Things to watch during this year’s Sac-Joaquin Section softball playoffs
When the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section softball playoffs kick off Tuesday, 13 Stanislaus District teams will take the field with hopes of bringing home a blue banner. League champions and teams finishing among the top of their league all qualified for the postseason. Brackets were released Friday, May 12.
The higher seed will host each game until the section finals. Championships for Divisions I through III will be at Sacramento State on May 27. The Division IV championship is at Cosumnes River College on May 27. Title games for Divisions V through VII will be played a week earlier, May 20, at Cosumnes.
Here are five things to look for during this year’s first round:
Undefeated CCAL champion earns top-four seed
The Eagles have lost to only one team this season. Other than a pair of nonleague losses to Kimball, Enochs has impressed with 19 regular season wins. Led by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo commit Natalie Camarena at pitcher, Enochs captured its first outright Central California Athletic League title since 2019 with a perfect 15-0 league record. It is the Eagles’ first undefeated season since they went 12-0 in the Modesto Metro Conference 10 years ago.
After a dominant regular season, the Eagles were seeded fourth in the Division I bracket, meaning they have home field advantage through the postseason’s first two rounds. They take a 10-game winning streak into their playoff opener against No. 13 Stagg. With a win, they advance to play the winner of No. 12 Folsom at No. 5 Inderkum. Enochs beat Inderkum 11-2 earlier this season at a tournament.
Pitching leads the way for local playoff teams
Three of the Stanislaus District’s best pitchers are also among the best in the state. Randi Roelling, Kailey Estes and Jacquelyn Lujan are all among the top 10 in California in strikeouts, according to MaxPreps. Roelling is on a mission to finish atop the state strikeouts list for the second straight year. Entering the postseason, the Cal Berkeley-bound senior is No. 1 and has fanned 281 batters. She has 15 wins in 23 appearances and has struck out 10 or more batters in 18 outings.
Estes, a junior, is third in California with 255 and has had some impressive numbers of her own. She has picked up 17 wins, 24th in the state and sixth in the Sac-Joaquin Section, and has struck out 19 twice this season.
Lujan this season broke the Orestimba High career strikeouts mark and has continued to make history. She broke her own single season strikeouts record near the end of the regular season. The Simpson University commit is sixth in California with 248 strikeouts and has won 18 games.
All three pitchers led their teams to first-round home playoff games. Gregori, led by Estes, earned the No. 8 seed, Roelling and Central Catholic are the top seed in Division III, and Lujan has led Orestimba to a No. 4 seed in Division V.
First-round game to watch
Matchups between No. 8 and No. 9 teams often are the highlight of the postseason’s first round. The Division I bracket features a game that has the potential to go either way as Gregori (19-7) hosts Sheldon (16-12) at 4 p.m. Tuesday. The eighth-seeded Jaguars, who finished second in the CCAL, feature strong pitching from Kailey Estes, who enters the postseason with a 17-5 record, 1.02 ERA and 255 strikeouts. Junior Kylee Huff leads the team with a .410 batting average and five home runs. Senior Chloee Hoffman is not far behind, with four homers this season.
For Sheldon, the nine seed, pitchers Kwinci Brown and Jaylee Ojo have produced all 16 of the team’s wins. Ojo, a senior, leads the team with nine wins and Brown has seven wins in her freshman campaign. The Sacramento Bee’s No. 15 softball team, Sheldon is led offensively by Loyola Marymount commit Sakora Harvell, who bats .473 with 33 RBIs, 12 doubles and seven home runs, all team highs.
Both sides have one common opponent in Lincoln-Stockton. Gregori played the Trojans early in the season, earning its third win in a 5-0 victory. Sheldon also beat Lincoln 5-0 in a tournament matchup in mid-April. Gregori’s defense played well behind Estes. She struck out seven batters but did not allow a hit in the shutout and walked just one batter. Sheldon’s Brown and Ojo struck out eight apiece in their combined shutout.
Local teams hosting first-round games
There will be plenty of great local action when the 2023 softball postseason kicks off Tuesday at 4 p.m. Gregori and Enochs, which were at one point battling for a CCAL title, each earned first-round home games in Division I. Similarly in Division III, Valley Oak League opponents Central Catholic and Oakdale welcome first-round opponents to their home fields, where they are a combined 16-2.
A number of other local teams will host first-round playoff games as well. Here is a list of local playoff home games:
Division I
No. 9 Sheldon at No. 8 Gregori
No. 13 Stagg at No. 4 Enochs
Division III
No. 16 Linden at No. 1 Central Catholic
No. 12 El Capitan at No. 5 Oakdale
Division V
No. 5 Marysville at No. 4 Orestimba
Division VI
No. 7 Vacaville Christian at No. 2 Riverbank
Division VII
No. 7 Foresthill at No. 2 Big Valley Christian
Central Valley’s season of firsts continues
It has been a season of firsts for Central Valley High. First-year head coach Jimmy Bates has led the Hawks to 19 wins, the most in program history, their first league title and their first ever playoff appearance. The Hawks went from 5-7 last season in Central California Conference play to 11-1 this season, sweeping the top two teams in last season’s standings, Merced and Golden Valley. Their lone CCC loss was to Atwater, 2-0. They earned a No. 10 seed and look to upset No. 7 Tracy on the road Tuesday.
“It has been pretty special to walk into,” Bates said. “I knew Day One that these girls were here to work. ... They really believe in one another ... they know that they have each other’s backs and we don’t get caught up in a mistake.
“These girls really compete for one another and when you come together as a team and you’re not focused on individual stats, it’s special what things can happen.”
The Hawks more than doubled their run production from last season led by senior University of the Pacific signee Victoria Lloyd, who leads the team in RBIs (39), batting average (.646), doubles (13), triples (3) and home runs (6). Pitcher Janessa Godinez has won 16 games with just two losses in 21 appearances and struck out 88 batters in 105.2 innings pitched.
