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CORPUS CHRISTI — Up nine runs during the bottom of the fifth inning, the Weslaco High Panthers found themselves one score away from ending the ball game and punching their ticket to the fifth round.
With runners on first and third, Weslaco High sophomore Mia Rodriguez hit a line drive directly to Austin Bowie’s Hope Benton. The ball ricocheted off Benton’s glove for the Bulldogs’ fifth error of the day.
Bowie’s error opened the door for Weslaco High’s Kalysa Izaguirre, with the sophomore sprinting home and sliding in for the game-winning run, as the Panthers crushed the Bulldogs 10-0, ending the contest in five innings off the UIL’s 10-run rule during Game 2 of a Region IV-6A semifinal Saturday at the Cabaniss Softball Field.
The victory gives the Panthers their fourth sweep of the postseason in as many tries, tallying an 8-0 mark. They advance to the Region IV-6A finals for the second time since 2016, taking on San Antonio O’Connor at a date, time and location to be determined.
“We knew yesterday’s game was yesterday’s game and today was going to be different,” Weslaco High head coach Mario Rodriguez said. “We kind of had an idea what they were going to do to us as far as pitching and stuff like that. Our guys just came out ready and matched any situation they gave us.”
Weslaco High’s bats erupted during the fifth, needing five runs to put the game on ice. Seniors Jules Garcia and Katia Reyes came up big in the inning, each recording an RBI to make it 9-0 to set up the game-winner.
While Garcia and Reyes helped secure the victory, it was a pair of sophomores who stole the show, with Romy Nuñez and Alexis Soliz accounting for four of the Panthers’ runs scored.
Nuñez recorded the Panthers first hit of the day, crushing a ball out of the park for a two-run homer, giving Weslaco High a 4-0 lead during the third, while Soliz served as the sparkplug to Weslaco’s game-clinching five-run inning, driving in the first two runs of the fifth off a line drive to center field.
“I just saw the pitch look pretty, so I swung,” Nuñez said. “I didn’t see where it went. I just saw it go long and high up. Once I rounded first, I knew it was gone.”
“It didn’t impress me though. I know what we can do and I know we can be an even better team. Our grade level doesn’t’ define who we are. We are just one team. We’re such a confident and good team together.”
Mistakes proved costly for Bowie during the decisive Game 2, with four of Weslaco High’s 10 runs coming off errors by the Bulldogs.
Soliz and Izaguirre opened the scoring for the Panthers during the first, each crossing home plate on a pair of errors by Bowie catcher Anya German. Another error by German during the fourth gave Weslaco High a 5-0 advantage going into the fifth.
“You just have to take advantage of situations and we did,” Rodriguez said. “Unfortunately, their pitcher, who did a great job, ran out of gas at the end. But we just took advantage of what we had to.”
Defensively, the Panthers stifled the Bulldogs, who entered the series with hot bats after tallying 33 hits during their third-round sweep of Lake Travis.
Weslaco High held Austin Bowie to nine hits during the series, while limiting them to just three runs.
“It was just routine plays,” Rodriguez said. “If they got on with a double or whatever, it didn’t matter. Kat (Reyes) knows she has a good defense behind her. We’ve been through those routine plays. We were able to complete them and do what we do.”
