Dixon High School's Paige Elliot Throws Perfect Game in 13-0 Rout of West Campus

Dixon’s JV softball team beat West Campus 13-0 in Dixon on Friday, improving to 6-7 on the season, but the commotion would come after the game ended, when a scorekeeper shocked everyone by announcing that the Rams’ starting pitcher, sophomore Paige Elliot, had just thrown a perfect game.

“I’ve known Paige the last four years from Dixon girl’s softball, but this is the first year I’ve actually coached her,” said Dixon’s JV head coach Rick Tully. “She has grown leaps and bounds. She definitely has matured, and the work that she’s put into the game shows.”

Elliot got run support early and often in the game, as Dixon scored two runs in the first, seven runs in the second, two runs in the third, and another two runs in the fourth for a cushy 13-0 lead, a lead which allowed Elliot some breathing room as she stepped into the unchartered waters of later innings.

“This is the first time she went the whole game,” said Coach Tully. “I left her in because she was throwing nothing but strikes, she didn’t walk anybody, she looked good, and she didn’t seem like she was in any pain.”

“I wasn’t exactly nervous or anything,” said Elliot. “I was just ready to go out and pitch my best and focus on what I was supposed to do.”

West Campus was making contact throughout the game, but the defense of Dixon both in the infield and outfield kept the perfect game intact for Elliot, who struck out two batters in five innings.

"My teammates helped me get most of the outs by catching balls,” said Elliot. “There were hits to the outfield that our outfielders caught, and a lot of other plays we made to get people out and not let any runners on.”

“I remember Katie Luedke had a couple of plays at short stop, and Jaelyn Escobar caught a couple of line drives out in right field,” said coach Tully. “The whole team really communicated well in the infield and outfield and did a great job.”

West Campus had one more at-bat in the fifth inning, but were unable to put any runs on the board, and the 10-run rule was put into effect, ending the game abruptly and camouflaging the fact that no West Campus players had reached base at any point in the game.

“I think the team was caught up in the whole game,” said Coach Tully. “They didn’t quite catch on that she threw a perfect game until Jeanie, our scorekeeper, walked up at the end and said ‘that was a perfect game.’”

“At the end of the game coach kind of gathered us all together and yelled out that it was a perfect game,” said Elliot. “Everybody was just screaming and happy and excited about it.”

Aside from being a solid victory for this Dixon squad, this game represented the end result of a lot of hard work for those involved.

“Maybe now I’ll be more confident about pitching and be able to do better in other games,” said Elliot. “I couldn’t have done it without my coach letting me pitch the whole game, and I couldn’t have done it without my teammates.”

“What I’ll remember most is the look on Paige’s face when we told her she threw a perfect game,” said Coach Tully. “I sent her a text later that night telling her how proud of her I was, and she said that she hadn’t stopped smiling the whole time since the game ended.”

You can catch Paige’s next outing this Thursday at 4 p.m. in Dixon when the Rams take on Rio Vista.