Modesto, CA: On Tuesday April 8th, the Pirates will celebrate the season and graduation of our four sophomores. Kaydance Norried, a second year player will graduate and look to transfer for a nursing program in the fall. Kaydance started at shortstop in 2023 every game but has moved to centerfield for the Pirates this season. Jordan Adami - another second year player for the Pirates after transferring from Ohlone College during COVID non-seasons and has been a constant in the outfield Jordan plans to study elementary education. Delaney Huse-Davison transferred after playing a year at Cal State Monterey Bay and has been the lead off hitter all season as well as the starting left fielder. Kaylee Test has another year of softball eligiblity but will graduate from MJC and be able to transfer in the fall for sociology.
The Pirates are not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs right now and are ranked #19 in Northern California's RPI Rating. The top two teams in each conference get automatic berths to the NorCal Playoffs and then RPI will choose the next teams to fill the rest of the spots. The Pirates have been competitive in almost every game this season and have beaten the #3 ranked team as well as the 2nd place Big 8 team to help the RPI.
"When we can compete with the best and even sometimes beat some of the top teams, it shows how far we have come. It has been a slow process, but the Big 8 is not a joke junior college conference. Players graduate from our conference and go to four year schools all the time."
The Pirates depend strongly in Right Handed Pitcher Chloee Hoffman who leads the state in innings pitched, ranked 8th in the state in wins and 5th in the state in strike outs. "We all realize that when you pitch that many innings, there will be fatigue, and she has been solid, even when pitching tired." Hoffman played third base at Gregori High School and didn't even pitch. "Chloee grabbed the ball in late fall and started getting back into pitching, I definitely have to give credit to my daughter Kaytlin for working with our pitchers as well as the hard work Chloee has put in. As good as she is this year, we can't wait to see what she does next season when she has help and doesn't have to pitch practically every inning."
Donaldson began his tenure at MJC in 2020. His first team started at 7-11 before COVID ruined the rest of the season as well as the entire 2021 season when the Pirates only played practice games against schools that were allowed to play.
"That was an odd season, Sacramento schools were only allowed to play within Sacramento, Delta College was prohibited from playing at all so we played Chabot 6 times, Santa Rosa 4 times and whoever could play that season. Nothing offically counted and there was no post season in my first two years."
From 2014 - 2018 the Pirates record was 26 Wins and 159 losses. The last 5 years under Donaldson, the Pirates are 46-86-1 with no games counted in 2021.
"Changing the perception of MJC softball has been the most difficult as a coach, when I first got here, I brought high school players I previously coached as well as some of my former travel ball players. Recruiting others was difficult and many would choose Delta or Merced and avoid MJC. There were just so many losing seasons and run rule losses, players just overlooked the program. That is not always the case now, Delta is the #1 team in NorCal and we lost two close games 3-0 and 2-0. My first year they beat us 11-0 and I knew we had our work cut out for us and realized the difficult conference we were in. We are so close this year and many games just didn't go our way. We are young and have a freshman player in every position in the infield and that looks great for us next season. We need a few more wins in our last 5 games and that would help our chances of a playoff berth. I see a playoff game in our futre, the players are having fun, players are getting a taste of winning and competing and we are recruiting players that want to go on to four year schools. The most difficult has been adding a pitching staff for the season like other schools in our conference. Modesto has a pitching factory with some of the top pitchers in the area ran by Jimmy Dyson at Rainbow Fields in Northeast Modesto/Riverbank but nearly all of them get offers for four year schools. That is great for the local pitchers and a testament to Dyson but one of these years we hope to get a few of those pitchers at MJC and play in the Big 8"
Adding SS Sophia Coronado (Kimball HS) from Tracy, Madison Chervony (Bear Creek HS) from Stockton, Shariya Turner (Liberty Ranch HS) from Lodi are just a few players that are helping from out of our area and then players like Jordan Bennett (Enochs HS), Hoffman; Emily Tyler (Gregori HS), Madysyn Davis (Denair HS) help with local players.
After DVC we travel to #15 Santa Rosa for a single game (Pirates split), host #5 Consumnes River for a double header (Pirates lost) then travel to #1 Delta College (Lost 2)