Mustangs playing with playoff purpose
After being counted out early, Magnolia West two steps from state
Magnolia West is back in the fourth round of the playoffs.
The Mustangs softball team reached the Class 5A regional semifinals for the second straight season with a 2-1 series win over District 18-5A winner Willis last week in the regional quarterfinals.
They dropped the first game 6-5, then bounced back with 6-0 and 2-0 victories.
“We’re excited about it,” coach Sheryl Tamborello said.
“We lost six starters last year to graduation. A lot of people counted us out, so these guys have a little chip on their shoulders, they’ve got something to prove, and we want to go further than we have.”
They face Barbers Hill in the regional semis in a best-of-three series.
The two teams still were working out the details, with an eye toward the possibility of more rain, Tuesday morning.
The Mustangs tied Brenham for second in 19-5A, finishing 11-3, and they’ve continued playing well in the postseason, opening with a 10-0 win over Austin and winning series against Elgin and Willis.
“Every week we’re getting better, we’re getting more confident, and things are rolling along pretty well right now,” Tamborello said.
Magnolia West beat Brenham in a seeding game that also prepared them for the playoffs.
“It was good for us because the first round wasn’t as strong, so it gave us a good game that week, and we came out and hit the fire out of the ball that game against Brenham,” Tamborello said.
But, instead of taking the higher seed, as most teams do, West opted for the third seed.
“You had two good teams to pick from,” Tamborello said. “You either had to play Elgin or Willis, and I wanted to play Willis, but I wanted to play them last week, in the third round vs. the second.”
West ended up facing both, but in the order Tamborello preferred.
It fell 8-5 in the opener with Elgin in the area playoffs, then rebounded with 2-0 and 5-1 wins to clinch the series.
“We had a lot of people on, but we weren’t stringing hits together against that pitcher (in Game 1),” Tamborello said. “Elgin’s pitcher is really good, she’s a senior, and we were hitting her, we just weren’t stringing things together. And then (Ariana Adams), our pitcher, didn’t have a real good game.
“All of us were kind of tight.
“We’re kind of a looseygoosey team. They like to have a lot of fun, and we were really quiet that first game, Ari was not feeling well, but she recovered real well on Saturday and we had fun again.”
The Willis win followed a similar path, with Magnolia West dropping Game 1 6-5, then winning 6-0 and 2-0.
“These were two very good pitchers,” Tamborello said. “(Casey) Dixon had a lot of strikeouts against us. She has a great changeup. We just battled. We lost that first game on a walkoff in the bottom of the seventh inning with one out. It was one bad pitch. I thought we played a real good game other than that, and you have to give credit to them.”
But the Mustangs deserve more, especially with how they responded to the Game 1 setbacks the last two weeks.
“I love this team,” Tamborello said. “They have a lot of fun together, they compete (and) they do not like to lose, so they’re coming out determined to be aggressive and get after it.”
Tamborello said every player on the team has contributed during their run.
Junior center fielder Lauren Martinez, who is the leadoff batter, was clutch Saturday, and senior third baseman Madison Washington, the cleanup, paced the offense a day earlier against Willis.
“It has been a different person every game, and that has helped us,” Tamborello said.