File photos – South Fork’s Makenzie Brewer

The South Fork Cubs returned with a bang this year, piecing together an historic season on their way to a first-ever trip to the CIF state NorCal softball playoffs.

The Cubs faced greater challenges than any of their H-DNL opponents, having not even fielded a team in 2023, but the players’ perseverance and hard work paid off down the stretch as they went further in the postseason than any previous South Fork team.

On Tuesday, their season came to an end when they fell 10-1 to Los Molinos in the NorCal Division-5 playoffs, but afterwards head coach Lisa Todd expressed her admiration for her players and what they accomplished in the face of adversity.

“I’m proud of these girls,” the three-time North Coast Section winning coach said. “They worked hard all year and it showed in the end of the season.

“I felt like we basically started from scratch this year. They didn’t play last year and they needed time to work together, and some of the players hadn’t played much softball at all.”

The South Fork players embraced the challenge and it paid off when they were crowed NCS champs 12 days ago after a 12-1 win over California School for the Deaf in the championship game.

“It took a lot of hard work on both sides — players and coaches — but in the end I feel the hard work paid off,” Todd added. “And they left the field today a little down the way they ended, but proud of how far they came as a team.”

Senior Caidence Young and freshman Mackenzie Coleman each finished 1-for-3 with a double in the loss, while freshman Anora Blackwell was 1-for-2.

Raevyn Reveles also was 1-for-3 and Makenzie Brewer was 0-for-2 with a walk.

Senior Cloe McConnell took the loss in the circle, allowing four walks and striking out five in her final high school game.

Caidence Young

Cloe McConnell

The players were coming off a productive week of practice and had played well defensively in their first two postseason games.

However, facing the Bulldogs was always going to be a tough challenge.

“I knew it was going to be tough competition for us,” Todd said. “But in our last two NCS games our defense had played the best they had all year.

“At practice they had worked hard all week and were more motivated than ever to keep going. I was confident we would have another great game.”

The Bulldogs to their credit took advantage of any South Fork miscues on their way to the comfortable victory and would score runs in five of the seven innings.

The win sets up a NorCal semifinal showdown against Christopher High out of Gilroy.

The Cubs close out the season with a record of 9-13, but with just three seniors on this year’s team the future appears bright for the team.

Elyssa Grady

Raevyn Reveles