CIF State NorCal DIV softball final: Late rally comes up short for Alisal

SALINAS — Taking a softball program to unforeseen heights doesn’t change the emptiness players for Alisal were digesting as they watched another team celebrate on their field.

At some point, a record-breaking season that stretched five-plus months, which included the school’s first-ever girls section title for any sport, will be celebrated. For now, the feeling was numbness.

“It’s not how we wanted it to end,” Alisal left fielder Aaliyah Ruiz said. “As much as it hurts right now, I know we’ll come back harder next year. We will be hungrier.”

Instead of tears after Saturday’s 4-2 loss to Escalon in the State Northern California Division IV title game, a look of determination covered the faces of an entire starting lineup that will be back next spring for the Trojans.

“It will take us a few minutes to let it soak in, Ruiz said. “We did a lot this year. We proved our point to a lot of people who doubted us. We’ll be even better next year.”

The milestones this past spring for Alisal were endless, from breaking the single-season school record for wins, to capturing a share of the Mission Division title and bringing home a Central Coast Section Division I crown.

At one point, the Trojans were 17-1 over an 18-game stretch, winning more playoff games this year (5) than they had in 50-plus years of softball on campus.

“I was confident we would be a playoff team,” Nieto said. “But to make a deep run like this, I did not expect it. The bar kept going up and rising. The girls kept exceeding expectations.”

The Trojans were slated to travel to Cottonwood for the Division IV title game, but were awarded a home game after an ineligible player on top-seed West Valley’s roster forced a forfeit, awarding the win to Escalon.

The Cougars, were beaten 14-5 by West Valley, came into the game with a 17-11 overall record, but were riding a 12-game winning streak after being awarded the forfeit win, capturing a SAC Joaquin Section title last weekend.

“I think there was a slight letdown,” Nieto said. “The kids saw their record. We scouted them. Escalon looked very good. We told the girls it would be a tough game. A couple of their kids are going D1.”

It didn’t help that the Trojans left 11 runners stranded on the bases and committed a pair of errors during Escalon’s four-run third inning, aided by a perfectly executed suicide squeeze to start the onslaught.

“It hurts,” said Nieto, who has been involved in coaching for 30-plus years. “We made a couple of uncharacteristic errors early in the game and unfortunately fought an uphill battle the entire game.”

Despite putting runners in scoring position in three of the first six innings — including loading the bases in the sixth, the Trojans could not manufacture that clutch hit against freshman hurler Tenley Adams.

Adams, who also hit .408 at the plate this spring for the Cougars, came into the game with an 11-2 record, having struck out 119 hitters in 93 innings.

“She (Adams) threw hard,” Nieto said. “She had boughts of wildness. But she made good pitches and relied on her defense. But we made it interesting. We always come back.”

Looking for a little of that magic, in which the Trojans rallied from a one-run deficit last Thursday to beat Live Oak 5-4 in 11 innings, didn’t materialize until there were two outs in the bottom of the seventh.

That’s when Ruiz delivered a run-scoring single to score Aubrey Jones. Nevaeh Lopez followed with her second hit of the game, a shot into left center to bring home Brooklyn Smith, putting the tying runs on base.

But Adams, who did walk seven hitters in the game, bared down with her fifth strikeout to end the drama, sending Alisal to its first loss in nearly a month.

“We were just a little flat in the beginning,” Nieto said. “We’ll learn from it. The great thing is we have five freshmen starting. They are going to be here for three more years. That’s a good problem to have.”

One of those freshmen was Abigail Walker, who came into the game in the third inning and shut out Escalon, retiring 13 of the 14 hitters she faced, with five strikeouts.

Alisal, who won its first postseason game in 35 years when the playoffs started, is moving into the Gabilan Division next year after finishing 22-6.

“With our pitching, we can compete,” Nieto said. “But it will be a rougher road. I anticipate that if we make the playoffs next year, we will be in a higher division. But we want to be challenged. It’s second nature to a lot of these kids.”

Alisal was placed in the CCS Division I playoffs, but was dropped to Division IV for the State tournament based on its league and equity.

The Trojans were attempting to become the fourth team in five years from the county to bring home a State Northern California title in softball, following Monterey (2022), Alvarez (2024) and Salinas (2025).

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.