SARATOGA, Calif – San Mateo triumphed over Palomar 7-4, earning the 2025 3C2A Softball State Championship title at West Valley College, May 18, 2025.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The tournament's Most Valuable Player Nohemi Livingston did it on both sides of the ball, allowing two earned runs in the circle and driving in a pair of runs at the plate. She ends the 2025 campaign with a 1.00 ERA, 141 strikeouts and a .352 batting average.
Palomar broke through in the bottom of the second to take an early lead. With the bases loaded and two away, Josephine Heuberger hit a fly ball to left that went in and out of Taija Warren's glove, resulting in two Comet runs. San Mateo starting pitcher Nohemi Livingston got a fly ball to left two batters later to end the Palomar half of the second.
Livingston got those runs back immediately in the third. With two runners in scoring position and two away, the pitcher blooped a single just over the outstretched glove of Heuberger at second base to draw the score back even.
Carrying momentum from a clean bottom of the third, San Mateo erupted for a three-spot in the fourth.
All tournament long, the Bulldogs' base running has caused fits for opposing infielders. They took extra bases on two occasions – nabbing second base on fielder's choice plays at home plate, keeping force outs off the field and runners in scoring position.
Nia Mapa and Emma Kinder came up with big hits in the inning, Mapa an RBI double to left and Kinder a single through the six hole to plate the inning's third run.
Ale Phillips came up with another big Bulldog knock in the fifth. With the bases loaded and two away, Phillips worked a full count and fouled off a pair of tough pitches from Madison Bedolla. Phillips took the eighth pitch of the at bat up the middle to score a pair of Bulldogs.
In the bottom of the sixth, Palomar cut the lead to three. Another two-out knock, Alexis Huey with the single to left scored Breanna Lutz and Heuberger.
After the Bulldogs went down quietly in the top of the seventh, Palomar had a chance to extend its season. The Comets got early life in the inning when Taylor Armstrong reached on an error, but Livingston dug deep to retire the next three Comets, including the SoCal Player of the Year and Best Hitter of the Tournament honoree, Lutz to end the game.
San Mateo earns its program's second State Championship and the college's second in four seasons – the Bulldogs won it all in 2022, beating Sierra 8-1 in a winner-take-all game.
Palomar's season ends at 44-5. The Comets made it all the way out of the loser's bracket to force a rematch with San Mateo after they fell 4-2 in the tourney opener.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER – Nohemi Livingston, College of San Mateo
MOST VALUABLE PITCHER – Nevaeh Haywood, Palomar College
GOLD GLOVE – Nalia Nuanez, Palomar College
BEST HITTER – Breanna Lutz, Palomar College
Catcher – Love Cabanas, College of San Mateo
Catcher – Isabella DeFillippis, Palomar College
Catcher – Makayla Villapando, West Valley College
First Base – Zoe Karam, Palomar College
Infield – Katelyn Bridgeman, Modesto Junior College
Infield – Cici Kim, College of San Mateo
Infield – Cheyenne Navarro, El Camino College
Infield – Josephine Heuberger, Palomar College
Infield – Olivia Pedraza, Orange Coast College
Outfield – Rylee Gillespie, Yuba College
Outfield – Ale Phillips, College of San Mateo
Outfield – Jackie Ordonez, El Camino College
Outfield – Alexis Huey, Palomar College
Utility – Keithleen Gonzalez, College of San Mateo
Pitcher – Lexi Ramirez, El Camino College
Pitcher – Dani Sanchez, Orange Coast College
Pitcher – Danni Farris, Yuba College