Eagle softball entered district as an underdog. It left as champs after another upset
With two ace pitchers inside the circle, runs remained scarce in the 6A District Three Tournament championship game Thursday. But a quick outburst in the third inning propelled the Eagle High softball team to a 4-0 victory over Timberline for the Mustangs’ first district title in eight years.
Ellie McManigal and Peyton Bargen cranked back-to-back home runs in the third inning, spotting the Mustangs (17-5) a 4-0 lead. That cushion proved more than enough for Bargen, who threw a two-hit shutout to place the perennial power back atop the 6A Southern Idaho Conference.
“We’ve never gone this far in the district tournament,” Bargen said. “I feel like we usually get knocked out pretty early, and then we have to battle back for our position at state.
“So it feels good just coming out and just pretty much throttling everybody in district. It gives me confidence for state.”
That throttling included an 8-2 win over Owyhee on Tuesday, spoiling the Storm’s perfect season and throwing a wrench into the projected race for a state title.
Eagle entered the district tournament with few outside expectations as the No. 4 seed. But the Mustangs proved they can beat anyone with back-to-back wins over the state’s current No. 1- and No. 2-ranked teams.
“You’ve got to play each game, each ball one at a time,” Eagle coach Nicole Rollins said. “We yell at them all the time for that. But it’s a good confidence booster.”
[Related: Complete district softball scores, brackets and schedules]
Eagle and Timberline (18-4) both advance to next week’s state tournament, hosted by Eagle and Owyhee. The Idaho High School Activities Association uses MaxPreps rankings to seed the tournament. But the final rankings, seeds and matchups won’t come out until Sunday.
The battle between Bargen and Timberline senior pitcher Delaney Wright lived up to the billing Thursday, with both throwing up zeroes on the scoreboard.
Eagle scored the only runs of the night in the third inning, bringing in the first on an error. But McMangial and Bargen quickly erased any worries about a cheap run deciding the game.
McMangial cranked a two-run bomb to left-center field for her 12th home run of the season. Bargen followed five pitches later with a laser over the fence in center for her 14th home run of the year.
Wright held Eagle to a single hit through the other six innings. But Bragen held the state’s top-scoring lineup in check, and a pair of double plays snuffed out two potential Timberline rallies.
First, Eagle left fielder Reese Northcut made a running catch at the foul line and gunned down Ashlyn Graklanoff at home to end the sixth inning. Then, McManigal and second baseman Erin Thoreson turned a textbook double play up the middle to spoil Timberline’s last-gasp rally in the seventh.
“They have just been phenomenal,” Rollins said of her defense. “The number of double plays we’ve turned this year is probably more than we’ve combined (for) in the last eight or nine years.”
Bargen finished the night with her third straight complete game of the tournament, striking out eight. She pitched every inning of the tournament for the Mustangs, giving up three runs on 10 hits while striking out 20 in 21 innings.
She also finished the week 6-for-8 with a double, two home runs and four RBIs.
“The hard part about her is she’s such a perfectionist,” Rollins said. “We’ve had a lot of conversations about you can’t be perfect in softball. You’re playing the wrong sport to be a perfectionist.
“But she’s not. She’s so good at it.”
CAPITAL 8, ROCKY MOUNTAIN 7: The Eagles held off a late rally to punch their ticket to state in the 6A district tournament’s fifth-place game.
Lizzy Turpen and Juel Cavesuela each ripped RBI doubles as part of Capital’s decisive, four-run fourth inning. Those runs proved crucial as a two-run home run from Hadley Griggs brought the Grizzlies within one run in the bottom of the sixth. But Rocky Mountain couldn’t find the tying run.
Turpen finished 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs, and Olivia Stone went 1-for-4 with four RBIs for Capital (16-12).
Danica Quinn also added a solo home run for Rocky Mountain (15-4), which gets one last shot to qualify for state in a play-in game against Thunder Ridge at 1 p.m. Saturday at Burley.
This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 8:30 PM.
