By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
AUSTIN — For as pleased as Weslaco High appeared with its defense through six innings Friday, the thought of missing opportunities at the plate ate at some of its players following Friday’s UIL state semifinal at McCombs Field.
With Alyssa Denham, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette commit, in the circle, the Lady Panthers mustered only four hits and it cost them in a 4-0 loss to Pearland to close out the best season in program history.
“The challenge was waking up the bats,” pitcher Taylor Tafolla said. “Defensively, we were trying our best to keep the hits to a minimum. But we were coming up shorts on the bats, and that was pretty much what caused our downfall.”
Weslaco (33-8) ended the year matching the longest playoff run in Valley softball history. After beating New Braunfels Canyon in the regional finals, the Lady Panthers became only the second Valley program to reach the UIL state tournament.
San Benito made it in 2013 and 2015. All three times the Valley teams were out in the semifinals.
Through six innings, Weslaco trailed 1-0 before Pearland came through with three hits, including back-to-back doubles, to score three more runs in the seventh inning.
“She was hitting the corners well,” Tafolla said. “She went outside on the lefties, inside on the righties. And she had a rise ball after the first strike.
“She’s a great pitcher. I give all props to her. She has a great defense and a great team behind her. Honestly, it was the bats. We were warming up and everything seemed fine, but for some reason we couldn’t get a good bat on the ball.”
Despite loading the bases with two outs — by far its best scoring opportunity of the night — Weslaco’s Charlene De Anda grounded out to close out the bottom of the fifth inning.
“That pitcher, we just couldn’t touch her, unfortunately,” De Anda said. “She wasn’t fast, but she had good momentum and we just didn’t catch up.
“It was too late by the time we got the hang of it.”
In the top of the sixth, however, Weslaco did its part to keep runners from moving into scoring position, twice allowing fielder’s choices in favor of tagging a runner out at second.
Having never advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs and finishing third in district, Weslaco was widely considered underdogs to advance this far in the postseason.
Between the combined eight teams in Class 6A and 5A competing in the state tournament, Weslaco was the only one not to have won district. And among state-qualifying teams, in any classification, Weslaco was just one of two to advance this far after finishing third in district.
The Lady Panthers were also the only team at state not to have any seniors, going up against 14 Pearland seniors, all them college commits.
“I think Weslaco did a great job,” said Pearland’s Laneigh Clark, the winningest coach in state history. “They had a great scouting report on us. I think they played hard. They had a real scrappy team, and I thought we hit the ball hard early.
“I think getting more at-bats helped us.”
Pearland, in fact, had 31 at-bats, six more than Weslaco. Denham also struck out seven batters, while Tafolla recorded none in yielding nine hits. As a team, Weslaco committed two errors.
The experience — Pearland was playing in the state tournament for a fifth time, in search of its third state title — ultimately helped sway the game, Weslaco coach Mario Rodriguez said.
“Every time we put pressure on them, they were able to handle us,” Rodriguez said. “It could be a lot of things, really, but I’m proud of my girls and everything they did.
“I just told them, give yourself a chance. We were both playing for one run, and we were right there. It could’ve gone either way.”