San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Walkoff homer propels Cowboys onward
Rosalyn Rodriguez blasted a walkoff three-run homer in the bottom of the 11th inning as McCollum rallied to beat Boerne Champion 5-2 in the Class 5A second-round playoff game Friday at Northside Softball Field No. 1.
Rodriguez’s dramatic gamewinning homer capped off a four-run inning for the Cowboys and ignited a celebration among the McCollum players as she crossed home plate.
“I felt really nervous,” Rodriguez said. “But I saw the pitch and just knew. I just wanted to get my team to the next round.”
McCollum coach Alessia Gallegos said she gave some words of encouragement and advice to Rodriguez before she stepped to the plate.
“I just told her, ‘Hey, ‘Ros,’ we need you here kid,’ ” Gallegos said. “‘We know you can do it. I want you to have all the confidence in the world, hit the ball hard and level.’ She sure did that.”
McCollum (18-8) rallied from the brink of elimination twice in the game to keep its season alive and advance to the regional quarterfinal round, where it will play either Dripping Springs or Southwest Legacy next week.
“Our players just came through in the clutch when it really mattered,” Gallegos said. “We earned every single thing that we did today. We fought to the end and we came out on top.”
The Cowboys trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh and down to their last out, when Gaby Hernandez got on base after being hit by a pitch from Champion’s Carmen Vela. After Dom Guerra walked, Dev Hughes tied it on an RBI double, bringing home substitute runner Araceli Farias from second base.
McCollum had a chance to win it in the bottom of the eighth, loading the bases with no outs. But Vela forced two fly outs and got a strikeout to end the Cowboys’ threat.
Champion went up 2-1 in the top of the 11th, when Lilly Ritchie’s infield single went off the glove of McCollum pitcher Dom Guerra, scoring Krista Tarver from third base. McCollum questioned if Ritchie had beaten the throw at first base, which would have been the third out. After the umpires discussed it, Ritchie was ruled safe and the run stood. Guerra then struck out Vela for the third out.
But McCollum was far from done. Hernandez led off the top of the 11th with a walk. A single up the middle by Guerra put runners at first and second with no outs. A deep sacrifice fly by Hughes advanced both runners. Hernandez then came home on Madi Espinoza’s single to tie the score at 2.
Rodriguez then launched her game-winning home run over the left-center field fence to extend McCollum’s season.
Guerra earned the win for McCollum, striking out 16 Champion batters, while Vela struck out 10 in taking the loss for Champion.
In addition, left fielder Emma Quintero came up with the biggest defensive play of the game for McCollum in the top of the seventh when she threw out Champion’s Madison Hall, who was trying to score but was tagged out by McCollum catcher America Ramirez before she could get home. The Chargers were up 1-0 at the time and if Hall would have scored, it would have added an insurance run for Champion going into the bottom of the seventh.
“Emma (Quintero) is a player that gives her all,” Gallegos said. “She’s just a selfless player. She had a spot on throw. We work on that at practice and they executed it perfectly.”
Rodriguez said she and her teammates have worked really hard to advance further into the playoffs.
“It’s really big for us because usually we are the underdogs and to be going to the next round is amazing,” Rodriguez said.