Softball Notes: Central Valley keeps perfect WAC record after narrow rivalry win
The turnaround at Central Valley continues as the Hawks are undefeated in Western Athletic Conference play and on their way to the postseason under fourth-year head coach Jimmy Bates.
On the back of strong pitching, dominant defense and timely hitting, Central Valley moved to 7-0 in league play with a 3-2 win over crosstown rival Ceres. It was the Hawks’ first win over the Bulldogs since re-joining the WAC last season. Central Valley went 0-2 with a pair of disappointing losses that re-shaped the way the returning players wanted to approach 2026.
“Coming back this year was great,” junior pitcher Brooklyn Steeley said. “I think we needed redemption and we definitely came back.”
A hefty crowd showed up at the diamond last Wednesday for the first Hawk-Bulldog matchup this season. Yes, it was a rivalry, but there was more on the line: both teams entered the game perfect against league opponents. The winner after seven innings put themselves in the driver’s seat to end the first half of WAC play.
“I didn’t know exactly how it was going to play out, I just knew it was going to be close,” Bates said.
Steeley struck out only two batters, but worked well in tandem with the Hawks’ defense to turn a pair of double plays. She pitched the full seven innings, marking her fourth straight complete game and her second seven-inning complete game in three outings. She allowed just one earned run to give her a fourth-straight win.
“I felt like my team was behind me,” Steeley said. “So no matter how I performed going against the batter, I knew my team was behind me.”
The Hawks struck first in the bottom of the opening inning. The first two batters, Selah Chesney and Reylena Herrera singled and doubled, and Chesney broke the seal later in the inning by stealing home. Steeley and Ceres pitcher Lizzie Figueroa each put up zeros until the Bulldogs tied the game when Figueroa singled to score Bella Bravo.
The Hawks immediately answered in the bottom of the inning. Abigail Krauss drew a lead-off walk and scored with Figueroa lined her second double of the day to left field. Figueroa came around to score with two outs on a Steeley single to left.
The Bulldogs scored with no outs in the top of the seventh but Steeley and the Hawks’ defense finished the game with three consecutive outs.
“This was one of our lower scoring games, but we still hit the ball hard. They played really good defense as well and they hit the ball hard, just right back at us and we held up defensively as well,” Bates said.
The win was just the second for Central Valley over Ceres since 2004. Despite being just 2-30, both wins have come under Bates, a 9-8 win in 2024 and Wednesday’s 3-2 victory. More than anything, the league win shows the Hawks how far they have come in just one season.
“I think it comes down to the girls really trusting themselves,” Bates said. “Last year, we didn’t have that trust yet because we were young and working together. This group has been together for about three years now and they know where everyone’s going to be. They trust that and they’re doing a better job of communicating that pre-pitch.”
They are working to get back to their 2023 form. In Bates’ first season as lead coach, the Hawks went 19-4 overall, 11-1 in league and took on Tracy in the first round of the playoffs. They gave up five first-inning runs but after that, played the No. 7 Bulldogs even. Both scored three runs over the next six innings but the No. 10 Hawks could not dig out of the hole.
They didn’t make the postseason in the past two seasons but are in the driver’s seat to qualify as the top team in the WAC.
Their league title chase continues with games against Beyer Monday and Friday and Pacheco Wednesday. The Pacheco game marks the start of the second half of WAC play.
Pitman freshman pitcher leads Pride past league title contender
Juliet Jimenez led Pitman past a perennial Central California Athletic League title contender, pitching a complete game and tallying a pair of extra base hits in the Pride’s 5-3 win over Gregori. The freshman pitcher/infielder held the Jaguars to their lowest offensive output in league play this season offensively, striking out five batters in the complete-game effort.
Offensively, she had a pair of doubles in three at-bats, drove in a run.
Jimenez has made an immediate impact in her first season. She leads the Pride with a .469 batting average and is first in hits (30), runs scored (23) and doubles (7) and second in triples.
In the circle, 10 wins are 11th in the Sac-Joaquin Section and she has a team-best 4.00 earned run average and leads the team in 86 strikeouts in 19 appearances.
She also recently had 10 strikeouts in an eight-inning 9-8 win over Mountain House.
They have six league wins, just one shy of their CCAL total from 2024 and 2025 combined, and their 13 overall wins this season are the most in a regular season since 2018.
Hughson comfortable atop the TVL
Led by junior pitcher Kylie Tangney, Hughson sits at a perfect 8-0 in Trans-Valley League games, the best team in the league. The Huskies are already tied fo rhte most TVL wins in a single season sine 2015, equaling their eight-win, four-loss 2017 and 2018 campaigns. They are chasing the dominance of that 2015 season when they went 12-0 in league play as part of a 22-1 overall season that ended with a Division V championship over Ripon. The two sides went the distance in a three-game championship series with the Huskies taking the deciding game 7-2.
Hughson is outscoring league opponents 77-11 and has shut out three of its last five opponents, including beating defending league champion Ripon 2-0. As of Monday morning, they average around 10 runs per league outing.
On the season in the circle, Tangney has dominated. She is seventh in California in strikeouts (185). Her 1.11 earned run average is seventh in the section and her 12 wins are fourth. She has an 12-1 overall record. Senior Presley Wells bats .553 and sophomore Peyton Moring hits .441. They are tied for a team-high in hits (26). The Huskies started the second half of league play Tuesday with a 12-2 win over Escalon.
