College of San Mateo softball, Skyline baseball continue their playoff marches

Skyline, on the other hand, advanced to the second round for only the first time since 2004 after the fifth-ranked Trojans swept a pair of games from Modesto last weekend.

But both teams are now in the second round and two wins away from moving into the state championship bracket. CSM will host 9th-seeded Sacramento City College in a best-of-three series this weekend. Game 1 is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday, with Game 2 set for noon Saturday. If the teams split, a third game will be played a half hour after Game 2.

Skyline will be on the road at No. 4 Feather River in Quincy beginning at 1 p.m. Friday and Saturday. If necessary, the teams will meet in a Game 3 at 1 p.m. Sunday.

For the Lady Bulldogs, the 2022 season has kind of been a reset. CSM has advanced to the state tournament seven straight times, from 2013 to 2019, but only once advancing to the championship series. They fell to Palomar on the last game of the 2015 season.

But with COVID-19 shutting down both the 2020 and 2021 seasons, CSM head coach Nicole Quigley-Borg said the team’s excitement has been building.

“I think the coaches know what it feels like to be in this round,” Quigley-Borg said. “For the players, it’s another tough game for them. They’re excited. It’s a very exciting feeling to know there is more to come.

“(Playing) games motivates players.”

CSM will be facing a Sac City team that finished fourth in the Big 8 Conference — arguably the best conference, top to bottom, in Northern California. In fact, the only Nor Cal team to beat the Bulldogs this season, Sierra topped the Bulldogs 2-1 Feb. 29, won the Big 8 Conference title this season.

That loss to Sierra was the last time the Bulldogs were on the short end of the scoreboard as they have won 29 straight since then.

While the Bulldogs did not play the Panthers this season, they did go 8-1 against the Big 8 Conference this season.

“I try to play as many Big 8 teams as possible,” Quigley-Borg said. “You’re going to get good competition.”

And while Quigley-Borg did not want to go into a specific game plan against Sac City, she did acknowledge that the Panthers have a solid program. The Panthers’ offense is ranked 16th in the state, with a team batting average of .335 and has an OPS of .906.

“They’re a solid team. They have really strong hitters,” Quigley-Borg said. “[The Sacramento area has] competitive high schools and definitely a lot more travel-ball teams in that area. … They’re playing year-round softball.”

CSM will try to contain those big bats with two of the most effective pitchers in Northern California — Kealani Cardona, a 2019 Hillsdale graduate who is in her third season with the Bulldogs, and Chloe Moffitt, a 2020 Half Moon Bay grad, who is in her second season.

A head coach could not have asked for more from a pitching staff. Cardona is 18-2 in 106 innings pitched, while Moffitt is a perfect 19-0 in 94 innings. They started all but two of the Bulldogs’ games this season.

Cardona and Moffitt have been the driving force behind a pitching staff that has posted the best ERA in the state of 1.07. The 152 hits allowed was the third-best in the state and 37 earned runs allowed is tops in the state as well.

For a team that has struggled in the past to find one front-line hurler, having two is almost an embarrassment of riches for Quigley-Borg.

“We genuinely have a pitching staff,” Quigley-Borg said. “My goal was to have two No. 1s. To have kids who could go any given day. It’s pretty rare at this level (to have two strong starting pitchers). COVID did some nasty things … but we have Kealani for a third year because of COVID. That was a blessing in disguise.”

While CSM would be considered the favorite this weekend, Skyline goes into its series with Feather River as the underdog. But the Trojans are riding high on a nine-game winning streak.

“Honestly, I don’t know (what are winning streak is). I haven’t been paying attention. We’ve had our ups and downs this year, just like anyone else,” said Skyline’s first-year manager Tony Brunicardi, a 200x Burlingame graduate. “The boys are ready. They’re enjoying the journey.”

That journey began at 10 a.m. Thursday, when Skyline boarded a bus for Quincy, which sits at an elevation of nearly 3,500 feet and Brunicardi did a double take when he received a picture from the Feather River manager Monday.

“He sent me a picture of their field, completely covered in snow Monday,” Brunicardi said. “But we got here [Thursday] and not a cloud in the sky and a nice 70 degrees.”

A nearly five-hour bus ride was made longer by road construction. The team arrived at the Feather River field late Thursday afternoon, got in a nearly two-hour practice and checked into the hotel just before 7 p.m.

Feather River won the Golden Valley Conference championship this season, going 23-2 in conference play and 34-9 overall. The Golden Eagles needed three games to get out of their first-round playoff series against Cosumnes River. They won the opener 7-4, but dropped Game 2 8-6 to force the winner-take-all Game 3, with Feather River advancing with a 9-3 win.

Like CSM softball, Skyline did not square off against their second-round opponent, but the Trojans had a tremendous amount of success against the conference as a whole this season. They swept three games from both Butte and Shasta, and took 2 of 3 from Lassen — those teams finished second, fourth and third, respectively, in the Golden Valley standings.

Skyline will rely on a pitching staff that leads the state with a 2.72 ERA, led by Aragon grad Conor Hourigan, whose 10 wins are tied for fourth-best in the state this season.