By: Raymond Castillo, Staff Reporter
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It came late in the semester, when everyone was mired in finals, or preparing for graduation, or just exe Toros of Cal State Dominguez Hills deserve to be celebrated after their historic 2022 softball season. A historic season that will never be forgotten culminated in the program’s first NCAA West Regional title, the program’s first NCAA National Championships appearance and an NCAA Division II National Championship World Series appearance.
After bolting to a 9-2 record in their first two tournaments of the year, the Toros began their regular season doing something they will never do until the last NCAA National Championship Series, they lost the series. The Toros split or won each of the last eight series to end the year not including the mid-season tournament in which they went 3-2.
The Toros finished the season with a 45-24 overall record and 23-13 in CCAA play. Led by team captain, Raquel Jaime, the Toros were able to battle through adversity. A car break-in on the road that left much of the team without their belongings, #4 seed heading into the CCAAtournament, and facing SIX elimination games in the playoffs leading up to the NCAA National Championship World Series only banded the Toros even closer.
The Toros went 5-1 in the elimination games, while outsourcing their opponent by a whopping 40-25. The Toro pitching staff was lead by Sophomore’s pitcher Ashley Wies, and catcher Maiya Lopez who both made the 2022 NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team.
35-19 record .534 Division II strength of schedule got the Toros their automatic bid to the NCAA West Regionals where they beat Chico State once and Concordia two out of three times to punch their ticket to the NCAA Super Regional.
After losing the first game of the Super Regional to Cal State San Marcos 3-2 in 10 innings, the Toros came back with a vengeance beating the Cougars 10-2 in six innings and 3-1 to advance to the World Series.
*Legendary Head Coach Jim Maier made his first appearance in a World Series as a head coach in his 17 years with CSUDH. .618 winning percentage coming into 2022.*
The Toros showed up in Denver, Colorado for the NCAA Championships and were greeted with the task of taking down the #1 ranked team in all of Division II softball, The University of Texas at Tyler. The Toros defeated the Patriots convincingly 5-1 behind two doubles from Jaime and a clutch two-run home run by Maiya Lopez to move on in the tournament.
An eight run loss by the Toros set up a gauntlet of three straight elimination games if they wanted to keep their dreams of winning a national championship alive. A 9-6 victory over Seton Hill that included scoring six runs in the final two frames to give the Toros the lead late set the stage for the Toros to double dip the #18 ranked North Georgia and advance to the World Series. Toro captain Raquel Jaime went six for seven with five RBI to help secure both victories for Cal State Dominguez Hills and keep the defensive miscues out of focus. Toro slugger Raquel Jamie set the NCAA Championship Final Site record for most hits with 16.
Upon advancement to the World Series, the Toros were rudely met by the only team to beat them in a two week time period, Rogers State. The Hillcats defeated the Toros earlier in the week giving the Toros their only loss since May 14 versus Concordia. A three home run game for Rogers State in the first game of the World Series with the last one being a walkoff took the wind out of Dominguez Hills’ sails. The Toros lost 6-5 in game one after leading 5-0, and then 6-1 to end their season.
