Softball playoffs: Casa Grande rallies past Rancho Cotate for 4th straight trip to semifinals

Despite graduating an all-time talented class, Casa Grande High School's softball team continues to show why it's one of the top programs in the area.

Even amid a bit of a retooling and growing year, the Gauchos are heading back to the semifinal round of the North Coast Section playoffs for the fourth straight year after their come-from-behind 11-9 victory over Rancho Cotate on Friday at home in Petaluma.

It's already been a bit of an improbable run for Casa, the No. 12 seed in NCS Division 2, having upset No. 5 Pinole Valley 10-0 in their opener earlier this week, and Friday's clash against the No. 13 Cougars was no different.

The Gauchos trailed 7-2 early but clawed their way back with six runs over the final three innings. Even after losing the lead in the fifth inning, Rancho Cotate came back to tie the game in the top of the sixth before Casa Grande went back to work and seized the lead for good with two runs in the bottom of the inning.

"These girls, they just don't die," Casa Grande head coach Billy Brody said. "They just don't quit and it showed today. They're playing for each other; that's all they're playing for right now."

The Gauchos (13-12-1) had their share of heroes in the win on both sides of the ball. In the circle, it was sophomore Alli Mangels, who shook off a grand slam in the third to finish the game with just two runs allowed over the final four innings.

She worked out of a massive jam in the top of the sixth as she stranded the bases loaded with a strikeout to preserve a 9-9 tie and give her team a shot to win late.

"After that home run, I really just focused in on getting ahead in counts and trusting my defense behind me," said Mangels, who struck out nine with five hits and six walks over her five innings of work. "Home runs, they don't really mean anything in the end - it's just one missed pitch, and I knew these girls were going to come back behind me and get those runs back."

The Gauchos did exactly that over and over on Friday. A 2-2 game after two innings, the Cougars (15-11) broke things open with a five-run third inning, highlighted by the grand slam from Leila Figoni.

The hosts responded right away in the bottom half of the inning as freshman Natalie Ketchu hit a two-run home run, her second home run of the season, and senior Abby McSweeney-Franklin followed up with a solo shot to make it 7-5.

As a double-digit seed still alive in the playoffs, it's very likely that Friday's game was the last home game for the Gauchos this season, which made the home run from McSweeney-Franklin, a four-year varsity player, that much more special.

"It was really nice, a full-circle moment, were this our last home game, and to cap maybe my last career game at Casa was so great," she said. "But it's so easy to play carefree when we have players like we do. Like Natalie Ketchu, a freshman doing great on varsity, hitting a two-run home run to bring us back into it. That was so huge, and with her doing that, it allowed me to go up without weight on my shoulders. It put me in a position where I could just swing and have fun, because she had my back."

Ketchu was subbed in to play second base early in the game after senior Veronica Nunez-Miller exited after being hit by a pitch on the arm in the first inning. Along with her two-run homer, Ketchu also scored a key run in the sixth inning.

"Natalie did a great job," Brody said. "Comes in, first at-bat, first pitch, home run. Then you start getting that momentum swing."

The Gauchos continued to chip away in the fourth, cutting the deficit to 7-6 on an errant throw from Rancho Cotate trying to catch a runner advancing to third.

The Cougars made up for the mistake in the fifth as Sadie Yahya had a clutch two-out RBI single to push the lead back to 8-6.

Then, in the fifth, the Gauchos put together their own two-out rally. Sophomore Desiree Howard and junior Ava Da Roza had back-to-back doubles to make it 8-7 before freshman Olive Luchese roped a third straight hit into left to tie the game at 8-8.

After an Evelyn Baca single that put runners on second and third, Layce Carlomagno had the fifth straight hit, a bouncer up the middle that scored Luchese and put the Gauchos on top 9-8. Baca was thrown at home to end the inning, but the damage was already done.

For as much fight and grit that Casa Grande showed, Rancho matched them nearly beat for beat. Izzy Scardina launched the first pitch she saw in the sixth inning over the left field fence for a solo home run to bring things back to square at 9-9. The Cougars had a chance to retake the lead later in the inning as they loaded the bases with two outs, but Mangels came up huge, striking out Yahya - a dangerous leadoff hitter - to end the inning.

The Gauchos capitalized on the momentum in the bottom of the sixth, loading the bases with one out for Howard, who did her job and hit a ball into the outfield for a sacrifice fly that put her team back on top 10-9. The Cougars had a chance to limit the damage with what looked like a routine inning-ending pop-up, but two infielders collided and the ball dropped to the dirt, allowing another run to score from second.

The two-run cushion was enough for Mangels to work with. She closed out the game with a strikeout and a yell before celebrating with her teammates on the infield.

Casa Grande won back-to-back NCS titles in 2023 and 2024 and finished as runners-up in Division I last season but said farewell to the core players from those title teams at graduation last spring. This year was always supposed to be a rebuilding season and in many ways it has been, with a roster that's heavily relied on six underclassmen.

But whatever early growing pains the Gauchos endured, they're starting to pay off late in the season.

"They are fully bought in," Brody said. "It took us a little while to get there, but it's there. They believe in this ball club and what we can do."

"And I'll tell you that there's not anybody that I know who thought that we would be standing here," he added. "A home game, a 12-13 seed game, and do what we did today. My heart can't take it, but these girls don't quit."

Casa Grande will face either 1 seed Marin Catholic or 9 seed Foothill in the semifinals next week. That game was delayed due to darkness on Friday night with the score tied 4-4 in the 11th inning.

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