Requiem for a season: Monterey shocks Dixon in NorCal softball championship game

Players from the Monterey High School softball team piled onto the field at Dixon on Saturday afternoon. The Dores celebrated their 5-1 win over the Rams in the first-ever Northern California Division IV title game.

It was a historic win for an historic team. The softball team was the first girls’ team from Monterey to win a section title in any sport.

Dejected after the game, the Rams hugged and got a little emotional. High school teams never think their season is going to end with a loss, yet it’s the most common experience in sports. Only five teams were crowned NorCal softball champs Saturday; hundreds of teams didn’t make it that far.

Dixon coach Matt Boykin got a little emotional himself hugging his players. The Rams won a Sac-Joaquin Section title and stormed through the NorCal playoffs to reach the finale. But a couple of errors and a litany of base hits in a four-run second inning lifted Monterey to the win.

“They, they came out, they hit the ball hard, and when it wasn’t hard, it found holes,” Boykin said. “That’s part of it. We didn’t get that. They made some good plays. It’s just part of it that happens in this game. It didn’t go our way today, so props to Monterey.”

Monterey coach Michael Royster beamed after the win. His team was seeded eighth in the Central Coast Section playoffs, but Monterey allowed just one run in storming to the first blue banner in girls’ sports history.

Freshman pitcher Ella Myers was solid, allowing just one run on a homer to Dixon star Brianna Humphries. With 12 players sporting batting averages .300 or higher, the lineup produced up and down Saturday. Monterey had five base hits and a walk during its four-run second inning.

The Dores didn’t exactly come out of nowhere to win their titles but they weren’t on a lot of radars when they finished the regular season third in their league.

“We played really good competition and you know, we’ve lost eight games against top teams in the Bay Area,” Royster said. “So, you know, I have faith in everybody. You could never have predicted this. It’s getting that first championship for the softball program. And for all girls’ sports at Monterey High School. It’s huge.”

And he was quick to throw a good word for Dixon, which was playing for history of its own and finished with a 24-2-1 record.

“Awesome season. They’ve got a hardware team,” he said.

The pride Dixon has in its sports and students is evident. The silos in town by the train tracks wear a banner congratulating the graduates. A house just off the main drag through town has a batting cage in the backyard. Amid a lively high school graduation party Saturday afternoon, kids took turns going into the cage to take some hacks.

The high school parking lot still had reams of confetti from the graduation celebration earlier in the day Saturday. There was plenty to celebrate this year in Dixon, including the softball team’s section title. The girls’ water polo and basketball teams both won section titles. And the boys were no slouches either, with winning records in basketball and football.

Sports is simply part of the culture of Dixon.

“These are athletes,” Boykin said. “... There’s multiple girls who play different sports. The best athletes in everything can do multiple sports. I know that everybody’s getting away from it a little bit and doing one sport but, you know, in basketball, you jump, it’s different muscles, and water polo, swimming is different muscles and softball’s different muscles. So kids are coming out a lot stronger. I do like athletes that are multiple-sport athletes.”

That competitive fire bled into how intensely the softball team practiced, Boykin said. The team entered Saturday’s game with a cumulative batting average over .400.

That was no accident, Boykin said.

“They work hard, you know,” he said. “We put a lot of work into our hitting, looking for some really good pitches and it does take talent. We have a lot of talented girls out here.”

And a lot of fans. The top row of the adjacent football stadium had a dozen or more fans watching the softball game. The field was ringed by fans, in rows five or six deep in left center. Boykin said the fan support was tremendous.

It’s that way for all the sports. It helps, Boykin said, that Dixon fans have winning teams to support.

“It’s always been there, but we brought it out a little more with the winning,” he said. “It does that with everything you watch. In the pros, if they lose, no one’s going to the game. But the majority of the people that are here have been there the whole time and we just get a little bit more now when we need to do pretty well.”

That’s why Saturday’s game was something of a shock. It was a whirlwind day for the players. They graduated in the morning. Some had graduation parties; one family rented a hall for a party and they cut it short for the graduate to come to the game.

Following the loss, one Dixon player asked to skip an interview with a reporter. It was just too much to talk about.

Once the emotions were out on the field, the players left the field and it ended the way it really should. Family and friends gave the players a hug. Jokes were made. Smiles started to appear. And families walked out, past the football stadium where graduation was earlier in the day, and into the parking lot still filled with confetti.

This story was originally published June 5, 2022 at 5:00 AM.