Las Plumas softball wins back-and-forth battle for NSCIF D-II section title
OROVILLE - Saturday's Northern Section Division II championship game featured comebacks, lead changes, an early pitchers' duel, a home run and a walk-off - everything you could ask for in two Butte County teams competing for a section title.
It truly showcased two of the best teams in the Northern Section, and each and every player leaving it all on the field for seven innings.
At the end it was the No. 1 seed Las Plumas defeating No. 2 Chico 13-12 to claim the program's second section title under head coach Toby Thompson.
"It's the girls, the fight and the determination that they have," Thompson said. "Our team 1-9 is relentless. We've hit 31 home runs on the year for a reason. A pitcher never gets a break."
Rylie McInturf, the senior from LP who hit the walk-off single, said Saturday's win means so much to her.
"We knew that this was going to be a big fight with McKena (Harvey) pitching," McInturf said. "We had our innings where we struggled, but we came back from those innings and responded accordingly."
The Thunderbirds did just that, after the first three innings looked to be a pitchers' duel between Chico's McKena Harvey and LP's Kyler Story. A single by Harvey and a double by Chico's Leah Cawthon were the only hits for either team in a scoreless first three frames.
In the fourth, fifth and seventh inning the Panthers and Thunderbirds nearly matched each others' scoring, but it was a walk-off single by McInturf with bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh that lifted her team to victory.
LP trailed 12-7 entering the bottom of the seventh inning, needing five runs to send the game to extra innings and six runs to walk it off. The Thunderbirds believed in themselves, having scored six runs three innings prior.
Kendal Headley and Jayse Long reached on a hit by pitch and a walk to lead off the inning, before Adriana Heredia got her pitch low and inside and drove it over the left field fence for a 3-run homer to trim the Panthers' lead to 12-10.
"I was really hoping she wouldn't throw me outside, but luckily she threw me right in my sweet spot low and inside," Heredia said.
After Heredia cleared the bases, Lexi Hobbs walked, Adalyna Medrano singled to shallow centerfield, Raegan Johnson singled up the middle to put the Thunderbirds within one run at 12-11, and Brooklyn Atteberry walked to load the bases once more and put the tying run at third base and winning run at second.
One of LP's captains came to the plate, having struggled on the day against Harvey. McInturf entered her final at bat with three strike outs, but she made what could have been her final at bat on her home field count. With the infield in McInturf hit a sharp single off the glove of the diving first baseman's glove and into right field to score Medrano and Johnson, and the LP coach Thompson chased Johnson home from third base.
"I told them when they came in, we just had a bad inning and they're up five. We get one at bat," Thompson said. "We knew if we scored six this game is over, and they did just exactly that. Their at bats were amazing. Every single girl that got up that inning tried to get on base. They knew we needed baserunners and we didn't need a home run. We need baserunners and have to produce some runs."
The Thunderbirds' rally in the seventh may not have happened if they hadn't matched the Panthers' six runs in the fourth inning. Chico took a 6-0 lead in the top of the fourth, but LP slowly chipped away and eventually tied the game at 6-6 after four. When Chico scored one run in the top of the fifth, LP matched it with one run in the bottom of the fifth.
"As a team we're very good at coming back, so we're kind of unbeatable," said Adriana Heredia. "All year long we've done it in trickier games, and we just have really good morale and we glue really good, so it was really an everyday thing for us."
In the top of the fourth inning Chico took advantage of four LP errors, two walks, one hit batter and two hits to score six runs. LP quickly responded with six runs on five hits, two hit batters and one Chico error.
"We knew going in they could hit, and we knew we had to score early and try and keep them down," said Chico coach Aaron Murphy. " I think both teams played pretty tense in the field. There were a lot of errors we don't normally make that they don't normally make. We just kind of tensed up, but when they came back I kind of let the girls go and said we knew it wasn't going to be easy. Now it's 0-0 and we're starting all over again. It's a three-inning game. Let's go."
The Panthers added one run in the fifth on a double, stolen base and a sacrifice fly, but LP matched it after a hit batter, stolen base and an error. In total Chico committed three errors and LP committed five. Chico scored five runs on five hits and one walk in the top of the seventh, highlighted by a bases-clearing triple from Camile Murphy to right center.
After both teams earned section championship births, both Chico (24-7) and LP (28-1-1) will advance to the CIF state tournament, with brackets scheduled to be released May 31.
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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 2:04 PM.