By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
Fitting that a tournament that featured nail-biters and blowouts would end with a masterpiece between the two best teams in the tournament.
Del Rio and Eagle Pass’ winner-takes-all showdown Thursday night in the finale of the District 35 10-12 Little League Baseball Tournament became an instant classic as the two teams threw everything they had at each other with a trip to the Texas West Sectional Tournament on the line.
In the end, it was Del Rio that prevailed 1-0 to claim the district crown for the first time in four years and advance to the next round in McAllister Park beginning next week.
Despite Del Rio Little League having three chances to clinch district titles Thursday night, the 10-12 baseball team was the only team that managed to pull off the feat.
The Del Rio 8-10 softball team lost its first game of the District 35 8-10 Little League Softball Tournament, 25-10, to Eagle Pass and will now play the “if necessary” game tonight at 7 p.m. at the Val Verde Sports Complex off Frontera Road.
The minor league softball game took three-and-a-half hours to complete, putting the 10-12 softball game in jeopardy of not finishing before the midnight deadline.
A one-hour first inning did the rest to ensure the game wouldn’t be completed in time Thursday, so play was suspended headed into the bottom of the second inning with Del Rio leading 28-2 over Eagle Pass. The game will resume tonight at 9:30 p.m. at the complex’s Field 3.
10-12 BASEBALL
Del Rio and Eagle Pass had already met twice before Thursday night’s finale.
In their first meeting, Eagle Pass took an early lead and never gave it up, edging Del Rio, 3-2, and sending the host team to the elimination bracket.
Del Rio knocked off Kinney County, 6-3, to earn a rematch with Eagle Pass and they took advantage of the second chance, crushing them 10-0 behind a solid pitching performance from Marky Salas.
Thursday night, Del Rio’s Colton Woody and Eagle Pass’ Aron Gonzalez hurled a pair of gems that should leave fans talking for years to come.
Woody threw six innings, scattering four hits and walking just one batter while striking out seven including three of the last four batters he faced. More importantly, Woody did not yield a run while on the mound.
But he got plenty of help from his defense.
In the fourth inning, third baseman Jaren Valadez made a diving stop to his left, rolled, and then threw the runner out at first while seated on the ground for the second out of the inning.
After Woody gave up a double and a walk, Salas, who was handling catching duties, threw out the Eagle Pass batter trying to steal third base to end the inning and snuff out Eagle Pass’ best chance at scoring.
Gonzalez was equally as tough.
He threw five innings, allowing four hits, one walk and hit one batter while striking out 10, but it was the walk that helped lead to the game’s only run.
Isaiah Harrington led off the bottom of the second inning with that lone walk. After Gonzalez sat down the next two batters on strikes, back-to-back singles by Josiah Martinez and E.J. Galliete helped bring Harrington home with the game’s only run.
The Del Rio roster includes Colton Woody, Marky Salas, Brandon Dominguez, Jaren Valadez, Isaiah Harrington, Rylen Roberts, Mario Cervantes, Josiah Martinez, E.J. Galliete, Diego Cedillo, Walker Whitten, Noah Cannon and Jonathan Molina. Bobby Dominguez is the team’s manager and assistant coaches are Luis Ramon and Tony Martinez.
8-10 SOFTBALL
Del Rio was on the cusp of winning the District 35 8-10 Little League Tournament title after having gone unbeaten to reach the championship game.
Then came the rematch with Eagle Pass Thursday night.
After the two teams were tied 4-4 at the end of the first inning, Eagle Pass outscored Del Rio 21-6 over the next five innings to win 25-10 and force the “if necessary” game tonight at 7 p.m. at the Val Verde Sports Complex’s Field 3.
Eagle Pass scored four runs in the top of the first, but Del Rio answered with four of its own in the bottom of the inning. Chloe Palazuelos jump-started the rally with a blast to left field that turned into an inside-the-park home run. Briana Calderon brought in Alexa De Leon with a fielder’s choice, and Frankie Valdez picked up an RBI with a single that plated Calderon. Alynah Ruvalcaba helped cap the scoring with a bases loaded walk that brought in Anaid Diaz to tie the game at 4-4.
Eagle Pass made it 10-4 in the second, but Palazuelos walked, Shay Lee was hit by a pitch and both scored on a single to left by Calderon to cut the deficit to 10-6.
Eagle Pass kept the pressure on with two more runs in the third for a 12-6 advantage. Del Rio’s Elianna Bishop walked and later scored in the bottom of the third to make it a 12-7 game.
But Eagle Pass would not quit, scoring four more runs in the fourth to build its lead to 16-7.
Del Rio was able to add another two runs to its tally as Diaz walked and later scored on a single to left by Delsy Gutierrez to make it 16-8, and then she would score on when De Leon was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to make it 16-9.
The fifth inning came and went without either team scoring, but then Eagle Pass blew the game wide open with a nine-run sixth inning to take a commanding 25-9 lead.
Karly Mata scored Del Rio’s final run in the sixth inning to make the final 25-10.
10-12 SOFTBALL
After a wild game Wednesday night that saw Eagle Pass edge Del Rio, 12-11, to force Thursday’s “if necessary” finale of the District 35 10-12 Little League Softball Tournament, fans settled in for what they thought would be another back-and-forth contest.
Instead, Del Rio came out and jumped all over Eagle Pass’ pitching as they pounded out 28 runs before play was suspended due to the midnight time limit.
The game will resume tonight at 9:30 p.m. at the complex’s Field 3 with Del Rio coming to bat in the bottom of the second inning with a 28-2 lead.
Eagle Pass’ first two batters managed to get on base and score to lead off the game, but Del Rio provided a bludgeoning response in the bottom of the first as the team’s first eight batters reached base and scored en route to a 28-run outburst.
Every member of the Del Rio roster but two reached base and scored. Only one member of the roster did not reach base safely in the first inning.
As a team, Del Rio had nine hits, including two inside-the park home runs by Gabriela Diaz and Alyssa Garcia; 16 walks, two hit batters, and took advantage of five Eagle Pass errors to score their runs.
Del Rio sent 33 batters to the plate in the first inning. Alina Mojica and Diaz each scored four times, Keziah Bishop, Janiah Ross, Garcia, Sophia Valdez and Harlow Riemann each scored three times; Amanda Muñiz scored twice, and Isabella Martinez, Ryika Lowe and Brianna Perez each scored once.
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Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
