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.
This seemed to apply especially so for me this season. So much so that what I thought would make for content for one blog post is being broken up into four. We’ll start with regular season softball. Bear in mind this is limited to happenings I personally witnessed as a broadcaster for Texas Sports Productions and Our Lady of the Lake University.
Not everyone will fit the "I'd never seen that before" criterion, but much of it will, and it's all pretty remarkable.
March 25 – Brennan vs Harlan at Northside Softball Field #1
In the 3rd inning, Harlan scores 2 runs without hitting a fair ball. (Strikeout, 5 consecutive walks, two strikeouts.)
FINAL: Harlan 11, Brennan 2. Cadence Beck and Kristin Gallego, two of the players who drew walks, later hit home runs.
April 5 – Taft vs Warren
Taft leads Warren 2-1 in the top of the 6th, and has runners Alyssa Rangel on second and Liz Guereca at third. Bella Aguilar hits a pop to shallow left field. The ball bounces of shortstop Belicia Urdiales’s glove, but before it hits the ground, it’s caught by left fielder Sarah Lechon; Lechon then threw to second baseman Marina Literio, who doubled Rangel off second for a routine 6-7-4 double play.
Taft’s Hannah Flores followed this peculiarly with a two-run homer.
FINAL: Taft 4, Warren 2
APRIL 12 – O’Connor vs Brennan at Northside Softball Field #1
When I started broadcasting in 2001, high school softball was a low scoring sport, even relative to soccer. If you covered the state tournament, it was a given that every day, a couple of games would be scoreless going into extra innings.
Things have changed. Hitting has improved, largely because coaches like Jennifer Fox at Boerne decided that many girls COULD hit the ball to the outfield, or even for a home run, if they were taught the right way to swing the bat. As this was starting to become a trend, the pitching rubber was moved from 40 feet away from home plate to 43 feet away. This was done to make the distance more uniform at several levels of the sports, but it also gave the hitters an even bigger advantage.
Great pitchers can still be great, but they dominate less frequently. And when pitchers AREN’T dominant, you can end with score that make you wonder whether the game was fast-pitch or slow-pitch softball.
Case in point: O’Connor vs Brennan on March 12th. When they played on March 12th, O’Connor won 2-1 in 10 innings. April 12th…. went differently.
O’Connor scores three runs in the top of the first on a two-run homer by Ella Gonzales and an RBI single by A.J. Sanchez. O’Connor scored as many runs in the first half inning on April 12th as BOTH teams had scored in 10 innings of action on March 12th.
Then the Bears came to bat.
Sammie Portillo, the starting pitcher for O’Connor, retired only one of the seven batters she faced. She actually struck out two, but Ava Sanchez reached first on a wild pitch strike three.
An RBI hit batter, three consecutive singles, an error, and a walk later, and Brennan led 6-3.
Actually, make that 7-3. When Gabriela Banda walked to drive in Victoria Garza, the throw back from the catcher to the pitching circle glanced off the pitcher’s glove and got loose, allowing Kaydence Garza to also score. Brennan added two more runs to make it 9-3 – after the 1st inning.
O’Connor had not given up more than 5 runs in a game all season. They had given up 9 runs in the previous six games COMBINED. Then on April 12th, they gave up 9 runs in a single inning.
Of course, the fun had barely begun. O’Connor added three runs in the second and three more in the fourth to tie the game at 9. (Brennan had given up more than 9 runs only once all season.) Then the Panthers took the lead with a run in the 5th and added 3 more runs in the 6th to lead 13-9 going into the final inning.
Perhaps you’ve guessed what’s next. After Tivoli Martinez had thrown 5 shutout innings against then, Brennan rallied. Brianna Ramirez singled, Banda tripled to drive her in, and Chenai Chawayipira doubled to drive in Banda (Chawayipira’s FIFTH hit of the night.) One out later, Ava Sanchez singled to drive in Chawayipira and make it 13-12. Next, Isabella Hune singled to send Sanchez to third, and the tying run was 90 feet away with one out.
Then, O’Connor coach Caitlin Bollier put Sammie Portillo, the pitcher who’d retired only one batter to start the game, BACK in the pitching circle. Portillo struck out Tari Chawayipira (Chenai’s sister, of course), and O’Connor was one out away from a win.
Then, after Portillo delivered ball one to Victoria Garza, the throw back from the catcher got away from her, allowing Sanchez to score the tying run. 13-13 was now the score.
Yes, Brennan scored TWO runs, including the run that sent the game into extra innings, on mistakes made on throws from the catcher to the pitcher. O’Connor, who had given up 12 runs in their previous 13 district games, gave up 13 runs in one game against Brennan.
In the top of the eighth, O’Connor’s Leighanne Goode hit a two-run homer over the scoreboard to put O’Connor back in front 15-13. In the bottom of the 8th, Portillo walked Kaydence Garza, then struck out the next three batters to complete the hard-fought victory.
All the starters for O’Connor, and all but one for Brennan, got at least one hit. For O’Connor, Goode, Gonzales, and Meiko Dominguez each had 3 hits, and Portillo, Jada Munoz, and A.J. Sanchez each had two. Chenai Chawayipira was the only Bear with multiple hits, but of course she got 5.
Brennan had two players named Garza and two named Chawayipira. A.J. Sanchez played left field for O’Connor; Ava Sanchez played catcher for Brennan.
Portillo was the winning pitcher, striking out 7 batters in 2 innings total. It was that kind of game.
FINAL: O’Connor 15, Brennan 13 in 8 innings. Later in the season, Brennan and O’Connor met in the third round of the playoffs; it was the second year in a row they’d faced each other in that round. O’Connor won the playoff game 12-3, and went on to win the State Championship.
APRIL 14 – Clark vs MacArthur softball at NE Softball East Field
In a game with district title implications, Clark took a 2-0 lead in the top of the 3rd. MacArthur tied the game in the bottom of the 3rd when Bayli Fillinger’s sacrifice fly drove in Hannah Melendez, then Madison Collins’ sacrifice fly drove in Bryley Westfahl. This left the bases empty with two outs, and Gabby Sosa due up for the Brahmas.
Clark intentionally walked Sosa.
The sabermetrics people will tell you that intentional walks almost always a very bad idea, but Sosa in 2022 might have convinced even the most skeptical. She finished the season with 14 homers, 19 doubles, 3 triples, and 51 runs batted in. She batted .644 and slugged 1.413 with a .716 on base percentage. For some perspective, when Barry Bonds was terrifying the National League in the early 2000s (suspiciously, I know), in the best season of those seasons, his on base percentage PLUS his slugging percentage was 1.422. For all her obvious talent, though, Sosa had only stolen two bases. If you’re EVER going to intentionally walk a batter with the bases empty and two out in a tie game, it would be Sosa.
The trick to this is that Sosa is the MacArthur catcher. Therefore, she’s entitled to a courtesy runner. MacArthur coach Mike Alfaro sent Ariana Gonzales to be that runner.
Gonzales stole second, then Brooke Westfahl singled to drive in Gonzales and give the Brahmas a 3-2 lead.
Clark’s Natalia Silva homered in the 5th to tie the game at 3-3, but MacArthur took the lead for good in the 5th when Bryley Westfahl singled, stole two bases, and scored on a single by Fillinger.
FINAL: MacArthur 4, Clark 3
APRIL 16 – University of the Southwest at Our Lake of the Lady (second game)
Despite home runs from Cassandra Valdez and Ariel Montgomery, nationally ranked OLLU trailed Southwest 7-6. Lia Gutierrez was in the pitching circle, and retired the first two Saints batters, putting Southwest within one out of a great upset.
Madison Nunn singled on an 0-1 pitch, then Kayla Dreese doubled over the head of the left fielder to drive in Nunn and tie the game at 7; on the throw home, Dreese advanced to third.
Southwest intentionally walks Ariel Montgomery, then Gutierrez threw ball one to Valdez. The next delivery is a wild pitch, allowing Dreese to score the winning run.
Before Valdez came to the plate, Gutierrez had thrown the first 7 pitches of the inning for strikes.
FINAL: OLLU 8, University of the Southwest 7
APRIL 19 – Holmes vs Brennan at Northside Softball Field #1
This game didn’t match Brennan-O’Connor in terms of peculiarity, but it came close in terms of scoring.
Holmes raced to a 7-0 lead – did a mention that a generation ago, it took two weeks to score 7 runs in softball? – highlighted by a two-run homer by Arissa Garcia and a three-run blast by Caitlin “KK” Casas.
If you recall the account of the O’Connor-Brennan game a few paragraphs ago, you might guess that Brennan was unconcerned.
Brennan got 4 runs in the third in a rally capped by a two-run single by Ariana Martinez. They added 2 more runs in the fourth on back-to-back sacrifice flies by Dayanara Moreno and Isabella Hune to pull within 7-6. Then they had a two-out rally in the 5th, highlighted by a game-tying RBI double by Gabriella Banda, a go-ahead RBI infield single by Moreno, and a two-run double by Hune.
Brennan now led 10-7.
Holmes responded in the 6th – wow, did they ever – with a two-run homer by Casas, a go-ahead two-run double by Nevaeh Herrera, a two-run homer by Melanie Vargas, and a two-run double by Gabby Harris-Orosco.
FINAL: Holmes 15, Brennan 10
Part 2, featuring regular season baseball highlights, will appear soon.
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