Juniors softball team overcomes adversity to reach regional tourney

Jul. 22—When Maria Cedillo took on the task of coaching youth softball in 2012, her goal was to help make the sport more attractive for kids as they got older.

Her decadelong mission is bearing fruit.

In a region where basketball and volleyball have taken root, Cedillo sees the bounty of her softball cultivation at Capital, Santa Fe Indian School, St. Michael's, Española Valley and Los Alamos, as some players who aren't even in high school have already made their mark on a varsity team. But Cedillo said the girls she oversees as the head coach of Santa Fe Little League Juniors Softball team are more than just players — they are role models and good ambassadors for the sport she loves.

"It's just to help as many girls as possible, and it's about making that connection," Cedillo said. "We've made connections with a lot of younger teens. We invite them to our practice, and they now have an older girl that they look up to."

On Friday, she and the players who make up Santa Fe Little League's All-Star team that won the state Little League title 10 days ago will try to take the Southwest by storm. The group, which comprises players ages 13-15 from the boundaries of District 1, takes on host Roadrunner Little League of Albuquerque in the opening round of the Little League Juniors Softball Regional Tournament in Albuquerque at 9 a.m.

The winner advances to the next round of the winner's bracket to play Eagle Pass-Maverick County Little League at 9 a.m. Saturday in Albuquerque.

For the players of Santa Fe Little League, the berth to the regionals was a hard-earned reward over the adversity they faced over the past three years. Eight of the 14 players on the roster were a part of the Majors Softball All-Star team that was barred from state tournament competition in 2019 when the national Little League office ruled the team had violating a regulation by "bringing in an 'intact' team and/or sponsoring or otherwise supporting any team, individual, or group of individuals for participating in a non-Little League Softball or Baseball Program, event, or game," according to a statement from the national office at the time.

While the Santa Fe Little League office argued the team did not violate rules and could prove it, the national office did not rescind the ban.

Cedillo said the ban stemmed from the use of uniforms bearing the same team name for its club and Little League teams, even though the uniforms had different colors to distinguish them from club and Little League play. It was a hard decision for the team to accept, but Abigail DeHerrera, a rising freshman at Los Alamos High School, said the bitter pill they swallowed didn't last very long.

"After like, 10 minutes, it melted away and it was just softball," DeHerrera said.

Then came the coronavirus pandemic, which wiped out the 2020 season and impacted postseason play the following year. Moving up a division, the Juniors team won the state title in July 2021, but because the national office elected to only have the Majors Baseball division compete in regional and World Series play, it saw its season abruptly end.

While that was disappointing, the players simply switched gears. Many of them play on club teams through the United States Specialty Sports Association and the local American Amateur Baseball Congress. They crisscrossed the state and Texas to compete in local and regional tournaments, and Cedillo said they left their mark at almost every turn.

"We go play in a U-16 tournament in Texas, then we took a tournament in Albuquerque," Cedillo said. "So we do have success in USSSA, but a lot of people only pay attention if you're successful in Little League and it always has huge numbers [in terms of participation]. That's part of the reason we do Little League."

Another hurdle the team faced was meeting the national mandate of players taking part in at least 12 games during the season. Because Santa Fe Little League had only two teams in its Juniors Softball division — one that incorporated players from Santa Fe, Española, Pojoaque and Los Alamos, plus a Santa Fe team — players had to travel to Las Vegas, N.M., to take on teams from Las Vegas and La Plaza Little League to meet that requirement.

Nadia Cedillo, Maria's daughter, said the games weren't as much of a challenge as were the morning practices, many of which took place at Ragle Park before the sun peeked over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. If anything, the players learned how to adjust to slow and fast pitching, she added.

"Club is a lot faster pitching, and Little League is a little slower sometimes," Maria Cedillo said. "I think we can adjust to the differences in pitching because we have the club experience."

The SFLL Juniors also know how to play in sweltering heat, which they will likely face in Albuquerque over the weekend. They traveled to Carlsbad for the state tournament, and played in temperatures in the mid-to-high 90s. SFLL rolled through the tournament until the championship game, when they played Deming Little League in a rematch of their opening-round game that Santa Fe won 8-3.

This one was much more intense, as SFLL rallied from a 1-0 deficit in the bottom of the first inning with a pair of runs on DeHerrera's inside-the-park, two-run home run. From there, the duo of Leah Gutierrez and Mikiaela Guillen shut down Deming.

Guillen pitched the last five frames, allowing only an inside-the-park home run in the seventh inning after she and Gutierrez teamed up to score an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth that ensured a 3-2 win.

Guillen said the discipline coach Cedillo instilled in the team over the season showed during the game.

"You have to think about the next pitch and not the last one," Guillen said. "If you think about [the previous pitch], then you'll just keep thinking about it on the next pitch and the next pitch. Then, it will just really get in your head."

It's an approach that has helped the Santa Fe Juniors reach unprecedented heights. Cedillo hopes the youth of Santa Fe take notice and pick up a bat and a glove as easily as they pick up a basketball or volleyball.