CIF Regional brackets show where Central Catholic, Escalon, Turlock Christian play
There will be no Stanislaus District home games in the first round of the CIF Northern California Regional tournament, according to the bracket released Sunday afternoon revealing seeds and divisions of the state’s best.
Three of the five local teams that played for Sac-Joaquin Section titles last week advanced to the next step in the spring season. This SJS is one of just a handful across the CIF’s 10 sections that played championships May 23, a week earlier than others. Central Catholic and Escalon softball and Turlock Christian baseball will have to ramp back up after a week of practice, while some teams in the regional tournament are coming off title games May 30.
Each local team that made this year’s NorCal playoffs claimed victory in a must-win section title game. In the Sac-Joaquin Section’s baseball and softball postseason, only Divisions I-III send their section champions and runners-up. Only Division IV-VII champions extended their season.
Baseball and softball NorCal tournaments start Tuesday with first-round games at 4 p.m., then regional semifinals Thursday. The action-packed week ends Saturday, June 6, with the regional finals.
Central Catholic ranked sixth, hits road for first round
Fresh off the program’s first-ever section championship, the Central Catholic softball team enters the NorCal tournament in a bracket two divisions higher than the one in which it won the section title. The Raiders beat Will C. Wood 8-3 in the Division IV championship. They did not allow a run until the Wildcats hit a sixth-inning, three-run home run.
Raiders head coach Sam Nichols said he was waiting for the offense, pitching and defense to click in a game this season, and he felt it all came together in that title game. But that was more than a week ago.
Central Catholic used a week of practice to prepare for what it hopes is another successful NorCal run. In 2023, the Raiders lost the D-III section title game to Ponderosa 1-0 but bounced back to win the NorCal title against the same Bruins, 7-0, thanks to a perfect game on the mound and home run on offense from Randi Roelling in the final game of her high school career.
The No. 6 Raiders travel to San Jose to play Willow Glen High School on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the Division II bracket. Their high-powered offense averaging nearly 12 runs a game (11.75) will face Cal-bound senior pitcher Alanna Clincy, who has the 16th-best earned run average in California (0.84). The Willow Glenn offense is led by junior Arizona State commit Catalina Medina, who bats .433 with 32 runs scored, 39 hits, 13 doubles and five home runs. Clincy hits .379 with a team-best 20 RBI.
Willow Glen enters the regional playoffs with a 22-7 overall record and a 13-1 Mount Hamilton League record, good for a league title. The Rams were dropped to Division II despite playing in the Central Coast Section Open Division championship. They lost 1-0 to Archbishop Mitty.
Central Catholic’s Florida commit, Samantha Nichols, is seventh in the section in home runs (8), 13th in RBI (42) and Ceriah Fitzhugh is seventh in runs scored (48) and 12th in stolen bases (36). Sacramento State-bound seniors Madie Harrison, University of Arkansas Pine Bluff signee Amaya Gustavis and Carsyn Lomeli-Garcia, who hit a grand slam in the section title game, hope to extend their seasons.
If the Raiders pull off the upset, they will likely get a third crack this season at Del Oro in the Regional Semifinals. The game will be a rubber match as the Raiders won 11-10 in eight innings in the Michelle Carew Classic in Southern California then lost 5-0 at home in a nonleague contest five days later. Del Oro is the No. 2 team in the division.
Escalon softball in first-ever NorCal regional after winning blue banner
Seven years after an Escalon softball team completed a Sac-Joaquin Section title three-peat, the Cougars got back to the top of their division. University of Arizona signee Madison Babasa went 4-for-4 with two doubles and a triple and drove in three runs, junior UC Riverside commit Ariana Velasco added a pair of hits and freshman pitcher Tenley Adams recorded her third straight double-digit strikeout game (13) in a no-hitter and had two doubles in a 5-1 win for the D-V blue banner.
Babasa and Velasco are top 15 in the section in multiple hitting categories. In batting average, Babasa is 10th (.685) and Velasco is 15th (.644) and Babasa is 15th in on-base percentage (.721).
In its first-ever trip to a NorCal regional, Escalon was moved from D-V to D-IV. The Cougars are 15-11 overall and travel to Martinez as the No. 5-seed in the division, taking on No. 4 Alhambra.
The Bulldogs made it to the North Coast Section Division III championship but fell to Petaluma. They were dropped a division by the CIF seeding committee.
The winner of what is expected to be a highly competitive matchup advances to play awaiting West Valley. The No. 1 seed in the division earned a Round 1 bye. West Valley is 28-2 overall and won the Northern Section Division III title.
Turlock Christian baseball
Winners of 10 straight games and the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII title, Turlock Christian is the No. 5 seed in the Division V NorCal bracket. The Eagles hit the road Tuesday, traveling to No. 4 Roosevelt of Fresno.
Turlock Christian enters NorCals riding a high, winning a high-scoring game that had 19 total hits and 16 total runs, 10-6 at Delta College over Vacaville Christian. The Falcons and Eagles matched up for the fourth time in the playoffs since 2022. The win moved Turlock Christian’s (18-3) record to 3-1 over the Falcons.
In total, six players recorded a hit and three finished with a multi-hit game. Jakobe Garcia drove in a team-high two runs and had the team’s only extra-base hit, a double.
Roosevelt enters the NorCal regionals 21-8-2 overall with a CIF Central Section Division VI title under its belt. The Rough Riders were the No. 2 seed in their section tournament and scored 11 and 14 runs in their first two games, respectively, won a shutout in the semifinals and upset the No. 1 seed in the championship.
