The Cathedral City softball team has the same goal that most teams have and that’s to do better this year than you did the year before.
But when 2025 saw the Lions make it all the way to the Division 8 championship game before losing, that means to do better this year would require a CIF-SS title.
So far. So good. The Lions, now in Division 7, took down Victor Valley 2-0 behind another gem from senior ace Sayuri Toledo to win a CIF-SS quarterfinal game Wednesday, moving Cathedral City into the semifinals for the second straight year.
The Lions will be on the road Saturday in their quest for a return trip to the championship game. They will play at Edgewood High in West Covina at 3:15 p.m. in a Division 7 semifinal.
Toledo said having gone to the finals last year and fallen one run short, has been the ultimate motivator this year.
“Once you’ve been there, you really want to get back,” Toledo said. “That’s a big push for us for sure, a big push to get back there.”
Toledo, the senior who is set to play her college softball at Eastern Kentucky University in the fall, is showing the grit of a player with extreme determination. She is battling a nagging hamstring injury and she’s been under the weather the last two days.
The Victor Valley batters she faced Wednesday, would probably find that hard to believe.
Sayuri was her usual dominant self with 17 strikeouts in a three-hit shutout. She got some help from her teammates, too, as the Lions scored twice in the first inning and made that hold up.
“She’s been sick the last couple days and I was considering starting her on the bench,” Lions coach Israel Diaz said. “But she said ‘No coach, with the adrenaline, I got it. I’m going to hype myself up and and I’m going to get it.’ And she got it.”
In the bottom of the first, the Lions pushed across a pair of runs when Judea Calderon and Lauriana Romo got a pair of one out singles and moved to second and third on a wild pitch. Toledo followed with an RBI single to make it 1-0 and Kayle Monterroso knocked in the second run with a groundout.
That was all Toledo would need. She struck out the side in the first, third, fifth and, most importantly, the seventh inning to thwart any momentum the visitors tried to create.
Lions right fielder Mariyah Ochoa came up with the defensive play of the game. With a runner on first, a Victor Valley batter laced a hard liner that looked ticketed for the right centerfield gap and extra bases and probably a run, but Ochoa raced toward the gap reached up at full extension and snared the shot before it could get past her. The play elicited a roar from the Lions’ crowd and exuberant cheers from her teammates.
“I was nervous out there I’m not going to lie, but teammates had my back,” Toledo said. “Both they way they play but also the cheering and the positivity. That’s big for me and I need that.”
The Lions are on a postseason roll. They made the quarterfinals two years ago, and the finals last year, where they lost an agonizing 1-0 game. That’s 11 playoff games in three years with Saturday’s semifinal the 12th.
Coach Diaz said, the key to this year’s team’s success is one word: Confidence.
“Yes, confidence. Sometimes my team can kind of get down on themselves in sort of a mental slump and can’t get out, so all season that’s what we’ve ben battling,” Diaz said. “Now when they get in a slump they can pull themselves out.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Cathedral City softball rides ace into CIF-SS Division 7 semifinals
Reporting by Shad Powers, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
