By ARMANDO GARZA 
SPECIAL to the NEWS
CORPUS CHRISTI — Austin, get ready because San Benito is coming!
After dropping Game 2 earlier on Saturday (4-1) at Cabaniss Softball Field, the San Benito Lady ’Hounds dug deep and needed every last bit of determination in a 5-2 victory over New Braunfels Canyon to claim the series two games to one and move on to the UIL state softball tournament.
San Benito (30-3) is the Region-IV champion for the second time in three seasons and now the state semifinals (Final 4) will be played at Red & Charlene McCombs Field on the campus of the University of Texas next Friday at either 3 or 6 p.m.
“This never gets old,” Lady ’Hounds coach Elias Martinez said. ”Our girls deserve it. It says a lot about the quality of softball in the Valley. We’re representing the Valley and we got a lot of fantastic support this weekend.”
RECAP OF BOTH GAMES:
GAME 1-
Before they even got off the bus, the San Benito Lady ’Hounds felt they deserved to be one of the final eight teams playing softball in Texas.
On Friday night against New Braunfels Canyon, they most certainly played like it.
San Benito came out ultra-confident and never trailed as it took advantage of mistakes and played its brand of softball in a 4-2 victory in Game 1 of their Region-IV Class 6A final series at Cabaniss Softball Field.
“This is Lady ’Hound Softball,” San Benito coach Elias Martinez said. “The last thing we talked about before we got off the bus was, ‘We belong here. We don’t play second fiddle to anybody’ so we can play with anybody and we took down a tough team tonight.”:
With a pro-San Benito crowd loud and proud behind them, the Lady ’Hounds never wavered, panicked or worried as they oozed confidence.
Canyon had two runners on to open the game but Lady ’Hound ace Crystal Castillo, who scattered seven hits and struck out eight, got a big K to get out unscathed.
In the home half of the first, Stephanie Contreras singled to start the at-bat and Kim Harper reached on an error at third. Then with two outs, Jav’ana Gonzalez stepped up and her bloop single scored Contreras for a 1-0 edge.
With that run in her hip pocket, Castillo cruised through the first five innings.
She retired the Canyon side in order in the second and third innings before a double to her counterpart Brooke Vestal in the fourth. But Castillo again bailed herself out with a great strikeout to walk back to the dugout.
“I had a lot of confidence tonight because my team is always behind me. So I just had to put the ball there and I know they’ll back me up at all times,” Lady ’Hound pitcher Crystal Castillo said. “We believe we belong here because we worked hard all season for it. We’re working hard to get back to state. We can’t come in thinking we will take the game already, so we have to play (on Saturday) like we played tonight and continue playing the game we play.”
In the fifth, San Benito struck with what turned out to be some well-needed insurance runs.
Audrey Huerta led it off with a walk and then Castillo reached on an error to put runners at the corners. Contreras poked a single to shallow left to score Huerta, then Harper legged out an infield single to load the bases. Castillo’s courtesy runner, Kimberly McCommas, scored on a passed ball to make it 3-0. Then Melanie Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly scored Contreras for a 4-0 San Benito advantage.
In the fifth, Canyon got on the board when Raeven Trevino walked and was doubled home to make it 4-1.
Then in their final at-bat, the Cougars got one more when Nicole Flitton doubled and scored on a single from Angela Camacho.
But Castillo got two strikeouts to end the game and put the Lady ’Hounds one game away from State.
GAME 2-
The game was close but San Benito never trailed. The girls went up 3-0 in the second inning when Audrey Huerta walked and later scored when Crystal Castillo drew a bases-loaded walk. Then Stephanie Contreras slapped an infield hit to short, and an errant throw to third enabled Ali Huerta and Alexxis Cavazos to score for a 3-0 lead.
Despite a raucous San Benito crowd, Canyon (31-6) crawled back as Hailey Hester and Nicole Flitton scored on an error to cut the deficit to 3-2 in the second inning.
In the third, San Benito had bases loaded with nobody out, but a controversial double play thwarted the effort.
The girls did, however, add some insurance in the fifth. Joanna Gonzalez was hit on the ankle and trotted to first while Jav’ana Gonzalez hit a Texas Leaguer to left which dropped for a hit. Then Audrey Huerta walked to load the bases with nobody out. Her sister Ali Huerta walked to score Joanna Gonzalez and then with the bases loaded with one out, Castillo singled up the middle to plate Ja’vana Gonzalez and a 5-2 lead.
It remained close until the bottom of the seventh inning, when Canyon made it interesting.
With the bases loaded, two outs and the Cougarettes’ Brooke Vestal at the plate, many worried of a possible game-ending grand slam, the way the freshman was hitting the ball. Martinez held a conference on the mound and contemplated walking the star to bring in a run and get to the next batter.
“We thought about walking her (Vestal) because that’s how much respect we have for her,” Martinez said afterward. “But again, Crystal is our UFC…our Ultimate Fighting Champion. She’s been hurt since last night but she battled through all her injuries. I couldn’t praise her enough.”
Interestingly, as Martinez alluded to, it almost didn’t happen. After dropping Game 2, Castillo was bothered by a hand injury and wasn’t a sure bet to start Game 3…of course Castillo, who wound up having eight Ks in Game 3, had other ideas.
“It’s my senior year and I want to finish off strong. It doesn’t matter if I’m hurting or not,” Castillo said afterward, her hand iced down. “I knew my team had my back so I wanted to play no matter what and give it my all.”
Castillo joins Amber Jasso as the only pitchers in Lady ’Hound history to guide them to the Elite 8, and now the Final Four.
“It’s so awesome! I’m so excited for us four seniors,” Castillo said. “It’s an amazing feeling!”
3 comments
@ Marco
Understandable and I believe you with regards to some parents and administrators putting sports above anything else. I agree it’s just plain wrong.
However, you don’t know if that’s the case with these girls. Some athletes excel both on and off the field regardless of what the academic standing of the school as a whole might be. And if that’s the case well then I think a simple congrats for an athletic accomplishment such as this one is deserved.
Again I’m not disagreeing at all with what you are saying, just that you shouldn’t lump these sports over academics parents and administrators with all high school athletes. And I don’t want you to think that all this is coming from a sports crazed fan, I’ll take Academics over sports from my kids anyday.
Just to be clear I am happy and proud of these girls, not of SBCISD. So how about leaving the negative comments about SBCISD for the negative articles about them and believe me there are plenty.
Author
Touche…….
@ Greyhound 24
As a retired educator, all of my service being in the RGV, I experienced harassment from coaches, parents and even administrators because Maria or Juan failed the grading period and cannot play sports. Parent conference after parent conference where my grading methods and grade book were gone over with a “fine
toothed comb”…conferences where your abilities and methodologies were eviscerated because the “star player” got benched. And strangely enough, after the sport season was over, you never heard from the parents again even though their child was still failing. Sport victories are nothing to celebrate when a schools academic standing is somewhere at or near the “bottom of the barrel.” The worship of sports in our public schools is absolutely sickening.