South City falls in CCS Division V softball finals

The 95-degree temperature did not agree with the girls from cooler-climate South San Francisco, but that didn’t stop starting pitcher Sydney Semans from going the distance. The sophomore right-hander battled through two five-run innings in the third and sixth, and kept the Warriors in it until the game got away from them on the scoreboard in the late innings.

“One thing about my sister is she never gives up,” said Shiloh Semans, South City’s senior catcher and Sydney Semans’ older sister. “And her love for the sport of softball is really strong.”

The Semans sisters have been battery mates all season, and teamed for every pitch thrown through the Division V tournament as South City (16-9) advanced via two mercy-rule victories — 16-1 over No. 7 Design Tech in last Tuesday’s opener, and 11-1 over No. 3 Soledad on Thursday.

With Shiloh Semans one of three seniors on this year’s squad, it will be strange to see Sydney Semans pitching to someone else next season.

“It will be a little weird — right?” South City head coach Dana Donnenwirth said. “That dynamic of sister-sister in the battery has definite pluses. They know how to try to bring each other up and get the most out of each other, or give each other a really hard time. So, we get both sides. But it will be weird not seeing Shiloh behind the dish for us.”

King City’s 11-run, 15-hit output didn’t do South City’s sophomore hurler justice. The Warriors were very much in it heading into the sixth inning trailing 6-3, when an infield single, a hit batsman and an outfield error put the King City offense in motion.

“They were definitely the better team today,” Donnenwirth said. “But our team was in it the whole time.”

The backbreaker for South City was a questionable safe call on a force play at second base.

With runners at first and second and one out, King City No. 3 hitter Jocelyn Romero topped a two-hopper to shortstop Madyson Jade Quintanilla, who tossed to second baseman Kadence Yip for what looked to be a routine force out of Avery Munoz for the second out of the inning. Munoz was rewarded for her base-running hustle, though, as she was called safe on the bang-bang play.

“From my angle, it just looked like the slide came a little later than Kadence stretching from second,” Donnenwirth said. “So, from our vantage point it looked like an out. They did check and kind of confirmed and kept with the safe call. And we weren’t able to quite get out of that inning as quickly as we wanted to after that.”

King City went on to send 10 batters to the plate amid a five-run rally to take the game in hand.

“We were in there for a lot of the game,” Donnenwirth said, “It was a big inning, for us, away from getting back into it. But their pitcher was just lights out today, and their defense were making the plays. And their offense was great today.

Munoz proved a force of nature in all three phases of the game. In addition to her impact base-running play, she was 2 for 3 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored at the plate. All her exploits on offense, however, took a backseat to the two defensive gems she turned in patrolling center field.

While only one CCS pitcher has been able to contain Quintanilla this season, Munoz proved to be the only effective neutralizer against South City’s standout freshman. Quintanilla was 1 for 4 on the day, including a frozen-rope single to leadoff the bottom of the first to spark a two-run Warriors inning.

In what turned out to be Quintanilla’s final two at-bats of the season, however, Munoz robbed her of two hits with her defensive brilliance. In the fifth, with the Warriors trailing by four, Quintanilla led off with a booming fly ball to deep center field, but Munoz ran it down while crashing into the 200-foot sign posted on the center field wall to save extra bases. In the sixth, with one run in and two runners on for South City, Quintanilla connected for sinking low-line laser to center, but Munoz got a remarkable first step and gloved it with an all-out dive to retire the side.

“Saved two runs on that occasion,” Donnenwirth said. “So, the center fielder came up big for King’s City there.”

King City senior Raylie Moore paced all hitters in the game with three hits. Sydney Semans, Maggie Bergesen and Keira Crutchfield led the Warriors with two hits apiece.

The loss brings an end to the historic run for South City. The program had never won a CCS playoff game prior to this season. The 2025 Warriors won two. For the team’s three seniors — Bergesen, Shiloh Semans and Anahi Espinoza, it’s a journey that began when they arrived as varsity freshmen in 2022.

“We had no idea what to expect,” Shiloh Semans said. “But the seniors at the time really welcomed us, and it was a great experience. We continued all four years and we’ve got really close bonds.”

The team middled in the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division for three seasons, and was coming off a disappointing 4-18 overall record in 2024. This year, with the establishment of the PAL Lake Division as the PAL’s third-tier “C” league, and a promising 8-5 non-league record, the Warriors enjoyed a big turnaround.

“Last season we just talked about getting better every day, because we had a lot of youth and new players,” Donnenwirth said. “This year, with some additional talent, and then building on last year, we were talking about attitude and effort for these girls every practice. ... Those are the two things you can control, and I think they kind of took that to heart, and we pushed them.”

The addition of Quintanilla was the big splash, as the freshman led all PAL hitters, throughout all three divisions, with a .649 batting average.

“She’s come in and stepped into the leadoff role, getting on base at a crazy clip, stealing bases, just putting pressure on the other team right away,” Donnenwirth said. “And then defensively, she’s been a lockdown shortstop for us, just making all sorts of plays to take those extra outs away from teams. And that’s been huge for us.”