Central Catholic, Escalon advance to section finals after eventful semifinals
Saturday is the most important day of the season for 14 Sac-Joaquin Section softball teams: section championship day.
Two teams in each of the seven divisions face off for a blue banner.
In small-school divisions, Stanislaus District teams made deep playoff pushes with two reaching Saturday’s title games.
Central Catholic, the No. 2 seed in Division IV did not score less than 10 runs during their postseason run and Escalon upset its last two opponents in Division V.
All section championships are at Cosumnes River College, Sacramento State University and San Joaquin Delta College. Escalon and Central Catholic both play at CRC in back-to-back timeslots. The Cougars’ first pitch is at 10 a.m. and the Raiders’ game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.
Offensive explosion leads Central Catholic to fifth straight title game
For nearly five innings, Central Catholic looked like its season could be over at the hands of Valley Oak League rival Oakdale. The Mustangs took a 9-3 lead into the bottom of the fifth but over the course of the next two innings, Central Catholic outscored Oakdale 13-0, winning an eventful semifinal matchup 16-9. Eight players had two or more hits led by Paige Perry (5-for-5), Samantha Nichols (4-for-5) and Brooklyn Marquez (4-for-5). The Raiders had seven extra-base hits including a Madie Harrison home run and triples from Brea Hart and Carsyn Lomeli-Garcia.
The Raiders are in the section title game for the fifth consecutive season and are looking for their first softball blue banner.
The No. 2-seed Raiders will be the designated home team Saturday at Cosumnes River College at 1 p.m. after No. 5 Will C. Wood upset No. 1 Pioneer 8-5 in the other semifinal Tuesday. The two sides have not matched up in the MaxPreps era (since 2004). They do have a common opponent this season in Pioneer. Wood and Pioneer faced off three times this season. The Wildcats lost twice in league play by a combined two runs before winning by three in an eight-inning semifinals thriller. The Raiders saw Pioneer in a mid-season non-league game and lost 7-5.
Orestimba unable to pull off second straight upset
Orestimba shocked the Division V bracket, upsetting the top seed Hughson in the quarterfinals. By the end of the nine-inning marathon, the Warriors pulled out a 2-1 win over the Huskies thanks to an RBI single in the top of the final frame by junior Cayla Finley that drove in sophomore Salece Machado. Machado scored both of the Warriors’ runs in the game.
The No. 8 seed in the bracket, Orestimba advanced to Tuesday’s semifinal, traveling to No. 5 Casa Roble in Orangevale looking for another big upset. The Warriors scored once in the top of the first inning but could not push another run across despite coming away with six hits. Casa Roble won the game 4-1, advancing to the title game. Machado and freshman Victoria Silva each tallied two hits and Machado drove in the Warriors’ only run. Orestimba’s season ends with a 19-11 overall record and a 6-6 record against Trans-Valley League teams, good for fourth.
Escalon in D-V title game led by upperclassmen and freshman pitcher
On the other side of the Division V bracket, Escalon pulled off a pair of impressive upsets to get to Saturday’s section title game at Cosumnes River College at 10 a.m. Led by senior Arizona signee Madi Babasa and junior University of California, Riverside commit Ari Velasco, the No. 7-seed Cougars won their first round home game 11-0 then upset No. 2 Calaveras 2-1 in the quarterfinals and No. 3 Sutter 7-6 in Tuesday’s semifinals.
Escalon took a 4-0 lead after the top of the third inning and added one run in the fifth and two in the sixth inning. Sutter scored two runs in the third and sixth innings and scored a pair in the seventh before Escalon shut down the comeback.
Babasa (.660) and Velasco (.655) are 13th and 14th, respectively in the section in batting average and each are having outstanding playoff runs. Each has had at least one hit in each postseason game. Velasco has had multiple hits in each playoff game and had three extra base hits.
Tenley Adams is just a freshman, but she has pitched well for the Cougars. She had 14 strikeouts against Calaveras, eight strikeouts in four innings against Woodland Christian and 11 strikeouts in the semifinals against Sutter.
This is the deepest playoff run the Cougars have made since 2019. That season the Cougars won the section championship as the last of three straight blue banners the program claimed. Babasa’s older sister Malia was on the 2018 and 2019 title winning teams as a freshman and sophomore and current head coach Lexy Underwood was on all three teams, winning as a sophomore, junior and senior.
Sac-Joaquin Section Softball Championships
Division I
Location: Sacramento State University
Saturday, May 23 at 4 p.m.
No. 1 Whitney (23-8) vs No. 7 Rodriguez (17-9)
Division II
Location: Sacramento State University
Saturday, May 23 at 1 p.m.
No. 2 Del Oro (20-7) vs No. 4 Elk Grove (27-4)
Division III
Location: Sacramento State University
Saturday, May 23 at 10 a.m.
No. 1 Destiny Christian (27-0) vs No. 3 Vanden (17-5)
Division IV
Location: Cosumnes River College
Saturday, May 23 at 1 p.m.
No. 2 Central Catholic (22-8) vs No. 5 Will C. Wood (17-9)
Division V
Location: Cosumnes River College
Saturday, May 23 at 10 a.m.
No. 5 Casa Roble (16-10) vs No. 7 Escalon (14-11)
Division VI
Location: Delta College
Saturday, May 23 at 1 p.m.
No. 1 Amador (22-8) vs No. 2 Argonaut (19-6)
Division VII
Location: Delta College
Saturday, May 23 at 10 a.m.
No. 1 Le Grand (18-7) vs No. 2 Elliot Christian (11-3)
