Seeds of success

Three Big 7 softball teams advance

 

With the Valley’s softball regular season having come to a close last week, four of the seven teams from the Mission, Sharyland and La Joya school districts, the Big 7, are hanging up their gloves, sneakers and uniforms until it’s time to do it all over again next season. Those four teams are the Mission Veterans Lady Patriots, the Sharyland Lady Rattlers, the La Joya Lady Coyotes and the Juarez-Lincoln Lady Huskies. The girls on these four teams played their hearts out all season long, but for whatever reason or reasons, they fell short when it came to their month’s long quest of qualifying for the UIL State Playoffs.

 

As for the remaining three teams, the Sharyland Pioneer Lady Diamondbacks, the Palmview Lady Lobos and the Mission Lady Eagles, they’re still hitting the practice field as they prepare to go up against whichever worthy adversary they will be taking on in the Bi-district round of the playoffs, which for some teams across the Valley and the state began last night.

 

 

While these three teams all succeeded in advancing into the playoffs by securing one of their respective district’s top four seeds, the paths they took and the results they’ve achieved so far are all quite different. Yes, each of these teams advanced by securing one of their respective district’s four playoff berths, but one did so by claiming a district championship while the other two will be entering the postseason as lower seeds. However, as all three of these teams’ coaches will tell you, how you get into the playoffs is not nearly as important as how you do once you’re in the playoffs. That’s because as every coach knows, there have been more #1 seeded district champions knocked out of the playoffs by their second, third or even fourth seeded opponents than they care to remember; especially when it happened to them.

 

So let’s take a look at these three teams by looking back at how they got here and looking forward to whom, when and where they play next.

 

Pioneer Lady Diamondbacks

 

 

Head Coach Orlando Garcia’s Lady Diamondbacks went 13-3 (15-6 overall) this season to claim their second District 31-5A championship in a row. Unlike last year however, when they compiled an even more impressive 14-2 record, the Lady Diamondbacks are outright champions this year. That was not the case last year as the PSJA North Lady Raiders managed to match them win-for-win to claim a share of the championship. The fact that the Lady Diamondbacks defeated the Lady Raiders twice this season while these two teams split their two game series last year, went a long way towards keeping the Lady Diamondbacks atop the standings while the Lady Raiders, the Edinburg Vela Lady Sabercats and the McAllen High Lady Bulldogs, all with identical 11-5 records, had to settle for second, third or fourth place.

 

Last year the Lady Diamondbacks were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs when they lost two of three against the Brownsville Lopez Lady Lobos. This year the Lady Diamondbacks are going up against the Edcouch-Elsa Lady Yellowjackets who qualified for the playoffs as District 32-5A’s runner-ups with a 15-3 record. The fact that they came in second to the Brownsville Pace Lady Vikings, who posted an 18-0 district record and an even more impressive 28-0-1 overall record this year, says something about how well the Lady Yellowjackets have played despite their second place finish.

 

The best-of-three game series between the Lady Diamondbacks and the Lady Yellowjackets began with game one last night in Edcouch-Elsa. Game two of this series is scheduled for tonight at 7 p.m. at Pioneer High School with game three, if necessary, being scheduled for tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Edcouch Elsa.

 

Palmview Lady Lobos

 

 

Despite having an impressive 14-2 District 30-5A record, an even more impressive 21-3-1 overall record and being ranked 14th in the state in the most recent Texas Girls Association State Softball poll, the Palmview Lady Lobos finished as district runner-ups behind the undefeated, but unranked, Rio Grande City Lady Rattlers this season. Even so, head Coach Jessica Cardenas-Russell’s Lady Lobos have had an extremely successful season so far and will be looking to continue that success well into the UIL State Playoffs.

 

If the Lady Lobos are going to have the kind of playoff success they had in 2024, when they advanced into the third round, they will have to get past the 12-4 Flour Bluff Lady Hornets first. Doing so will not be easy however because even though the Lady Lobos are entering the playoffs with a better record than the Lady Hornets, Flour Bluff has always been an extremely difficult team for Valley teams to get past. Case in point, the Lady Hornets swept the Mission Lady Eagles last year and the Harlingen South Lady Hawks in 2023, both in the Bi-district round.

 

The best-of-three game series between the Lady Lobos and the Lady Hornets began with game one last night at Flour Bluff High School. Game two of this series is scheduled for tonight at 6 p.m. at Palmview High School with game three, if necessary, being scheduled for tomorrow at 12 p.m. in Palmview.

 

Mission Lady Eagles

 

 

For the fifth year in a row, the Mission Lady Eagles are in the playoffs. Their 10-6 District 30-5A record enabled them to finish fourth in the district behind Rio Grande City, Palmview and Roma. The Lady Eagles actually tied Roma for third place, but due to the fact that the Lady Gladiators swept the Lady Eagles in district play, the Lady Gladiators took third.

 

Saying that head Coach Priscilla Aparicio’s Lady Eagles had a rather streaky district record this season would be an understatement.  That’s because they are entering the playoffs having lost three of their last four games, which came after they won five in a row, which came after losing three in a row which came after winning three in a row. During their five game win streak, the Lady Eagles outscored their opponents by a combined margin of 73-12.

 

 

So how well Coach Aparicio’s squad fares in the playoffs is going to depend partly on which Lady Eagles’ team shows up for their best-of-three Bi-district round series against 15-1 Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial. This series began last night in Corpus and will continue today with game #2 scheduled for 5 p.m. and, if needed, game #3 which is scheduled to begin 30 minutes after the completion of game #2, both in Mission. If the Lady Eagles are going to have any hope of extending their season into the Area round, they will need to have the best version of their team on the field for each and every game in this series.