Aragon goes ‘Big’ in rivalry ‘Big Game’ softball win over Hillsdale

While the Aragon offense took the Big Game moniker literally, powering to a big night with a 12-2 mercy-rule victory, the team’s two seniors Destiny Garcia and Elizabeth Magness relished the postgame atmosphere at Beresford Park. It’s the site where they were once tee-ball teammates with the San Mateo Youth Softball Association Bumblebees.

“This is a full-circle moment for us, playing on the same field we started on,” Magness said.

With the Big Game celebrating its 35th anniversary this season, the event is still one of the best draws in town. From the first-rate public address work of Deke Shelton, music and sound effects by Freddie Sierra, to both teams celebrating Senior Night, hundreds were in attendance, including scores of youngsters, many wearing their various softball and baseball uniforms — the up-and-comers among generations of San Mateans surrounding the diamond with its expansive 360-degree vantage points.

It made for one fun night at the yard.

“These are my favorite games of the year,” said Eryn McCoy, who went 4-0 in the Big Game as a Hillsdale pitcher from 2013-16, and now serves as head coach at her alma mater. McCoy is also a former Beresford softball upstart, who began her playing days in tee-ball with the SMYSA Dragonflies.

“It makes your feel like you’re playing in a college atmosphere as a high schooler, which is super cool,” she said. “And you get to remember being a rec-ball player for SMYSA and watching the game, and you get to be the big kid, which was also super fun. And it still translates. Even coaching it, I get a little extra hyped.”

Aragon graduate and former head coach of the Lady Dons, Christie McCoy, threw out the honorary first pitch. McCoy is Big Game royalty, as her mother Linda McCoy helped found the game.

“It’s such an honor to have this as part of the Big Game because she was the creator of the Big Game,” Christie McCoy said. “So, it’s a neat honor. I know she would be thrilled. She’d probably be very humbled by it. ... My mom knew so many of the people that were here. A lot of these families in the outfield have been here for 35 years.”

In the fourth year since Linda’s death in 2022, the game’s top player is bestowed with the Linda McCoy Big Game Player of the Game trophy. Aragon sophomore Makayla Hafoka earned the fourth annual award. Hafoka recorded a double for one of the Dons’ 12 hits, while shining in the circle. The right-hander set down the first nine batters she faced before going the distance, allowing two runs on two hits in the shortened six-inning complete game.

Aragon’s offensive thunder was the show, though. As is no secret, the Dons (9-4 PAL Bay, 16-10 overall) have been raking all season, batting .359 as a team. Each of the top three batters in their lineup — junior Taylor Workman, sophomore Aliyah Adle and sophomore Chloe Wan — reached base four times. Workman paced the Dons with four RBIs, Adle had three RBIs, and cleanup hitter Natalie Jia added three RBIs, including a sacrifice fly in the sixth to give Aragon a decisive 10-run lead.

“My players were pumped up to play in this game from the first pitch,” Aragon head coach Liz Roscoe said. “They came out diving and sliding and smashing. So, they wanted this. They were pumped.”

Hillsdale junior Liana Mack broke up Hafoka’s perfect game with a leadoff single in the fourth. Senior Sophia Shelton followed with a single, Mia DeMartini and Taylor O’Mahony each drove in runs.

Aragon’s win snaps a three-game losing streak in the annual rivalry going back to 2023. Garcia played in the last two, including Hillsdale’s 2-1 victory in a nine-inning extra-inning marathon last season.

“It’s because last year we really had it, and I think that tie ballgame for like nine innings just really motivated us to really start early,” Garcia said.

With the win, third-place Aragon moves to within one game of first-place Hillsdale (10-3, 16-9) in the PAL Bay Division standings. Second-place San Mateo is a half game back of first. San Mateo has two games left to play against Carlmont and Capuchino. Aragon is still mathematically alive in the title race with one game remaining against the King’s Academy. Hillsdale closes the regular season Tuesday at Mills.

“It was an important one that we could have helped secure first place,” Eryn McCoy said. “But you never know what’s going to happen next week. They still have two games. We have one. So, we’re just going to come back and fight on Tuesday, and hope for the best.”

Still, it was an emotional night with the 2025-26 school year winding down. During the pregame ceremony, Roscoe gave an especially touching tribute to Magness, a senior who never took softball seriously until she surprisingly made the varsity team as a freshman in 2023.

“I never expected softball to become such a big part of my life,” Magness said. “I’d never played travel ball or anything before I started here at Aragon. I played rec for fun. Came in as a freshman, somehow got on varsity because we didn’t have JV. And then I was able to maintain that spot for four years. I worked really hard, and Liz is a great coach who’s always believed in me and brought me up to be a better player than I ever thought I could be. And I’m really grateful to her for that.”