2022 SOFTBALL – HUSTON-TILLOTSON: THE MOVIE
One of my stock phrases when I broadcast a diamond sport – baseball or softball – is, no matter how many games you’ve seen in your life, if you watch any game closely enough, you’ll see something you’ve never seen before.
No, there isn’t a movie being made about the Huston-Tillotson softball team, but when you read this, you might decide there should be.
This is Part 4 of a series; the 5th and final part will appear soon. The attached photo is from the Huston-Tillotson web site.
Our Lady of the Lake softball had the best record in the Red River Athletic Conference.
Texas A&M-Texarkana won the Red River Athletic Conference Tournament.
Both teams made it to the NAIA Softball Tournament.
Despite this, many who saw the conference tournament believed Huston-Tillotson was the biggest story.
Huston-Tillotson is in Austin, within two miles of UT's baseball and softball fields. Like all amateur athletics did, HT shut down their softball team mid-season in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike most programs, HT softball (and baseball) did not resume in 2021. Only two players from the 2020 team returned for the 2022 season, Denissa Gracia and Brianna Tristan. Four of their players - Tristan, Anna McFarlane, Kayla Rogers, and Abigail Rubio – transferred from Laredo Community College, an institution which STILL haven’t resumed athletics since the pandemic.
It’s fashionable to say a softball team that graduates, say, 6 of their starters is “rebuilding.” The 2022 Huston-Tillotson Rams softball team was REALLY rebuilding.
The top 8 teams in the RRAC are invited to their double elimination conference tournament. HT finished 8th out of 11 teams in the RRAC.
If I say Huston-Tillotson had 13 players on the roster, I’m not really imparting the situation, because one (freshman Destine Garza) did not play all season.
If I say HT had 12 players suited up for the tournament, I’m still not imparting the situation, because one player who’d played the first 41 games of the season wasn’t available after the first tournament game.
If I say HT had 11 players suited up after their first tournament game, I’m STILL not imparting the situation, because McFarlane wore a jacket instead of a jersey. Technically, she was out of uniform, and not playing within the rules. (My guess is that, given HT’s circumstances, she was given a dispensation.)
So… it’s impressive that the Rams accomplished what they did in the regular season, but things looked bleak for the RRAC Tournament. After all, Xavier, a second year program, finished ahead of HT, 7th in the conference, and lost both their games by mercy rule, 10-1 each to Texas A&M-Texarkana and Texas A&M-San Antonio.
SO… we’ve set the stage.
Huston-Tillotson faced top seed Our Lady of the Lake in the opening round. Yes, the Rams lost…. but the game was tied 1-1 after six innings. OLLU won on a walkoff 2-run homer by Ariel Montgomery; even after a valiant effort, HT was in the losers bracket.
The following day, Huston-Tillotson faced Louisiana Christian. Louisiana Christian was the fourth seed in the conference. While HT down to 11 players, Louisiana Christian suited up 30, 5 of whom had been on the team since 2019.
Final Score: Huston-Tillotson 7, Louisiana Christian 4.
HT’s catcher, Grace Ross, went 4 for 4 with 3 runs scored, and RBI, and stole a base. After LCU’s leadoff hitter reached on an infield single, Ross threw her trying to steal; LCU did not attempt another stolen base the rest of the game. Anna McFarlane, inserted into the lineup after sitting out the previous contest, had only 29 plate appearances and 1 run batted in all season coming into the game; against LCU, she got two hits and drove in three runs. Pitcher Denisse Gracia had a complete game, retiring 13 straight at one point. The Rams advanced, and earned the right to play once more that day.
Their next opponent would be the University of Houston at Victoria. UH of Victoria was the third seed in the 2022 conference tournament, but they were also the defending tournament championship and had been to the NAIA World Series the previous year. UH-Victoria brought back 10 players from last year’s World Series team, including two pitchers (All-Conference Cameron Cowan and Cameron Steen) and RRAC Co-Defensive player of the year Ashley Reyna.
UH-Victoria DID defeat Huston-Tillotson and end their season… but it took them 10 innings to do it.
UHV took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first after Madyson Leighton was hit by a Gracia pitch and eventually scored on a single by Kaylle Lopez. Hutson-Tillotson – of course – responded with a two-out rally in the bottom of the first; Abigail Luna doubled and scored on a double by Grace Ross; Ross then scored on Jimmie Lee Garcia’s bloop single, giving the Rams a 2-1 lead after the first.
This is about when people in the press box were wondering aloud if someone was filming a Hoosiers sequel without telling us.
The lead held until UHV’s Claire Blinka hit a two-run homer in the 5th to put the Jaguars back in front 3-2. Again, HT responded. In the 6th, Luna singled to left, Ross sacrificed her to second while reaching on an error, Garcia sacrificed to advance them both, then MacFarlane hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Luna and tie the game at 3.
In the 7th, Cameron Steen took over pitching for UHV (their third pitcher of the game), while Gracia (naturally) remained in the pitching circle. They matched scoreless innings in the 7th, 8th, and 9th.
The challenges for HT reached a new level in the top of the eighth. Ross, the HT catcher, was getting ready to catch Gracia’s warm up throws when a strap broke on her catcher’s helmet and mask. Ross didn’t have a spare, so the Rams asked the UHV dugout for one to borrow. Ross was given two choices and accepted the better fit. She had to catch the rest of the game with a bright red helmet clashing with her maroon and gold uniform.
UHV scraped across their final run in the 10th. Zoe Miranda hit into a force play to drive in Michaela Fernandez and give UHV a 4-3 lead. Steen then retired the side in bottom of the 10th to seal the Jaguar victory. Of May 7th, Huston-Tillotson’s season came to an end at St Mary’s University.
Several players led the way for the Rams. Catcher Grace Ross went 5 for 10 with a double, 2 RBIs, and 3 runs scored. At 5’11, she towered over her teammates during mound meeting, but was a leader for more than her height. Right fielder and third baseman Abigail Luna 4 for 11 with 2 doubles, an RBI, and 3 runs scored. Designated player Anna McFarlane, who had 1 RBI for the season coming into the tournament and sat out the OLLU game, went 2 for 4 with 4 RBI, a walk, and 2 sacrifices.
Great credit must go to HT’s ninth year Head Coach Roxanne Rodriguez, of course. We can’t necessarily say she made all the right strategic moves, because with only 11 or 12 players there weren’t many moves she could make. But this team believed, and gave top teams in the conference all the competition they could handle. This doesn’t happen without a coach imparting confidence in a team that had every excuse to go through the motions.
The biggest part of the Huston-Tillotson story, though, was Denisse Gracia, a transfer from San Jacinto Community College and one of two players to return to the team from before the pandemic. A generation ago, iron women like Gracia were so prevalent in softball that they were considered the norm. This has changed quite a bit, even down to the high school level. Gracia was the only pitcher to throw every pitch for her team in the tournament. The only pitcher who threw more innings than Gracia’s 23 and 1/3 was Anna Westberry of A&M-Texarkana; she threw 30 innings, but her team played in 5 games to HT’s 3. Even the teams that played fewer games in the tournament than HT (Xavier and Louisiana Christian) used multiple pitchers.
Here are Gracia’s numbers for the tournament.
1-2 record, 2.70 ERA; 3 CG, 23.1 IP, 20 H, 11 R, 9 ER, 15 BB, 4 HBP, 5 K, 246 pitches
All this in less than 30 hours.
The strikeout-to-walk ratio is skewed by the OLLU game where she walked 8 and struck out none – but still gave up only one run in the first six innings. Gracia depended on her defense, and her defense was dependable, committing only 3 errors in the 3 games, 2 of them on consecutive batters against Louisiana Christian.
So for the entire tournament, the Huston-Tillotson battery was pitching Denisse Gracia and catch Grace Ross. “Gracia” is Spanish for “Grace.”
“Gracia” is also the singular for “gracias”, which of course the familiar Spanish term with translates to “thank you” in English.
This is appropriate, too, because those of us who saw Huston-Tillotson softball team should say “thank you” for living such an inspiration story. Even if it doesn’t become a movie.
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