the District 31-5A race materialized throughout the year. The Diamondbacks were the undisputed heavyweights of 31-5A coming into 2018, winning 28 of 28 district games over two seasons. This season, however, the district faced the most volatility of any in the Rio Grande Valley.
District 31-5A was the only one of the Valley’s six 4A, 5A and 6A districts to have three different teams occupy first place in April. Mission Veterans, Rio Grande City and Sharyland Pioneer all spent time at the top, and a Diamondbacks championship was far from a sure thing.
The Gladiators (11-14, 9-7) threatened to knock the Diamondbacks off their perch in the early going. Pioneer held a 2-0 in the third inning, and Roma put runners on second and third with one out. But the Gladiators couldn’t bring one home. Again in the third, with Pioneer up 3-0, Roma had the tying run come to the plate, but the Gladiators again failed to produce a run.
“They (Pioneer) played great defensively. All you can do is tip your hat to them,” Roma coach Joe Henry Doria said.
As the season got deeper into April and Friday’s game entered the fourth inning, the Diamondbacks (17-8, 13-3) would not be denied a win or a district title on their home field. Freshman pitcher Andrea Ortiz scattered four hits over four innings while striking out two and walking two Gladiators.
“I knew I had to come into tonight and hit my spots,” Ortiz said. “My defense was there behind me, making the plays that needed to be made. This game was big for us. I just had to do my job, and I knew they’d back me up.”
Roma’s season comes to a close after the Gladiators needed to make their own breaks to remain in playoff contention entering Friday night. Roma defeated fourth-place Laredo Cigarroa on Tuesday to pull within a half-game of the Toros in the district standings.
Roma, which defeated Sharyland Pioneer for the first time in school history on March 20, needed to beat the Diamondbacks again on Friday to force a win-or-go-home fourth-place game versus the Toros for a spot in the bi-district round of the playoffs.
As was the case last season, the Gladiators finished one game shy of a chance at their first-ever playoff berth.
“These girls are resilient,” Doria said of his players. “They showed tremendous fortitude.”
The Mission Veterans Patriots won their regular season finale to claim the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, while Pioneer assumes the No. 2 seed. The Diamondbacks will meet the Edcouch-Elsa Yellow Jackets in the first round of the playoffs. Details had not been ironed out on Friday night.
“We have to give it all we have, just like we did tonight,” Gonzalez said. “We know they (Roma) wanted to go to the playoffs, but we wanted it so much more. We’re going to keep fighting. No one is going to get in the way of us getting what we want.”