Babasa’s perfect day, Adams’ no-hitter cap Escalon’s first title appearance since 2019
Madi Babasa remembers watching her older sister Malia and the Escalon softball team play for section titles.
From 2017-2019, the Cougars won three straight blue banners, two with Malia on the roster and three with current head coach Lexy Underwood.
Seven years later, Madi was in a title game of her own, looking to make an impact for the hometown team.
“(I was) definitely nervous, but I wanted it not for myself but for my team and for my school,” Babasa said. “We’ve been in kind of a drought with our softball team, but it’s a relief being able to help keep it in my family. My sister’s won two section championships, so it’s nice.”
The University of Arizona signee left her imprint on the game offensively. She collected three extra base hits and drove in three runs as part of a 4-for-4 day for No. 7-seed Escalon in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V championship against No. 5 Casa Roble. Babasa’s performance helped lead the Cougars to a 5-1 win and a blue banner.
“It was rough until that fifth inning where we finally scored a run, but we were able to stay in the game no matter what,” said Underwood, who is in her first season as head coach. “The girls just have great chemistry and it really helps us stay in the game. If you don’t have a team that can stay together, they’re not going to be able to play together.”
The Escalon offense took some time to wake up, but it broke the game open in the late innings. Trailing 1-0 in the fifth, Lauryn Siegel singled and Babasa doubled, driving her home to tie the game. A double in the sixth by Tenley Adams and a Lizzy Allan RBI double gave the Cougars their first lead of the game, and they would not look back.
In the seventh, Babasa drove in two runs with a triple, then scored in the next at-bat on a Kyla Holback sacrifice fly.
Offensively, the contributions came from throughout the lineup. Babasa doubled twice, tripled and singled, and three other Cougars collected multiple hits. Adams doubled twice and UC Riverside commit Ari Velasco finished with her fourth straight multi-hit game this postseason, singling twice.
“As an upperclassman on the team, I want to make sure the young players and the freshmen have a great experience,” Velasco said. “So every at-bat, I’d go up there confident in my swing, mind cleared and just reading the defense.”
A walk, two hit by pitches and a passed ball were the only blemishes on what was an otherwise impressive day for Adams, Escalon’s freshman ace.
She struck out 13 batters in the seven-inning no-hitter, leading the Cougars to victory. Saturday’s championship was the third game this postseason that Adams finished with more than 10 strikeouts. She also rang up 14 against Calaveras in the quarterfinals and 11 against Sutter in the semifinals.
“My mindset going out is I have to be confident,” Adams said. “I have to know that I can do it. That first inning, they kind of got to me a little bit, but my team’s pep talks really helped me. I just have to give it 100% effort all the time.”
Casa Roble scored its only run in the opening frame after that, Adams retired seven straight. She hit another batter in the bottom of the fourth, but Babasa turned a double play to get Escalon out of the inning.
Escalon upset two of the division’s top three teams in Calaveras and Sutter before knocking off the No. 5 team in the title game.
“We never gave up,” Babasa said. “We had those close games, but we never gave up. We gave our all every single game.”
Adams and the Cougars retired the final nine consecutive batters to end the game.
“It truly shows when she’s able to not let things get to her in big games like this one, like our last playoff game,” Underwood said. “(Last game), she started to get down when the other team got up, but her whole team had her back and helped her through it, and it truly made the difference.”
Saturday’s win meant history for Escalon as just the Sac-Joaquin champion in Divisions IV through VII advanced to the CIF State Northern California regional playoffs.
The state playoff bracket was introduced in 2022 so the Cougars’ 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons ended in the CIF-SJS playoffs.
“A new experience, so we’re just going to take it one step at a time, one game at a time, just play the way we’ve been playing together and go through this together,” Velasco said.
