The last time that the Wheatland Union High softball team made a section final Zereniti Sousa was roaming the diamond out in south Yuba County.<\/p>\n
Sousa, who\u2019s currently at the University of Memphis following a transfer from Utah State, helped Wheatland to a spot in the Sac-Joaquin Section championship in 2023 in its first year as a member school of the SJS where it fell to Orestimba, 8-3 to finish runner-up in its division. Wheatland was 20-9 that year with Sousa leading the way as a career .488 hitter as a Pirate.<\/p>\n
Lo and behold, there\u2019s another Sousa making headway at Wheatland with the emergence of Zereniti\u2019s younger sister, Tatum Sousa, in the lineup in 2026 for Thomas La Gabed\u2019s program. Sousa is sixth in D-V this week, hitting .644 for a Wheatland squad a half-game out of the top-3 playoff threshold in the Pioneer Valley League following an 18-1 rout over Colfax \u2013 the second double-digit output from the Pirates in league.<\/p>\n
\u201cOff to a great start,\u201d La Gabed said following the Marysville win. \u201cWe\u2019re young with a bright future and showing it on the field.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tatum Sousa, a junior center fielder for Wheatland (7-5-1, 2-2 PVL), brings a spark from her leadoff spot and is a menace on the base paths.\u00a0 Sousa leads D-V with 17 stolen bases heading into the third week of league that opens at Mira Loma Tuesday and home against second place Lincoln on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cTatum is super fast; plays a solid center field,\u201d La Gabed said. \u201cThat\u2019s a girl you will see in an (NCAA)\u00a0 D-I school somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the circle, freshman Lariah Hyatt leads the way with six of the Pirates\u2019 seven wins and a team-low 4.91 ERA among eligible arms. Hyatt has wins over Colfax and Marysville \u2013 the latter she posted a 12-0 shutout in five innings while allowing just two hits.<\/p>\n
\u201cOutstanding pitching performance,\u201d La Gabed said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marysville head coach Scott Landrum said Hyatt has an array of pitches that can flummox most hitters in the league.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Lariah\u2019s) strength is movement and location,\u201d Landrum said after the 12-0 loss to Wheatland. \u201cIf you watch, you can see us in front hitting balls on the end of the bat \u2013 and that\u2019s a credit to Lariah to be able to put the ball where it she needs to put it to make it difficult.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Landrum and the Indians (4-11, 2-2 PVL) remain in a battle to find an identity this spring following a slower start.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re experienced freshman-heavy; the younger kids have played a lot of ball, but varsity makes it more pressure,\u201d Landrum said. \u201cIt\u2019s on us to do what we need to do, and that\u2019s the part we\u2019re working on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, since its loss to Wheatland, Marysville has won twice in league by a combined 30-1 spread. On Thursday, it routed Center (Antelope) 16-1 behind a pair of hits and three RBI from senior Emma Mallen. Pitchers Izabella Acosta and Charlize Harryman combined on five innings to officially subdue Center. Harryman got the win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marysville is at Oakmont Tuesday; followed by a home bout with PVL leader Bear River (Grass Valley) on Thursday at 4 p.m. at MHS.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the teams are close because we are inexperienced,\u201d Landrum said \u2026 \u201cwe\u2019re probably at the bottom of the middle group, but I think Lincoln, Wheatland, Bear River, Colfax, Oakmont, are all about the same level, and we\u2019re right below. I expect to see us have a strong second half and get in the mix.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013 Yuba City (8-7, 2-1 FVL) is in a tie for the lead in the Foothill Valley League with rival River\u00a0 Valley (9-3, 2-1) and Roseville with two road tilts coming up at Placer Thursday and Twelve Bridges a week from Tuesday. YC looks to improve on its second place finish from 2025 where it finished a game back of Roseville in the FVL. Roseville beat YC and RV once and hosts the Honkers on April 14 and travels to the RV Falcons on April 21.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013 Sutter (9-1, 3-1) sits top-5 in D-V, a half-game behind reigning SJS champion Destiny Christian Academy for the lead in the Golden Empire League. Dixon and DCA are tied atop the GEL at 3-0.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Liliana Speakman leads Sutter in hitting (.556) while Brooklyn Murphey is unbeaten in the circle at 6-0 heading into a three-game week starting with Natomas at home Tuesday; at DCA Thursday; and at SJS D-II No. 12 Woodcreek Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time that the Wheatland Union High softball team made a section final Zereniti Sousa was roaming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2315,2309,5,2316,2323,2314,2317,2313,2325,2331,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,2307,2327,2321,185,2324,2311,2312,1039],"class_list":{"0":"post-634512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-athletic-sports","9":"tag-ball-and-bat-games","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-baseball-competitions","12":"tag-baseball-events","13":"tag-baseball-finals","14":"tag-baseball-games","15":"tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","16":"tag-baseball-teams","17":"tag-batting-order-baseball","18":"tag-major-league-baseball","19":"tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","20":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","21":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","22":"tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","23":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","24":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","25":"tag-mlb","26":"tag-mlb-playoffs","27":"tag-mlb-postseason","28":"tag-outdoor-sports","29":"tag-seasons-in-american-sport","30":"tag-seasons-in-baseball","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-sports-events","33":"tag-team-sports","34":"tag-turf-sports","35":"tag-world-series"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}