Final Four Bound: PSJA High Bears’ softball squad sweeps Dripping Springs

And the beat goes on.

The Rio Grande Valley’s best softball team is still running with the best in the state as they took home the regional championship this past weekend in Corpus Christi.

The PSJA Bears out of San Juan matched up against one of the best teams in the state with Dripping Springs for the Class 6A Region IV championship — or more easily known, the Elite Eight.

In a best-of-three series, the Bears completed a 2-0 sweep on Thursday and Friday against the Tigers. In Game 1, PSJA beat the Tigers 3-2. Then on Friday, the Bears sealed the deal by keeping Dripping Springs to only two runs on the night by grabbing the dub, 4-2.

Not to sound cliché or reiterate the saying that “defense wins championships,” but that regime reigned true during this series as the Tigers were known to put up some big numbers on the offensive end of things.

During the regular season, it wasn’t an anomaly for Dripping Springs to score 10-plus runs against a team. In the playoffs, they were averaging about 9 runs a game.

On paper, these two squads were evenly matched as prior to the series, both were 7-0 in the playoffs.

More so, it was a showdown between Division I commits in Dripping Springs’ Lorelei Gamble — who led the country with home runs (over 20) — and PSJA’s Emma Escamilla, who is the ace pitcher. Gamble, a University of Texas Longhorn commit, did have a home run in the first game but in the second Escamilla — who is an Arizona State commit — held her hitless the second time around.

Escamilla, who is arguably the Valley’s best pitcher, had 15 strikeouts in both games to tame the Tigers’ offensive onslaught.

In the first game, it was Amerie Vega who played hero for the Bears as she was the sole scorer in her hitting a three-run homer to take the first game.

For the second, Escamilla was accompanied by Vega, as well as Adamaris Garza and Ivanna Salas to give the Bears the four runs to take the series.

So, what’s next?

Well, the Bears are not done yet with the season as they are officially in the state semi-finals — more easily known as the Final Four. This is the first time in program history that the Bears have made it this far in the playoffs.

So, they need to win one more series to get into the championship series.

However, the Katy Tigers are the squad that PSJA will face this weekend. The games will be at Cabaniss Athletic Complex in Corpus Christi. Game 1 is tomorrow at 7 p.m. Game 2 is Friday at the same time. Then Game 3, if needed, will be at 3 p.m.

Is Katy good?

They’re a pretty solid squad to say the least.

Obviously, they’re one of the best in the state since they’ve made it this far and their season performance has shown it.

They’re one of the only teams in the state that has won over 30 games (36) this season.

They’re also undefeated in the postseason as they’ve swept every opponent they’ve faced.