The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal and is being reprinted with permission.

On the surface, there wasn’t much to play for when the College of San Mateo softball team hosted Chabot of Hayward in the regular-season finale Tuesday.

The Bulldogs were already assured a second-place finish in the Coast Conference, one game behind conference champion Ohlone, and had already wrapped up a spot in the playoffs, which begin next week.

But when Sophomore Day is factored into the equation, as well as some unfinished business against Chabot, along with the desire to enter the playoffs with a full head of steam, there was plenty on the line for the Bulldogs.

And they rose to the occasion for a 6-0 win. Sophomore pitcher Lauren Cole was nearly unhittable, while the Bulldog offense continued to swing hot bats. After wins of 13-1 over Foothill, 13-0 against Mission and a 5-0 whitewashing of De Anza, the Bulldogs continued to pound the ball against the Gladiators, scoring six runs on 13 hits.

“It’s nice to go out (to end the regular season) with a win,” said CSM coach Nicole Borg. “The level of softball we’re playing right now is the highest we’ve played all year.”

Cole struck out five of the first six batters she faced and her stuff was good enough to throw a perfect game. If not for three infield hits, she would have done just that. Chabot broke up the perfect game on a comebacker to Cole, but the ball had so much spin coming off the bat it spun away from Cole and through her legs for the hit. She surrendered another infield hit in the fifth and one more in the sixth, but in all, the Gladiators managed hit only four balls to the outfield.

“She’s come a long way in a couple of years,” Borg said of Cole, who came to CSM as a shortstop and sometime pitcher out of Santa Clara High. Two years later, Cole is one of the top pitchers in the Coast Conference. Her 19 wins are second in the conference, as is her win-loss percentage (19-5, .792).

CSM’s performance Tuesday was a far cry from the 15-13 loss the Bulldogs suffered to Chabot earlier this season, a game in which the Bulldogs led 9-0 after one inning.

Tuesday, they wasted little time in letting the Gladiators know they would have to match the Bulldogs’ output. Alyssa Jepsen, who went 2 for 4 with two runs scored, led off the bottom of the first by smoking a double to the fence in the left-center field gap. She went to third on a Nicole Cardoza bunt single and scored on a wild pitch. Cardoza stole second and went to third when Jepsen scored, and scored herself on a Cole single up the middle.

Jepsen came into the game leading the Coast Conference with a .446 batting average and upped her hit total to 47 and her runs scored to 39. Borg believes Jepsen should be the Coast Conference Player of the Year.

“(The leadoff double) was huge,” Borg said. “You just set the tone for the whole game.

“[Jepsen is] kind of the spark plug for the team.”

It was Jepsen who sparked the Bulldogs to a three-run third. She led off with a single and went to second on a Cardoza sacrifice bunt. She stole third and came home when the throw skipped into left field.

Following a groundout, Meggan Craviotto came to the plate and hit a dying fly ball to medium right field. The Chabot right fielder came rushing in, but the ball fell in front of her and rolled by. By the time the Gladiators relayed the ball into the infield, Craviotto was standing on third.

She wasn’t there for long as she scored on Tatiana Grelli’s single to center. Grelli came around to score on a Tai Vegas triple to give CSM a 5-0 lead.

The Bulldogs rounded out the scoring in the fifth. Craviotto led off with a single and went to third when the Chabot third baseman caught a popup and tried to double Craviotto off first, only to throw the ball away. Craviotto eventually scored on a wild pitch.

“All the way around, we did well,” Borg said. “We did a lot of the little things right.

“We’re in a good place right now.”