The Brownsville Pace Lady Vikings softball team finished the regular season undefeated on Friday night with a 19-8 win over Mercedes.

With the victory, the regular season officially comes to an end with the Lady Vikings boasting a perfect 18-0 district record and an overall record of 28-0-1, with the lone tie of the season coming all the way back in mid-February.

"It's been amazing," Pace softball coach Joe Ramirez said. "The girls played together, they hung together like a family. It really truly takes a village. They did a great job. I am fortunate enough to have a great coaching staff, I owe it all to them."

"This is our first time in the playoffs in a long time," Pace softball star and RGV home run leader Valeria Alvarado said. "I'm pretty excited. I've never been in the playoffs for softball, nor have the girls."

It's the first time in program history the team has finished district play with a perfect record. It's also quite the turnaround from last year when the team finished 7th in the district standings, but the special nature of the season goes much deeper than that. According to records kept on MaxPreps, prior to this season, the Lady Vikings had a 36-127 overall district record since 2007.

"I was pretty excited going into the season," Alvarado said when asked if she expected this level of success. "I didn't know we were going to win all of the games, but it sure is one of the biggest surprises."

"I thought we could make it to the postseason, I had no idea we could be this good," Coach Ramirez added. "But it's a great surprise."

The Lady Vikings now await the results of a close playoff race in District 31-5A to find out their first round playoff opponent.