ELK GROVE, Calif. – Seniors Isabella Barge and Marissa Jensen had the lone Troubadour hits as 12th-seeded St. Francis fell to fourth-seeded Elk Grove, 7-0, in the second round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II girls' softball playoffs Friday afternoon.

The Troubies finish their season at 12-16. The Thundering Herd improves to 26-4 and will face the winner of the Tracy-West Park quarterfinal on Tuesday.

Barge broke up freshman Madelyn Benzler's no-hit bid in the fifth on a hot grounder down the third base line that Kinslee Buck could not quite corral. Jensen also reached on an infield hit, beating out a ground ball to the shortstop-third base hole. However, Benzler shut down the entire SF lineup with 10 strikeouts and no walks.

The Thundering Herd jumped out to an immediately 3-0 lead, with second baseman Tamiayh Ward's RBI double, shortstop Izi Castillo's RBI triple and catcher Ryann Wolfe's RBI single putting Elk Grove on the board before the Troubies could record their first out.

Fortunately for St. Francis, freshman right fielder Lillyana Perkins thwarted another possible rally one inning later, snaring Lauren Anderson's line drive to right then doubling up Chloe Miller at first. Senior left fielder Marissa Jensen also helped keep the scoreboard clean in the fourth when Kadence Pettis ripped her third hit of the day through the hole. Jensen charged and came up firing, throwing a strike to catcher Chloe Hoertsch to retire Anderson at the plate.

Elk Grove eventually added to its lead when Benzler helped her own cause with a solo shot on an 0-2 pitch in the fifth. The Herd then tacked on three more in the sixth, with Mallory Manges doubling and scoring in the rally.

Pitcher Kaili Heeb finished the year with 146.2 of her team's 174.1 innings in the circle, the No. 3 total in the program's MaxPreps era (since 2005) behind only current Ole Miss senior Hope Jenkins (192.0 in 2022) and Leticia Cisnaros-Coyle (181.1 in 2006). Alexis McFarland closed out her senior year as the team leader in OPS (.994), thanks to a team-high .375 batting average, a team-leading 14 walks helping to a .475 OBA and eight extra-base hits helping to compile a .518 slugging.

Friday's game marked the prep career finale for Jensen, Barge, McFarland, Julia Nielsen, Jaeya Leavitt and Reese Lewis, plus manager Lillian Desmond. Jensen (Cal State San Marcos), Barge (Yale), McFarland (San Francisco State) and Nielsen (Webster) will continue their playing careers at the collegiate level.