Coming off of their first losing season since the 2009-10 season, the Dos Pueblos High School softball team went into the 2025-26 season with hopes of bringing the Channel League title back to DPHS for the first time in four years. These hopes came into fruition as their hard work would culminate in a league title.
The Chargers would start the season off by delivering a 14-0 win against Fillmore High School, before dropping two of their next three games. After the sluggish start to the season, DPHS softball would bounce back, going on a 12-game winning streak, which included two blow-out wins against crosstown rival San Marcos High School and a dominant 23-1 win against Pacifica High School, one of the highest scores in the program’s history.
Right fielder Brooklyn Hedricks (11) gave a breakdown on the rewarding feeling of winning game after game.
“It was really fun. Once we got that first win, we wanted to get more, and we did,” Hedricks said. “We just kept going, and each practice was a grind to get better … It was exciting to see all of our hard work pay off with wins.”
The team’s captain Anastasia Brunner (12) explained how the team didn’t realize the magnitude of the winning streak but rather were just soaking in every moment together.
“We didn’t even realize that we were on a winning streak,” Brunner said. “I think that we were just having so much fun, playing together and being successful, to the point where we didn’t realize the extent of our success.”
DPHS Softball Head coach Mike Gerken attributed the team’s 12-game winning streak to their challenging pre-season schedule.
“We played a very challenging non-league schedule, so when we got into league, we were really ready to play,” Gerken said. “We gained some momentum prior to league, and then once we got to league, we just rode that momentum and got more confident every game.”
The team later went on to advance to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) division 3 semifinals, becoming the fifth team in school history to get that far. Although the team ended up falling 4-2 to Riverside Prep School, who later won the tournament, the team surpassed their expectations.
“We didn’t dream of going to the finals or the semifinals even,” Gerken said. “To be one of only five teams in school history to make it to the semifinals was pretty cool.”
Going into the season, Gerken said his expectations were high for the softball season.
“I knew we were going to be very good. One of the benchmarks that I use is years of varsity experience on the team,” Gerken said. “We had a lot of varsity experience coming back. We also knew that we had an incoming freshman [Emily Morici] that was a very good pitcher, and she proved to be just as good as we thought she was going to be, and a little bit better.”
Brunner credited a lot of the team’s success to their brand new pitcher Morici.
”I think that we’re all super thankful for Emily Morici,” Brunner said. “She worked hard and came through for us the whole time. We were all just really grateful to have her, because she always worked her best and helped us.”
Despite the season being over, Brunner said she still feels a sense of gratitude for Gerken.
“Playing for [Gerken] was very memorable,” Bruner said. “He’s a great coach and also a great human being, he wants to make sure that everybody is having a good day, and he wants all of us to have a good practice. He’s always making sure that we never lose sight of what matters, which is having fun and just being a family, so I’ll definitely never forget his ability to create a family environment.”
