The Denair High School softball team has reached uncharted territory.

On Thursday afternoon, the Coyotes strung together their second straight 10-run mercy-rule postseason win in the 2025 CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII bracket to advance to their first section title game in program history. 

It wasn’t quite the 30-run marathon that was Tuesday's win against Elliot Christian, but the No. 2 Coyotes displayed similar dominance, cruising 13-3 in six innings against No. 6 Vacaville Christian in Thursday’s semifinal contest.

The Coyotes, now 14-9 overall on the season, will face the top seed in the division, Foresthill (10-5), who are coming off a 19-17 shootout against No. 5 Valley Christian of Roseville in the semifinal contest on the other side of the bracket. The battle for the blue banner will take place Saturday at 1 p.m. from the Modesto Junior College softball stadium, located at the corner of E and F streets within the institution’s West Campus.

“It’s an amazing accomplishment,” said head coach Andy Dayton. “None of this is possible without my coaching staff, my right-hand man, Coach (Chad) Boucher, and the players. The players are the ones on the field making the plays, and they’ve stayed focused, gotten better as the year has gone on, and it’s paying off, and I’m so proud of them.”

Taking the mound for her second straight postseason start was his daughter, Makayla, who shook the jitters from earlier in the week to keep the Falcon bats quiet, allowing just the three runs on seven hits and two walks, to clinch their spot in this weekend’s championship game. She consistently induced weak groundouts and a handful of infield popouts.

“I feel like I was more accurate and I wasn't leaning over with my pitches, and I was actually releasing where I should release that,” Dayton said of her mechanical adjustments. “Another big thing was the stress level. I wasn't so stressed like on Tuesday with the 10-10 score. When we got ahead early, I was just more calm.”

Behind her, the Denair defense also made just two errors compared to the six on Tuesday. A two and a half-hour practice Wednesday with an emphasis on their fielding turned out to be effective.

Dayton allowed one run in the third inning and the other two in the fourth, but as the ace pitcher alluded to, she received plenty of run support, and at that point was already an 8-3 game.

In the middle of all the scoring was fellow senior Havyn Boucher. The shortstop led all batters with four hits and three RBI. She happened to score the first and final runs of the game on wild pitches.

Boucher’s first score came in the first inning, and was followed by junior Braelyn Marroquin scoring on an error. Fellow junior Cloey Ellerd made it a 3-0 game with an RBI single in the second inning.

Marroquin came to bat again in the third, where she had an RBi single to make it 4-1 and kickstart the biggest rally of the game. After two walks and a hit batter, pinch runner Grace Alvarez scurried home from third on a passed ball before Boucher drove in a sixth run on a single. Junior Daisy Rosas then worked a bases loaded walk, with Ellerd capping off the inning by scoring on a passed ball. 

Another error scored sophomore Kenzie Prine in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 9-3. Marroquin struck again in the fifth frame with an RBI groundout.

Boucher’s loudest hit came in the sixth, as she smacked a roaring double over the head of the VC center fielder to drive in Alvarez and Ellerd. A steal of third set up her game-ending dash to the plate.

Prior to Dayton taking over as head coach, the program had not won more than three games in a season in 17 years. They went 8-12 in 2024.

“I’m really glad to see this happening,” Makayla said. “I feel like this puts a good look on our team and gets a lot of people to realize, ‘Oh, Denair is actually a winning community. They're not just a small school with a long losing streak.’ And it shows people that softball is coming around. They can see the talent and what it really is all about out here and where we come from.”

Softball is, indeed, coming around in Denair, with the fields on the school’s campus also accommodating the fast-growing Turlock National Little League softball program in which many of the players have participated in.

On Saturday, the Coyotes will have to balance many emotions. At the forefront is the magnitude and intensity of a section championship game. In the back of the minds of players, coaches and families is that, regardless of the result, it will be the last game of the season, as the CIF NorCal Regional Tournament does not include teams from Division VII.

“Stay focused and stay rested and stay strong,” said the Denair skipper. “That’s the message.”

Division I

After a hot start  to their opening game of the Division I bracket on Wednesday, No. 16 Turlock couldn’t mount the offensive firepower of top-seeded Del Oro, falling by an 11-1 score.

That quick start came courtesy of Cadee Campbell and Karley Wool.  Campbell led off the game with a bunt single, advanced to second on a passed ball and came around to score on an RBI single by Wool.

They seemed poised to add on after a fielding error to put runners on the corner before a double play ended the inning, and it was Golden Eagles from there.

Del Oro scored 11 unanswered runs on seven hits (including three home runs), two walks and a pair of Turlock errors to advance to the quarterfinals.

The Bulldogs’ season comes to a close at 12-16 overall.

Division V

Down in the D-5 bracket, Hughson advanced to the quarterfinal round with a 4-3 win over the Ben Holt College Prep Academy of Stockton on Wednesday. It was a contest in which the No. 8 Huskies took advantage of a costly error by the No. 9 Bobcats in the fourth inning that scored Peyton Moring.

It was a back-and-forth affair early, with the Bobcats striking first in the opening inning. Emma Carne tied things up on an RBI groundout in the second. The Huskies scored their next two runs the following frame with a pair f sacrifice-flies from Madison Colins and Grace Leedom.

Kylie Tangney pitched a complete game for the Huskies, allowing the three runs on six hits and punching out a game-high 13.

Friday’s quarterfinal against top-seeded Casa Roble  was less eventful on the Hughson side, as they were held to just three hits, with no baserunners advancing past first.

The Huskies season ends at 15-9-1.

Division VI

Hilmar opened the D-6 bracket with a thrilling 8-7 win in walk-off fashion over Summerville on Wednesday before being eliminated by Colfax by a 9-6 score on Friday.

The hero Wednesday for the No. 5 Yellowjackets was Emma Gomes, whose sac-fly scored Maribel Moreno in the home half of the eighth. The extra innings were forced by the Yellowjackets in the seventh when Gomes had another sac-fly and Paetyn Pajela had a two-out, two-run single to tie the game at seven.

Sophie Stivers was on the mound for all the action, earning the win in her complete-game outing.

The senior pitched another 4 1/3 innings in the Friday loss, a game that the Falcons led for all seven innings, while she had two base hits and contributed two runs to the effort. Camryn Mattos led Hilmar hitters with a pair of RBI.

The Yellowjackets’ season wrapped up at 11-12.