How Orestimba’s Lujan broke a 14-year-old record in two and a half years

Growing up as the youngest of seven kids, competition was all Jacquelyn Lujan knew.

Her six siblings were all involved in sports and her dad played slow-pitch softball and mom played basketball.

“All my siblings played baseball, softball, football, cheer, all these things that if you’re not going out there and giving your best, you’re not gonna succeed,” she said. “In my family, if you’re not competitive, you get swallowed up.”

A product of a competitive environment, it is no surprise that softball was in her life from a young age.

Fourth-year Orestimba High softball coach Joaquin Marroquin remembers a young athlete playing 10U travel ball that took the game more seriously than her peers.

Now, Lujan is a leader for the team that is working on its second consecutive perfect Southern League record and hopes to make a push in the playoffs.

“She’s mentioned to me before that she’s trying to lead by example,” Marroquin said. “The girls see her work ethic. She won’t miss practice and she will put softball over other things. As long as I’ve known her, softball has been her number one priority.”

The love for competition took over this past weekend at the NFCA NorCal Leadoff Classic in Tracy where Lujan struck out 34 batters and broke the long-standing Orestimba High career strikeouts record held by Kara Spinelli. Spinelli finished her four-year varsity career with 438.

Lujan went into the weekend 30 strikeouts from history and she knew it.

She sat down 10 batters in the tournament opener against Enochs and nine more against Ceres and Elk Grove, giving her 28 strikeouts with one game left.

“I told my mom like five times, ‘I’m gonna get it this weekend. I’m gonna get it.’” Lujan said.

She set the record in the top of the third inning in the Warriors’ final game of the tournament, a 6-0 loss to St. Francis of San Francisco, but she had no idea.

“Once you’re on the mound against a good team, everything leaves your mind and you’re right then in the moment,” she said. “I kind of cleared out and did my best. I didn’t know that I hit it until the inning was over and I looked at my mom. She said I did it, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow.’”

Lujan went into her senior year with a completely different goal in mind. After setting the school’s single-season strikeout record at 201 last year, she was focused on beating that.

“That’s my goal this year, I want to hit that,” she said. “But once I started to get closer to (the career) record, that’s when my mom said I could get it. So it just felt nice.”

The record stood for 14 years.

Spinelli was a Warrior from the 2004-05 to 2008-09 seasons, and in the final two years of a decorated high school career earned All-District honors before pitching for The University of Detroit Mercy.

In her freshman season, she pitched in 33 games, starting 22, led the team with 132 innings pitched and earned Horizon League Pitcher of the Week honors after picking up her first career win.

What Spinelli did in four years, Lujan was forced to do in just over two.

The senior, who will play in college at Simpson University, missed her entire freshman season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pitched in just 13 games as a sophomore.

In addition to the 466 strikeouts, she boasts a career ERA of 0.90. She will finish each varsity season with more than 100 strikeouts.

• Sophomore (2021) – 116

• Junior (2022) – 201

• Senior (2023) – 149+

“I know that I didn’t get my freshman year, didn’t get my sophomore year, really, but at the end of the day, still pushed hard and still worked through everything to get to it senior year,” she said. “Senior year has been sweet. It’s a weight off knowing that you hit that goal. But now you got a new one to hit.”

That new goal is to set the record as high as possible. Not for her own personal accolades, but to continue to push girls in the Orestimba softball program years after she is gone.

“I want girls coming in after me to strive to hit the goal that I set,” she said. “I want them to be able to say, ‘She did this in two years, I want to see where I can get in four.’ Just that mentality, that competitive nature to just go out and be a dog and try your best.”