Twenty teams started this journey. Two are still standing.
San Joaquin County sent 20 softball teams into the postseason dreaming of a Section title. By the end of the first round, more than half were gone. The quarterfinals cut the list to five.
The semifinals left just two.
And what a semifinal round it was.
Collapses. Pressure. Heartbreak. Missed chances. Historic moments. Not one game failed to bring drama.
So who punched a ticket to the championship? Who saw their season end? And which team will be haunted by how close it came?
Here’s the full breakdown from all five county semifinal playoff matchups:
Division II
No. 4 Elk Grove (27-4) vs. No. 1 Tracy (24-2); 12-10
Some comebacks defy explanation. Tracy was up 7-2 after two innings and still held a 9-6 lead entering the seventh, sitting one routine pop-up away from advancing. Then it was dropped, and suddenly Elk Grove had life. Somehow, someway, three runs in the ninth later, the comeback was complete. “Oh my gosh, I don’t know what just happened,” Elk Grove coach Amanda Buck said. “But that’s this team. They’re young, they’re gritty and they just keep battling. They don’t like to lose. They just fight, fight, fight.” No one embodied that more than freshman Madelyn Benzler, who threw all 174 pitches, allowed just five earned runs and delivered the go-ahead RBI triple in the ninth. “I’ve never thrown that many pitches in my life,” Benzler joked. “My arm still feels normal, though.”
Division IV
No. 2 Central Catholic (22-8) vs. No. 3 Oakdale (15-9); 16-9
Rivalry games in the playoffs are supposed to be chaotic. This one brought all of that — and a collapse few will not soon forget. No team in the Valley Oak League had beaten Central Catholic during the regular season, and midway through this one, Oakdale looked ready to become the first. Katee Conde’s three-run homer started the charge, RBI singles from Reese Donaldson, Briley Everett, Saige Everett and Sasha Martinez kept it going, and Donaldson’s two-run reach on an error made it 9-3 in the fifth. And just like that, it was gone. Central Catholic answered with four runs in the fifth, exploded for eight in the sixth and turned what looked like an Oakdale breakthrough into heartbreak.
Division V
No. 7 Escalon (14-11) vs. No. 3 Sutter (20-9-1); 7-6
This story keeps getting crazier. A 1-9 start. Four wins all of last season. Six wins in both 2023 and 2024. Now this. Days after knocking off No. 2 Calaveras, Escalon struck again. UC Riverside commit Arianna Velasco drove in University of Arizona signee Madison Babasa to get things started. Lauryn Siegel followed with an RBI single, Babasa added another, and a passed ball brought Velasco home for a 4-0 lead. Sutter pushed back with two, but Tenley Adams answered in the fifth, then Jayci Trimble and Babasa helped stretch the lead to 7-2 in the sixth — just enough to survive the four-run scare that followed.
Division VI
No. 2 Argonaut (22-8) vs. No. 3 Linden (19-7); 9-6
For two innings, Linden could almost taste its first Section championship berth since 2019. A 5-1 lead built behind RBIs from Millee Holguin, Audrey Pitt, Katie Schallberger and University of the Pacific commit Olivia Fears had the Lions one bite away. Then one swing stole everything. Argonaut’s AJ Schultz opened the third with a home run that sparked a four-run inning, turning Linden’s cushion into a 6-5 deficit it never erased. Holguin’s third RBI made it 8-6 in the sixth, but Argonaut answered in the bottom half to put it away.
Division VII
No. 2 Elliot Christian (11-3) vs. No. 6 Golden Sierra (10-10); 13-1
Eleven years of waiting ended with zero drama. Elliot Christian steamrolled its way back to the championship game for the first time since 2015 behind an offensive avalanche led by Destiny Hernandez, Juliet Goodpasture and Ashlyn Russu, who each drove in two runs, while Kelsey Patterson, Sophia Marino and Isabella Ramirez each added an RBI. As if the bats had not already done enough, Goodpasture took over in the circle as well, striking out 10 while allowing just three hits across five innings.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Who advanced to the CIF SJS softball championship games?
Reporting by Dylan Ackermann, The Stockton Record / The Record
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
