State softball: 3 Treasure Valley teams eye 5A title, Bishop Kelly in 4A driver’s seat
Three teams from the Southern Idaho Conference are the last ones standing in the 5A softball state tournament at Post Falls High School, and the team that needs just one win to claim a championship is a bit of a surprise.
Borah, the tourney’s No. 7 seed and the fifth-place finisher in the 5A SIC, won both of its games Friday to make the finals. The winner of the Owyhee-Timberline game Saturday morning in the double-elimination event will have to beat the Lions twice to take the title.
Owyhee, the No. 1 seed, bounced back Friday with three victories — all over Treasure Valley foes — to stay in the hunt for its second straight state championship.
In 4A, No. 1 seed Bishop Kelly won a pair of games Friday to make the finals, where it awaits the winner of Twin Falls-Pocatello.
The championship series are slated to begin at 12:15 p.m. in each classification.
5A
Borah upends Eagle, Timberline: The Lions (17-9) opened play Friday with a 1-0 win over Eagle, a rare low-scoring game in what has become a high-scoring tournament. They then rolled to a 9-2 win over the Wolves, as Borah pitcher Megan Meracle held Timberline’s offense to five hits in seven innings, striking out 13.
Kayla Campbell powered the Lions’ offense, blasting two home runs and driving in four runs. Reese Naylor finished the game 2-for-4 with three RBIs.
Borah, which was just 7-5 this season in SIC play, opened the tournament with a 5-1 win over Thunder Ridge on Thursday. It can complete a Cinderella run Saturday with just one more victory. The Lions defeated Owyhee once in four games this season, and they own three wins over Timberline.
The Wolves knocked off No. 8 Coeur d’Alene, the team that shocked Owyhee on Thursday to send the Storm to the losers’ bracket, by a 7-5 score Friday before falling to Borah.
Owyhee goes 3-0, scores 31 runs: The top-seeded Storm kept their repeat hopes alive by dispatching a bunch of familiar opponents, two of them in dominating fashion.
Owyhee (24-2) opened Friday with a 12-1 win over Rocky Mountain, and followed that up with a 6-4 victory over Eagle. A 13-7 dispatching of Capital pushed the Storm one win away from the finals; the game against Timberline is Saturday morning at 10.
Owyhee racked up 14 hits and five home runs in the win over Capital. Samantha Hatzenbeller finished with two home runs, going 4-for-4 with three RBIs. Kina Watts also hit a pair of homers while going 3-for-4 with four RBIs, and McKenna Schab homered among her two hits.
Schab hit a key three-run home run in the Storm’s win over Eagle, and Hatzenbeller was one of three Owyhee players to hit homers against Rocky Mountain on Friday morning. Rylie Haith and Isabella Fazzio also hit home runs in the Storm’s first game of the day.
4A
Bishop Kelly moves to finals: After a pair of escapes, the top-seeded Knights finally rolled to a big win — 11-1 over Pocatello — to get within a victory of their fourth 4A championship in five years.
The Knights won titles in 2019, ‘21 and ‘22, and 4A SIC rival Skyview won it all last season. (There was no tourney in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).
Bishop Kelly (23-3), which scored a 5-4 win over Moscow on Thursday, opened play Friday with a hard-fought 7-6 win over Twin Falls. The rout of Pocatello followed, and it will be those two teams that meet Saturday morning at Coeur d’Alene High School for the right to face the Knights again, needing to win twice.
BK pitcher Lauren Fettic held Pocatello scoreless for five innings and limited the Thunder to three hits while striking out six. She also connected on a two-run homer in the sixth inning and finished the game 3-for-4 with three RBIs.
Fettic also was a star in the Twin Falls win, going 2-for-3 with four RBIs, including knocking in the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Skyview began the day with a 12-11 win over Wood River to face Twin Falls, which sent the Hawks home with a 12-5 win.
3A
Homedale goes 1-1: No. 2 Homedale came up short in its first shot at the finals, losing 10-0 to Kimberly after starting the day with a 7-3 win over Gooding.
The Trojans (18-6) still have a shot at the title, though. They play No. 8 seed Timberlake on Saturday at 10 a.m., and the winner will get a shot at No. 1 Kimberly, needing to win twice.
The Bulldogs needed just five innings to dispatch of Homedale and make the finals. Pitcher Addi Clark held Homedale without a base hit and struck out seven batters. The Trojans also committed seven errors to hurt their cause.
Parma lost to Timberlake 22-12 to see its season end Friday morning.
2A
Cole Valley Christian, New Plymouth in hunt: No. 1 Malad scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to erase a one-run deficit and beat No. 2 Cole Valley Christian 9-8 on Friday afternoon, punching its ticket to the finals.
The Chargers (22-6) will face No. 5 seed New Plymouth (15-15), a Western Idaho Conference rival, on Saturday morning at Orofino Community Fields for the right to face Malad. The Pilgrims stormed through the losers’ bracket Friday, scoring 32 runs and winning three games, two of them by a single run.
Cole Valley led Malad 8-7 after scoring two runs in the fifth inning and two in the top of the sixth in the key winner’s bracket game, but Malad got the win on a a two-run homer from Hallie Horsley.
Abbie English went 4-for-4 with three RBIs to lead Cole Valley in that game.
The Chargers opened play Friday with a 13-2 win over Orofino. Lola Crosby was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, and English went 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Pitcher Karlie Barnum limited Orofino to three hits and struck out 12 batters.
This story was originally published May 17, 2024 at 9:26 PM.