Players from Salinas High’s softball team had a big week in winning the CIF NorCal D2 title with wins against three of the top pitchers from Northern California. Photo: salinascowboyathletics.com.
State Team of the Year honors for the 2025 softball season also are going out for the four other CIF based playoff divisions. We have done teams of the year in five divisions for many years and these mythical honors considered all teams that played in CIF section playoffs (including those that opted out of the regionals). Three of the five teams below in D3, D4 and D5 were all listed No. 1 in those divisions heading into the regional semifinals and all three won regional titles. Congrats to Salinas (D2), Point Loma (D3), Woodlake (D4) and Biggs (D5).
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Congratulations to these five softball teams for being added to the list of all-time state teams of the year according to our traditional Cal-Hi Sports five-division format:
Division I
Norco
Another indicator of the Cougars’ dominance as a program is the number of times that they have played for the CIF Southern Section D1 championship. This year’s game vs El Modena was the 10th and ninth since the 2009 season. The next highest total of four in the D1 bracket is held by Santiago of Corona, which for most of the decade of the 2010s was Norco’s biggest rival. Norco’s 2012 and 2019 teams also were ranked No. 1 in the nation in addition to No. 1 in the state. The Cougars will likely finish No. 5 this year in the Line Drive Media Super 70 national rankings (which should be considered the same as the ESPN FAB 50 of 2012).
Division II
Salinas
This was the most difficult of the other four State Team of the Year choices outside of D1 as the Cowboys won out in a close call over CIF Southern Section D2 champion Los Alamitos.
The NorCal D2 playoff bracket that Salinas (21-8) won included two teams we thought should have been in D1, CIF North Coast Section D1 champ Liberty of Brentwood and CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D4 winner Destiny Christian of Sacramento, which features junior Ayla Tuua, named earlier this week as the Gatorade State Player of the Year.
It also wasn’t a case of Los Al (21-12) already being in the No. 1 position. We had Liberty in that spot last week with the Griffins at No. 2. They just didn’t move up after Liberty lost. Eastlake of Chula Vista (23-11-1) was the other team to consider after it won the CIF SoCal D2 title with a win against Christian of El Cajon.
Salinas entered the CIF NorCal D2 bracket after losing in the Central Coast Section Open Division semifinals to St. Francis of Mountain View. Head coach Ron Guzman’s squad won in the first round, 5-2, over Casa Grande of Petaluma (D1 last year) and then got past King’s Academy of Sunnyvale, 1-0 in eight innings, in the semifinals after King’s Academy had upset Destiny Christian.
In the regional final, the Cowboys faced Liberty and won, 4-1. Abi Jones, senior pitcher committed to San Jose State, had her third straight strong outing with a one unearned run allowed and 12 strikeouts. Abi won in duels against Casa Grande’s Lila Partridge and King’s Academy’s Katia Nesper earlier in the week. The team’s other hero of the week was Gigi Rossi, who had a game-winning RBI double in the semifinals and she had a homer and a double in the final. Kelsie Domenighini also had two triples and one double in the win vs Casa Grande.
While the school of Salinas has never been State Team of the Year in softball before in any division, the city has a great tradition in the sport. Notre Dame of Salinas has been No. 1 in final state rankings twice for D3 and four times for D4 (under the previous format, which was not competitive equity). North Salinas High also is the alma mater of pitcher Monica Abbott, one of the greatest Team USA softball players ever.
Woodlake’s Audrina Rodriguez, who finished the season 20-0 in the circle, holds two home run balls she had in one game this season. Photo: X.com.
Division IV
Woodlake
It’s just not possible in this era of competitive equity playoff pairings to do divisional state rankings during the season since it is impossible to know which divisions teams are going to be in for the regional playoffs.
The two regional champions in this division, Woodlake for the south and East Nicolaus for the north, are good examples. With a 27-1 record coming out of the CIF Central Section D4 playoffs, Woodlake could have been higher than D4. And while East Nicolaus (24-6) looked pretty solid for D4 coming out of the CIF Northern Section playoffs that is a team that has been as high as D2.
Woodlake also was seeded behind a different Central Section team, Pioneer Valley of Santa Maria (with 12 losses), in the D4 South bracket. We assume that’s because Pioneer Valley was runner-up in a higher division in the section that Woodlake played in. That’s why the Tigers had to travel to Santa Maria to play their regional final.
The travel didn’t matter. Woodlake broke a 2-2 tie with a run in the top of the sixth inning, added another run in the top of the seventh but had to hold on to get a 4-3 victory. Audrina Rodriguez, Woodlake’s ace pitcher, got two fly ball outs with the bases loaded to end the game. Rodriguez capped a 20-0 season with four hits allowed and 10 strikeouts. As is obvious, the only game that the Tigers lost this season came when Audrina didn’t start.
East Nicolaus topped San Leandro to win the NorCal D4 title.
The CIF Central Section didn’t have a State Team of the Year in softball last year or in 2023 or 2022. It’s last No. 1 team was Fowler in D5 in 2021. Woodlake has never been No. 1 in a softball state division before.
Division III
Point Loma (San Diego)
It’s actually not normal for a No. 1 seed team to go on and win one of these regional championships. That wasn’t the case for the Pointers, who were seeded No. 1 in the CIF SoCal D3 playoffs and won the title last Saturday with a 4-1 victory over Legacy of South Gate.
Point Loma (28-6-1) also was placed in the No. 1 slot in the D3 state rankings that were done after the first round of the regional playoffs. The team then won in the semifinals against Olympian of Chula Vista. NorCal D3 champ Hillsdale of San Mateo (21-9-1) also was considered for the No. 1 position, but Point Loma already was there and didn’t lose.
In the regional final, a pair of freshmen keyed the win for head coach Billy Hunyady’s squad. Ella Poulin went the distance in the circle and had a five-hitter with eight strikeouts. Siena Balestreri scored the first run in the first inning after reaching on an error and then drilled a two-run double in her next at-bat.
This year’s team at Point Loma already had made history by winning the school’s first-ever CIF San Diego Section title. Some of the seniors on the team also completed their careers on a high note after being on a 7-21 team as freshmen.
The San Diego Section didn’t have a State Team of the Year in softball last season or in 2023, but in 2022 Otay Ranch of Chula Vista was No. 1 for D2. The last team from the section to be No. 1 in D3 was Steele Canyon of Spring Valley in 2007.
Division V
Biggs
After starting 1-2 on the season, the Wolverines (29-3-1) only lost one more time the rest of the season and posted a 4-2 victory against King City to win the CIF NorCal D5 title. They were in the No. 1 position for D5 after the regional semifinals and then prior to beating King City notched an 11-6 win over Miramonte of Orinda.
Orcutt Academy of Orcutt, a CIF Central Section team playing in the south regional, won in the title game of that bracket, 6-1. Orcutt Academy (18-11-1) topped Rancho Mirage as the No. 2 seed over the No. 1 seed in last Saturday’s title game.
The only loss that Biggs had after that 1-2 start was in a double-header with Quincy in which the Wolverines had won the first game.
In the regional title game win vs King City, which had to be moved from Saturday to Friday to accommodate King City’s graduation on Saturday, Allie Little went 3-for-4 with a run scored. Riley Harrison also had two RBI and Gracie Sheppard pitched a six-hitter with five strikeouts.
With small school powerhouses like Sutter and East Nicolaus both from the CIF Northern Section, it’s not uncommon for a team from the section to gain a D4 or D5 State Team of the Year selection. Sutter took it in D4 just last year and East Nicolaus was the winner in D5 in both 2018 and 2019 and other times. This is the first-ever State Team of the Year honor in softball for Biggs. The town of Biggs is located just off Highway 99 south of Oroville and just north of Gridley. It was a historic run for the girls for sure and now they also have a mythical state title to go with the regional crown.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
