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An inevitable clash of two top five TGCA state ranked softball teams has officially arrived, and the question on everyone’s mind is, “what more can this rivalry give us?”

The Bishop Lady Badgers and Santa Gertrudis Academy Lady Lions, in the midst of a historic softball season for both squads, will play a best of three series to determine who will represent Region IV in the Class 3A UIL Softball State Tournament.

The path to the regional final series between the District 30-3A rivals has been stellar, with both teams headed into the matchup without a loss in any of their playoff series.

The Lady Lions to this point have defeated Orange Grove, Lyford, London and Columbus, while Bishop has taken down Aransas Pass, Monte Alto, Mathis and Hallettsville to get to their first ever regional final series in program history.

Now, both teams will meet for the first time since they squared off on April 13, when the Lady Badgers defeated SGA, 5-3, the second of two games played in the regular season. Bishop also won the first game of the regular season on a walk-off home run in extra innings, 3-2.

Those two wins helped elevate the Lady Badgers to their first district title win since 2011.

Lady Lion Head Coach Thomas De Los Santos said his team has been “far more motivated” to reach the state tournament since their state title run in 2018, since losing the game in April.

“We’ve grown a little since then and we’ve made adjustments. We would not have done so well in the playoffs if we hadn’t gotten better as a team,” De Los Santos said. “Pitching staff wise, offensively, defensively, we’ve gotten better as the season progressed and you should. If your goal is to get to the state tournament, you have to get better. Teams don’t get any easier.”

SGA has outscored their opponents 79-10 in the playoffs, while both Carissa De Los Santos and Jaci Salinas have excelled inside the pitching circle.

Despite the losses to Bishop in the regular season, Carissa De Los Santos said her team is primed and ready for this playoff matchup. Especially, because it means a second trip to the state tournament for her and her fellow seniors who were a part of the 2018 3A state championship team.

“All around we’ve just been working and focusing on small things that will help us in these games that we didn’t have in the past games,” Carissa said. “We’re determined because we want to go back (to the state tournament) because we know how it felt and we’re excited because we know we can do it.”

Salinas said a major key for the series for SGA is being able to keep their energy up through every game played.

“We all are going to hype each other up and back each other up. I feel like we lacked that in the games we lost,” Salinas said. “The energy just needs to be high at all times.”

No matter what, coach De Los Santos knows it’s going to be a series worth witnessing.

“We’ve both been looking forward to this since we met up in district,” De Los Santos said. “I knew when we played them the first time, we were going to be two of the top teams in the region, and it obviously ended up happening that way.”

For Bishop, it’s all about swinging for the fences while Lady Badger pitcher Andrea Martinez keeps the opposition from even making contact with the ball.

Martinez has been an absolute stud inside the circle for the Lady Badgers, racking up 73 strikeouts while giving up only two runs in seven games. Her best performance was a perfect game against Mathis, where she struck out 13 of 15 batters for a game two win to advance the Lady Badgers to the regional semi-finals.

The offense for Bishop has 96 runs heading into the regional final, including three outings with 20 plus runs scored against only two given up to the opposition.

“As far as motivation (for this series) I think the girls are already self motivated,” Bishop Head Coach Tito Moreno said. “I just had to make sure that we do what we had to do in practice to get everybody ready. And once game-time comes, we just have to go out there and perform to the best of our abilities.”

This is Moreno’s fifth year at the helm of the program, and his regular season record has improved every year since being the Badger head coach.

Kiera Cruz, the lone senior on a rather young Lady Badger squad, said despite the youth of her team against SGA, they should not be overlooked in the series.

“Well, we’re making history. Our girls are a very experienced group of girls,” Cruz said. “Our girls have enough talent and motivation to push through whatever stress or anything we’re going through.”

Martinez said she believes Bishop is competitive enough to keep up with an experienced SGA squad.

“(I feel like) we have the exact same level of talent that they do and I think we can go very far,” Martinez said.

Bishop Junior Hannah Griffith reiterated it’s going to be a tough series because so many of the players for both teams are also teammates in other leagues outside of high school ball. Despite that, they will leave everything on the field.

“I think we’re going to play our hearts out,” Griffith added.

The series begins tonight at Cabaniss Field in Corpus Christi at 7 p.m. with game two on Friday also at 7 p.m. A third game, if necessary, will take place on Saturday, at 5 p.m. at the same field.