ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - The Delta League softball season began this past Wednesday with many teams bringing back familiar faces, while new ones are looking to emerge as new stars.

The fight for the Delta League title now includes two new teams while the reigning champs are turning a page with a new head coach. 

The Pleasant Grove Eagles are looking to repeat as Delta League champions, although with a change at the head coach position as 2024 Delta League coach of the year, Brian Cherry is now listed as an assistant coach while Ryan Bigley, an assistant coach last season, is now the head coach, according to MaxPreps. 

Bigley was not available for comment, but the Eagles played their first Delta League opponent this past Wednesday against the Elk Grove Thundering Herd at home. 

At the time of publication, the Eagles hold a 2-1 record.

It’s a much younger roster this year. The Eagles graduated 12 seniors last season while this year they field only three seniors, according to their MaxPreps roster. 

One of the seniors is team captain, infielder, right-handed pitcher and 2024 Delta League player of the year, Madeline Lawson, who posted a .368 batting average with 16 RBIs including three home runs. In the circle, she also posted a .85 ERA with 147 strikeouts across 107.2 innings pitched. 

The other ten roster spots are made up of five juniors, two sophomores and a freshman. 

The Thundering Herd are coming off a season where they finished second in the Delta League and a semifinal round exit in the playoffs.  

Thundering Herd head coach Amanda Buck was not available for comment. 

At the time of publication, they hold a 5-6 record and have suffered losses against top teams like Rocklin, Del Oro, Davis and Lodi. 

Despite the team’s youth – they have 11 underclassmen compared to three seniors and two juniors – the bats have responded with freshman Izianah Castillo hitting .429 with a home run and five RBIs along with sophomore Ryann Wolfe who’s hitting .324 with six RBIs. 

A senior bat making an impact on the Herd is Jadyn Magnuson with a .455 batting average with two home runs and 8 RBIs. 

On the pitching side, sophomore Kaylee Buck is now the veteran of the staff after pitching 90.2 innings last season; she leads a trio anchored by two freshmen. Those two freshmen have jumped out to a strong start. Rachel Williams has a 1.09 ERA in 25.2 innings pitched while Ella Lincoln has a 1.40 ERA in 30 innings. 

Their Delta League opener came in an away game against the Pleasant Grove Eagles this past Wednesday. 

For the first time in 27 seasons, the Huskies will have a head coach not named Mary Jo Truesdale.

He’s not exactly a new face. 

After nearly two decades as an assistant behind Truesdale, incoming head coach Joe Jaquez will look to lead Sheldon up the Delta League standings, after the Huskies finished in fourth place in league play with a 7-5 record (15-13 overall). 

“Pretty big shoes to fill,” Jaquez said. “I had the luxury of coaching with her for 18 years so understanding what Sheldon’s about and being able to carry on the legacy that she built is just a huge honor.”

At the beginning of the season, Jaquez broke down to his players his approach to the softball season. Or as Jaquez puts it, three seasons: pre-season, Delta League and playoffs. 

“I think breaking it up in small parts like that gives us an opportunity to really focus on what’s at hand instead of making it all just one long season,” Jaquez said.  

Jaquez has the luxury of retaining their two pitchers from last season who he considers the best 1-2 punch in the area in junior Kwinci Brown and sophomore Micah Kennedy.  This season, Brown has posted a 2.31 ERA with three wins in 33.1 innings pitched while Kennedy has posted a 1.48 ERA with three wins in 23.2 innings pitched. 

Brown’s performance has led them to a 6-3 record at the time of publication.

“Pitching is always crucial, and these two young ladies are phenomenal, they’re a great tandem,” Jaquez said.

Kennedy is leading the team in batting average with .571 with a home run and eight RBIs, senior Madison Chapman is batting .483 and sophomore Madison Cloward is batting .400. 

The Huskies have produced runs in bunches with Brown leading the team in RBIs with 10 and freshman Regan Wise and senior Nicole Camacho Vasquez have nine RBIs. 

As an offense, the Huskies have put up 63 runs through nine games. 

“I think we’re going to be strong throughout the lineup and I think the long ball is going to be a luxury for us,” Jaquez said. “We love it when it happens? Yes. Are we going to rely on it? No. Our intention is to hit the ball hard and let it go where it needs to.” 

After starting the 2023 season going 15-0 before their first loss, the Wildcats took a step back last season finishing 10-17. 

The bounce back season is in full force. 

The Wildcats enter league play with their second-best start in program history with an 8-1 record through their first nine games. 

“Coming into this season, we learned from last year and a couple of players are still in the program from that team (2023), so it wasn’t like we haven’t won before in the last couple of years,” third-year head coach Jon Gudel said. 

Gudel said last season’s performance was due to their pitching not holding up in games that were close against quality opponents. 

Now they have freshman pitcher Leilani Garcia and junior pitcher Sophie Valdez leading the way for the Wildcats within the circle. The current group’s mix of senior leadership and youthful energy is exciting to watch, Gudel said. 

“I honestly don’t know where we would be without her (Garcia) right now. Her poise as a freshman has been a huge asset to this team,” Gudel said. “She (Valdez) came up and got a lot of varsity experience last year and that’s showing some dividends for her this year. She’s pitching a lot of important innings for us as well so we’re going to need her down the stretch.”

At the time of publication, Garcia has a 6-2 record with a 3.75 ERA in 12 appearances across 61.2 innings while Valdez holds a 2-1 record with a 3.79 ERA in seven appearances across 20.1 innings.

The senior leadership Gudel mentions includes players like Micayla Arlotto, committed to Cal Poly, with a .396 batting average with 16 RBIs; Ashley Fields, committed to Vanguard University, with a .306 batting average with seven RBIs and Addison Meddings, committed to Stanislaus State, with a .278 batting average with 10 RBIs. 

“Last year was difficult at times and to see how those returning players regrouped and improved throughout the offseason and gotten better, it’s showing early in the season,” Gudel said. 

The Wildcats are facing quality opponents early in the season as they’ve beaten Woodcreek, ranked eleventh in the section, Granite Bay, ranked twelfth in the section, and Lodi, ranked fourteenth in the section, according to MaxPreps.

Additionally, the Wildcats lost in extra innings by a score of 4-3 to the second-best team in the section in the Oak Ridge Trojans, according to MaxPreps. 

“I think we’ve built a non-conference schedule that will hopefully prepare us for league play and hopefully get us into the playoffs,” Gudel said. 

So far, the weakness for the Wildcats has been the ability to make the routine defensive play, Gudel said.

Other players that Gudel mentioned that have contributed to this close-knit group are juniors Leah Pham with a .385 batting average with a home run, Kayly Wood with a .333 batting average also with a home run and Hayleigh Gudel with a .304 batting average 

Gudel said the Wildcats are a top team in the area but will go out onto the diamond to prove it and they have their first chance to do that on Friday against the Sheldon Huskies in their Delta League opener. 

Despite an 0-12 Delta League record (7-16 overall), the Wolfpack’s first-year head coach Celina Avina isn’t putting much thought into the 2024 season. 

“We just keep moving forward,” Avina said. “We don’t really talk about last season, so we just keep working hard. We have a lot of talent so it’s just basically figuring out where everybody is going to play and just keep a positive mindset.” 

That talent has been put on display through their first few games as they hold a 2-1 record thanks to a young core that includes nine underclassmen. 

“They’re getting along really great right now,” Avina said. “I think everyone understands that they’re going to work hard, and they want to have a good season, so the younger girls are answering the call right now so it’s really exciting.” 

The impact players for the Wolfpack include senior Onna Swanigan who holds a .750 batting average with five RBIs, junior Sarah Fleishman with a .300 batting average with four RBIs and sophomore Mya Wilson with a .500 batting average with five RBIs.

The Wolfpack’s first test in the Delta League was the Laguna Creek Cardinals this past Wednesday. 

The other local team who was crowned as league champions last season were the Cardinals but in the Metro League. 

As the newest members of the Delta League, they look to have similar success. 

“We are excited to be in the Delta League,” head coach Travis Wardlaw said. “We are coming off back-to-back league championships in the Metro League so this will be year one for us back in the Delta. We are excited to play with what I always call ‘the big kids.’”

Wardlaw also said that it will be a challenging season as the Delta is a strong league top to bottom.

The Cardinals graduated seven seniors last season, leading to a much younger squad in 2025; 10 of the 15 players on this roster are underclassmen. 

“We’re very young, but talented,” Wardlaw said. “They’re so young that they don’t know what they don’t know so that’s the pro and the con so there’s going to be some growing pains.”

The youth hasn’t hindered their performance as they sit at a 5-1 record at the time of publication. Wardlaw said almost the entire group plays travel softball, indicating the players are focused fully on softball. 

“There’s some kids in the past that the season would end in May and wouldn’t pick up a softball until tryouts in February,” Wardlaw said. “This is not that group so they’re playing softball year-round and they have a high softball IQ.” 

That young core of players has emerged at the plate for the Cardinals as the top three team leaders in batting average are freshmen. 

Azariah Maddox currently has a .579 batting average, Teiran Norvell has a .700 batting average and Kate Saxton leads the Cardinals with a .737 batting average with a team leading 14 hits in 19 at-bats. 

Wardlaw said Norvell is at the bottom of the lineup as the Cardinals know she will get on base to be able to flip the lineup over to someone like Maddox who leads the team in RBIs with 13. 

Junior shortstop Mia Gonzalez led the team in batting average last season with .478 and was tied for the lead in hits with 33. So far this season, Gonzalez has a .300 batting average with six RBIs.

On the pitching side, it’s been two main players who’ve racked up most of the innings: senior Jazmine Johnson and sophomore Claire Hart.

“They’re very different pitchers,” Wardlaw said. “Jasmine throws hard and can blow it by you while Claire, she’ll be the first to admit, she will not throw it by you, but she will force you to offer at the pitch because she locates well.”

The Cardinals as of this week will have sophomore Nikiya Jumpingbull, a transfer from Elk Grove, available to pitch. Wardlaw said Jumpingbull locates well and has six pitches in her arsenal.

Wardlaw and the Cardinals will attempt to win three consecutive league championships but this time in the Delta League. Their first opponent in the league were the Cosumnes Oaks Wolfpack this past Wednesday. 

The Mustangs were just a win away from their first league title and made their first playoff appearance in program history as a member of the Metro League last season.

Now a member of a new league, head coach Adolfo Coronado and the Mustangs have one goal in mind: win the Delta League. 

“We want to compete and try to win the Delta League title, and I feel like we can,” Coronado said. “Our girls have to understand that just because the name on their chest is what it is, I train our girls to not fear anybody. We can all play to a high level, and we’ve already played a couple of tough teams.”

Currently, the Mustangs hold a 3-4 record, but the start is not clouding their run at a historic season. 

“We’re trying to make history,” Coronado said. “Being in the Delta League for the first time in a long time, I don’t think we’ve ever beat any of those teams (Delta League teams). We’re going to be competitive this year and it’s fun to see Monterey Trail High School out there with a strong softball team.”

Coronado has a lot of experienced players coming back who were a part of the historic season last year which saw them fall in the first round of playoffs to a historically good team in the Sheldon Huskies. 

“They’re really bought in this year and they’re a lot older so they’re playing with a little bit more hunger so I’m excited about that,” Coronado said. 

A strength for the Mustangs is their pitching. They’re led by juniors Sophia Coronado and Maya Ewing; the former holds a 1.81 ERA in seven appearances while Ewing holds a .68 ERA in three appearances. 

Another impact player for the Mustangs, senior Aniyah Whipper, currently has a .333 batting average with two home runs, but Coronado said that overall, it will take effort from everyone on the team to have a successful season
. 

“Our team is grinders, we work hard,” Coronado said. “We’re not known for softball but this team is going to compete, they’re going to be really good this year and we just want to be respected as a softball team in the Delta League.”

The Mustangs’ first Delta League game was on Wednesday against the Sheldon Huskies, which eliminated them from playoffs last season.