Submitted photo – The South Fork players and coaches celebrate their big win on Friday evening.

The South Fork girls are going where no other Cubs softball team has ever gone before.

Just moments after they clinched the program’s third all-time North Coast Section championship in Fremont on Friday night, word reached the players that they have qualified for this year’s CIF NorCal state playoffs for the first time ever.

The brackets for the state playoffs will be announced next weekend, with the tournaments taking place the following week.

The Cubs will become the fifth H-DNL softball team to qualify for the state playoffs, which only began in 2022, following in the footsteps of Eureka, McKinleyville and Hoopa, each of which qualified in 2022, as well as the Del Norte Warriors, who qualified last year.

“We’re excited about it, because we’ve never been this far,” said Todd, who also coached the Cubs to section titles in 2018 and 2019. “We’ll see how it goes.”

The South Fork girls secured state playoff qualification after beating California School for the Deaf 12-1 in six innings in Friday night’s NCS Division-6 championship game.

In their two playoff games, which also included a 12-2 win over Point Arena in Tuesday’s semifinal, the Cubs ended both games early and outscored their opponents by a combined 23-3.

Remarkably this is a program that was unable to even field a team a year ago, but perseverance has paid off for this group of determined players.

“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” said Todd, who returned to the program this spring after two years away. “The girls have worked hard all year. With that year off, they were behind. They had a lot of work to do to catch up with the rest of the teams.”

The players embraced that challenge and really began to find their feet in the playoffs after barely missing out on a place in this year’s Charles Lakin H-DNL postseason tournament.

“They’re very coachable,” Todd said. “They’re willing to learn. From the beginning, they were just very happy to play and they wanted to progress throughout the season. They never gave up. They fight till the bitter end.”

That perseverance is something several opposing coaches have noticed this year.

And it was evident again in Friday’s NCS decider.

File photo – Cloe McConnell

The Cubs started the stronger of the two teams and opened up a three-run lead in the top of the third inning.

However, the CSD girls, who were seeded No. 1 in the bracket, began to build some momentum in the fourth inning, cutting the deficit to two.

But the No. 2 seeded Cubs would respond in the manner of champions and added nine more runs to end the game early on the mercy rule, including an eight-run sixth inning.

“The game was still pretty tight until the fifth inning,” Todd said. “It was kind of nerve wracking up until then.

“Then my girls finally started hitting.”

The eight runs in the sixth all came with two outs.

Several players stepped up in the win, including seniors Cloe McConnell and Caidence Young.

File photo – Caidence Young

McConnell got the win in the pitcher’s circle and is pitching better right now than at any stage in her high school career, according to Todd.

She struck out four and allowed just two hits, while showcasing her control by not giving up any walks.

Young, meanwhile, led the way at the plate and finished 3-for-4 with a double, while freshman Mackenzie Coleman turned in another strong performance at shortstop and made some key plays.

In addition to 11 team walks, the Cubs also had eight hits, including one each by Coleman, Anora Blackwell, Aliya Burns, Aubrey Young and Raevyn Reveles.

Coleman, McConnell, Reveles and Molly Perkins also had two walks apiece.

Makenzie Brewer, Burns and Aubrey Young each had one walk.

The NCS softball championship continues an impressive year in sports for South Fork High School.

In the fall, the Cubs won a first-ever NCS title in football and in the winter the boys basketball team reached a section final for the first time since 1990.

Submitted photo – The South Fork and California School for the Deaf players after Friday’s championship game.