The City College softball team finished its final home game of the season in dramatic fashion and won both games of Saturday’s doubleheader at Pershing Park.

The second game of the doubleheader was sluggish through the first six innings. In the seventh, both teams brought excessive energy to the game that rewrote its story.

Trailing 4-0 in the bottom of the seventh, the Vaqueros managed to load the bases with no outs without getting a hit. Left-fielder Maggie Jackson stepped up to the plate in her final game as a Vaquero.

“When we loaded the bases, the dugout got rowdy and everyone was up giving us good energy,” said Jackson. “I knew that was my last at-bat as a sophomore, so I wanted to make it a good one.”

Jackson came in huge for the Vaqueros with a single that drove in first-baseman Madison McNamee. A mishandled ball allowed Shortstop Monica Salas and third-baseman Alyssa Richter to also score on the hit, which tied the score at three with nobody out.

After the next batter popped out, catcher Connie Towne hit a sacrifice fly that scored Jackson as the winning run on the final home game of the season.

“There’s no words to describe how it feels to win our last home game with four runs in the seventh,” said Jackson. “This is the best feeling. I couldn’t have asked for a better ending to the season.”

Eight sophomores on the team will be lost to transfer next season, after two strong seasons as Vaqueros. The sophomores had a 50-30 record in two seasons. The eight are McNamee, Salas, Towne, Jackson, Sydney Townes, Becca Pullen, Hope Ballard, and Felicia Granlund.

“We will miss them,” said head coach Paula Congleton. “That’s one of the toughest things about this job. It’s a revolving door year to year.”

The Vaqueros won the first game of the doubleheader 4-2. In the first inning, both teams scored two runs. The Vaqueros got another homerun from Salas before she ended her career as a Vaquero.

“That was a great home run by Monica,” said Congleton. “That would have been an opportunity for us to lose momentum and she delivered.”

After winning the double header, the Vaqueros improved to 20-16 on the season with two games remaining while Cuesta dropped to 21-16. The Vaqueros will miss the playoffs this season after an impressive 30-14 campaign a season ago, which was the best record in City College history.

“It was really great to honor our sophomores and see them have such a great day,” said Congleton. “They’ve had a great year. Unfortunately, the record doesn’t show that.”

Congleton, finishing her 19th season as a coach for the Vaqueros, will look to add new talent in the offseason. The team already has eleven or twelve incoming freshman.

Congleton understands that winning does not trump all.

“These are great kids. Sometimes, record isn’t the most important thing,” Congleton said.