Offense and defense click, leading MJC softball to 3C2A state championships
MJC softball coach Donnie Donaldson was hoping the Pirates’ offensive production from their first playoff series would carry on to the second round.
“Hopefully we can come out and do what we did today, hit the ball well and play MJC softball,” Donaldson said after winning a three-game series against San Joaquin Delta College.
After collecting eight hits, a home run and scoring six runs in Game 1, putting up eight runs on 12 hits in Game 2 and recording two wins in their super regional series against. No. 14 Monterey Peninsula College, Donaldson and the Pirates would say mission accomplished.
“It’s exciting when you can score against a pitcher who doesn’t give up a lot of runs,” Donaldson said. “That team hasn’t given up 10 runs all year long, so we knew it was going to be a battle and a fight. The team responded really well.”
Now, Pirates take their potent offense to West Valley College this weekend, where they hope to be the last team standing in all of California junior college softball. The Pirates were the No. 6 team in the NorCal tournament and hosted games over the past two weekends. They were re-seeded for this weekend’s 3C2A Softball State Championship, which goes from the first games Thursday to Sunday’s state championship.
MJC is the No. 4-ranked Northern California team and in the first round of the state tournament Thursday will play the top Southern California team, Orange Coast College, at 2 p.m. at West Valley College. All games will be available via subscription at bason.tv.
The Pirates reached the state tournament after a historic season. This year’s team won 28 games, the most in at least nine seasons. With just 13 losses and one tie, the Pirates sealed the program’s only winning season outside of 2021, according to the 3C2A website. They beat San Joaquin Delta College in the postseason’s opening weekend and beat Monterey Peninsula College last weekend. They lost their first game of the postseason but have since won four straight, sealing an appearance in the championship.
Offense has been impressive
Kayleen Zayehmoureh has been on an offensive tear at the right time. She hit .700 in three playoff games against Delta and had four RBI in the series finale. Against Monterey Peninsula, she drove in two runs in Game 1, and in the series-clinching game, she doubled twice. Her postseason production was a far cry from her midseason slump.
“Having a midseason slump, it gets to the point where it’s like you can’t do any worse than you’re already doing,” Zayehmoureh said.
The solution, she explained, was a simple lineup change. She asked the coaches to be moved from fifth in the batting order to third. She said the move took some pressure off. As the five-hitter, her role was to drive in the top three or four runners if they got on. Batting in the third spot removed the pressure of collecting RBI. Instead, she was tasked with moving over leadoff hitter Sophia Coronado and No. 2 hitter Kesaia Faasisila. Zayehmoureh was fine with the idea that getting on base wasn’t always the main goal.
“I figured I’d sacrifice myself, move myself up in the lineup and bunt them over, do whatever I needed to do to get them to third base,” Zayehmoureh explained, “so our fourth batter can come up and hit them in.”
But instead it turned into productive playoffs as she was one of the driving forces in a stacked Pirates lineup.
The Pirates as a whole are swinging hot bats. They put up 12 runs in Game 2 against Delta as part of a postseason where they have scored 39 total runs in five games. In the super regional opener against the Lobos, Emily Tyler hit a three-run home run to left field.
Defense has followed suit
When centerfielder Kesaia Faasisila caught a fly ball for the final out, it capped a two-day, two-game stretch of dominance, not just on offense but defensively.
The Pirates threw their gloves in the air as they all met at the pitcher’s circle for a group celebration that included hugs, smiles and tears.
“It got to the point where we were like two outs and I’m holding my daughter (pitching coach Kaitlyn Garcia) and I started tearing up,” Donaldson said. “And she’s like ‘Stop, you’re going to jinx it.’”
Zayehmoureh said she, too, was emotional. “I cried. I mean, it made me emotional because last year we worked so hard and we just weren’t good enough. No matter how hard we worked, we just weren’t a winning team. That’s not the case this year.”
In each of their past three postseason games, the Pirates have not allowed more than two runs. Outfielders made running, diving catches and infielders turned double plays to get out of tight innings with ease, each play stopping their opponents’ momentum while giving pitcher Brooklyn Heffernan more confidence with each inning.
Heffernan pitched every inning of the regionals and super regionals. The most runs she and the defense allowed were five, in a 12-5 win in Game 2 against San Joaquin Delta College. On May 9, she allowed just two runs and struck out a pair of batters, and on May 10 gave up just one run and struck out six batters.
“Not many people get the opportunity to take all the games themselves, and although it sounds scary, I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Heffernan said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
She insists this weekend will be the last time she will play college softball. After years of playing through an undiagnosed back injury, Heffernan will trade her cleats for scrubs and continue her academic career, hoping to become a nurse. Balancing a college sport with clinicals, schoolwork and friends would be the ultimate juggling act.
“I know my defense has me,” she said. “So in my mind, I’m like, ‘No one’s better than us.’ So I just show up and I try to do my best and I know they’ll do their best for me. … I have no worries behind my back when I pitch.”
State playoffs are next
Katelyn Bridgeman gets to keep playing with friends she’s known for years.
The second baseman played her freshman season at Utah Valley University and took last year off before coming back to the sport this season at MJC. A Tracy High graduate, Bridgeman returned with a bang, being named to the Big 8 Conference First Team and 3C2A North All-State Team. She was reunited with childhood friends Heffernan and Faasisila.
“It was just nice to play with my friends again,” Bridgeman said. “It was just nice to get back on the field one more time with them. That’s really all I care about, just having fun with them.”
Donaldson called it “an unreal feeling.” With last weekend’s win, the Pirates stamped themselves as a top-four team in Northern California. On Monday, they found out their opponent in the state tournament. Everyone plays one game on Thursday, the tournament’s opening day, and everyone plays at least one game Friday.
The last team standing is the best team in the state. And the Pirates are in the running.
This story was originally published May 14, 2025 at 7:54 AM.
