Look: San Antonio O'Connor turns incredible double play to beat Weslaco and advance to Texas UIL 6A softball state tournament

CORPUS CHRISTI - In a dramatic finish, San Antonio O'Connor turned a double play in the bottom of the seventh inning to hang on and beat Weslaco 7-6 in Game 2 of the Class 6A, Region IV softball championship series on Friday night at Cabaniss Field.

The final out of the game came at home plate - a remarkable 4-3-2 double play - to send O'Connor to its first Texas UIL softball state tournament berth since 2012 and their first berth under head coach Caitlin Bollier. 

“We are heading to state, and it is indescribable right now,” Bollier said. “I am at loss for words, and I am so excited for this group of kids, these girls, our coaches, our community, our parents. We have a really good community behind us and support staff and it incredible.”

O'Connor won Game 1 5-1 on Thursday night, giving them a two-game sweep.

O’Connor took an early 1-0 lead when Leighann Goode scored on Meiko Dominguez’s sacrifice fly to right field in the first inning.

They tacked on three more runs in the third inning when Jada Munoz ripped a two-run home run and Ella Gonzalez scored on AJ Sanchez’s grounder to third base to build a 4-0 lead.

Weslaco got on the board in the fourth inning when Elizabeth Craig ripped an RBI single to score courtesy runner Lola Reyes and make it 4-1.

In the fifth inning O’Connor was able to get that run back on Ella Salinas’ RBI double with two outs to score Dominguez.

Weslaco only had two hits heading into the fifth inning, but they finally got some big hits to get back in the game. A hard single by Jules Garcia started the rally and Stacy Bautista finished it with a two-run homer to cut the lead to 5-3.

O’Connor added two critical insurance runs in the seventh inning on a triple by Dominguez to score Gonzalez and a sacrifice fly by Sammie Portillo to take a 7-3 lead. 

“They were huge. We don’t get those two runs, they walk it off,” Bollier said. “Just having them every inning try to battle, trying to win that inning is important. We scratched and clawed for every run that we could get.”

In the bottom of the seventh, Alexis Solis reached base on an error and came around to score on a one-out single by Katia Reyes to make it 7-4. Bautista singled to put runners on first and second and both runners moved up after a wild pitch by relief pitcher Tivoli Martinez. Both runners came around to score to cut the lead to 7-6.

With one out and the tying run on third base, Martinez induced a ground ball to second base that resulted in a remarkable 4-3-2 double play when the runner at third tried to score. 

Check out SBLive's exclusive photo gallery from O'Connor's Game 2 win:

(All photos by Clara Sandoval) 

PHOTO GALLERY: O'CONNOR 7, WESLACO 6