Prep softball: Dixon downs Marysville to win program’s first section crown
What a year it has been for girls’ sports at Dixon High School.
It’s been a year of firsts. In the fall, the girls’ water polo team raised its first Sac-Joaquin Section banner. The basketball team followed with its first championship in the winter. And Saturday at Sacramento City College on Saturday, the Rams’ softball team completed the trifecta for the spring season with a 10-8 win over Marysville to earn its first section crown in program history.
There has been a common denominator among all three championship teams for Dixon: senior Brianna Humphries.
Humphries was the goalkeeper for the water polo team, which outlasted Ripon in the finals. She then led the basketball team with 16.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game and had a 27-point, 16-rebound performance in defeating top-seeded Calaveras. She was named the Bee’s Small School Player of the Year after a 27-4 campaign.
She has since patrolled the shortstop position while hitting .569 with 11 home runs and 45 RBIs for the softball team, leading the Rams to a 22-1-1 record, including a Golden Empire League crown.
“Brianna is just one of those gifted, amazing athletes,” Dixon coach Matt Boykin said. “She’d probably be a No. 1 golfer if she wanted. She’s that talented. Her instinct going after ground balls or fly balls is above what I’ve seen at all different levels. She hits the farthest home runs I’ve seen at the high school level. There’s not enough you can say about her.”
Knee injuries and surgeries kept her from playing softball until her junior year. Doctors advised her to go easy during basketball season, especially after re-tearing the same ACL before her junior year. She didn’t listen. Good thing for the Rams.
“They said no more basketball because I was going to do that collegiately, but then the secondary injury happened and I decided to come back to softball, which was always my first passion,” said Humphries, who is headed to play softball at San Diego Christian College. “I came back and the doctors like you better go easy, you know, like it can happen again. It’s possible, but I honestly kinda didn’t really listen and it hasn’t affected me since, so I pushed through it.”
Another good thing for the Rams.
On Saturday, Humphries continued to be a focal point of a championship drive. The shortstop went 3-for-4, including a two-run double that was part of a six-run second inning that gave Dixon a cushion.
Madi West had a two-run double and Ashley Garcia a run-scoring triple for Dixon. Sac City-bound Lexi Coyle struck out seven while battling Marysville’s Andi Duff, who drove in two runs at the plate, in the circle.
Marysville put up a fight, though. After scoring three runs in the first inning, the Indians fell behind after the big second inning from Dixon. Down 10-4 in the fifth, Marysville kept clawing back.
Senior Sophia Tyler (3-for-4, three runs, three stolen bases, RBI) stole home on a heads up play in the fifth. An opposite-field two-run homer from Michigan-bound junior Jenissa Conway cut the score to 10-7 in the sixth. And Josie Landis doubled in a run in the seventh to make it 10-8.
Marysville loaded the bases before Coyle induced a grounder to third for the final out and the championship.
“I don’t know how many people or schools, even big schools, that do this stuff coming from a small school,” Boykin said. “For those athletes to win three section championships, it’s pretty amazing.”
The Pioneer Valley League champion Marysville (20-5) reached the Division IV section finals for the first time since winning it all in 2000. The Indians’ road to the championship game was not for the faint of heart.
After earning a first-round bye, the Indians needed a walk-off home run from Conway, who homered in all three postseason games, to beat Capital Christian in nine innings. Marysville then won again in walk-off fashion in the semifinals against Orestimba. Down 3-2 with runners on second and third in the bottom of the seventh, Marysville’s squeeze bunt attempt failed as the lead runner was tagged out in a pickle. But on the same play, the Orestimba catcher tried to double up the batter but threw the ball into right field, allowing both remaining Marysville runners to score and end the game in a bizarre finish.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Marysville coach Maurice Clavelle said. “It was like a deja vu moment for me. In my 14 years, I’ve lost on the last play in the semifinals or the ‘if’ game quite a few times on stuff like that.”
This could mark the final season for Clavelle, a 1992 Marysville alum who hinted at stepping away from coaching after a “roller coaster” of a season.
In February, Clavelle received threatening text and voice messages that included “racist and homophobic language” from a parent of a Marysville varsity player. The parent, a Yuba City Unified School District counselor who was reportedly unhappy with his daughter’s position during an early-season scrimmage, was later arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats, hate speech involving threats and carrying a concealed gun in a vehicle, according to the Marysville Police Department.
According to an Appeal Democrat story, the parent pleaded not guilty to the charges on May 17 and is scheduled for a pre-hearing conference June 29.
“It’s been a crazy year,” Clavelle said. “It’s been a roller coaster.”
The ride continues for Dixon as the Rams (22-1-1) now take a crack at the Northern California championship, the first such tournament in state history.
“I really feel that we have a great chance of winning this year for our softball team,” Humphries said. “I’m just excited.”
This story was originally published May 28, 2022 at 2:13 PM.