Idaho state softball: Owyhee, Cole Valley, Nampa Christian roll to finals
Owyhee booked its ticket to its fourth straight state championship game on Friday as the Idaho high school state softball tournaments continued to narrow their fields.
While Owyhee searches for a second title in three years, two other Treasure Valley schools will try to bring home title trophies Saturday and need just one more win: Cole Valley Christian (4A) and Nampa Christian (3A).
Several other Southwest Idaho teams are also still alive in the double-elimination events. The 6A finals are a guaranteed Treasure Valley matchup, and the winner of Skyview-Bishop Kelly will make the 5A finals to face unbeaten Lewiston, which has surprised as the No. 6 seed.
Here’s a recap of all of Friday’s developments:
IDAHO 6A SOFTBALL STATE TOURNAMENT
[Related: 6A softball state playoff scores, brackets]
OWYHEE HEADS TO CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND: Only one team has beaten the Storm all season: the Eagle Mustangs, who shocked Owyhee earlier this month in an 8-2 victory in the district tournament.
The top-seeded Storm wouldn’t let that happen again in the winners’ bracket semifinal. Owyhee (26-1) defeated Eagle 9-1 to head to its fourth straight state finals — every year of the school’s existence. The Storm won it all in 2023 but lost in ‘22 and last season.
“This thing’s not over,” Owyhee coach John Carpenter told the Idaho Statesman. “We’re going to have to beat a really, really good softball team again.”
Owyhee blew the game open in the fifth inning, scoring five runs to go up 8-1. But the game may have already been in a different place if not for some clutch fourth-inning pitching from Owyhee’s Hailey Brennan.
Eagle scored to open the fourth and then loaded the bases with no outs while trailing just 2-1. Brennan proceeded to strike out two batters before forcing the third into a pop-up.
“I don’t want to stand in the circle with the bases loaded,” Carpenter laughed. “When you’re the one that has to stand in the 16-foot circle and everybody’s staring at you. ... What a great effort, you just got to dig down deep.”
Brennan allowed just two hits all game, and Eagle’s sole run came off an error.
Owyhee’s Grace Brooks and Kenadi Garrett had three hits apiece to lead the offense. Eagle’s two hits came off the bats of Peyton Bargen and Alyssa Orchard.
Owyhee will face the survivor of Eagle vs. Mountain View on Saturday at 11:15 a.m., with an if-necessary game at 1:30 p.m. at Eagle High School. The Mustangs or Mavericks will have to beat the Storm twice to win it all.
EAGLE AIMS FOR A SECOND CHANCE: Before falling to Owyhee, the third-seeded Mustangs (19-6) defeated Capital 4-2 to advance. The Mustangs scored all four runs in the fourth inning and had pitcher Peyton Bargen to thank for an eight-strikeout performance.
Eagle didn’t struggle getting runners on base, managing to do so in three of the first four innings, but the Mustangs were unable to get those runners across. That changed when Reese Northcut sent a ball over the left-field wall for a two-run homer. Northcut’s homer was followed by a double, and then Ellie McManigal cleared the fences for another two runs.
Eagle will face Mountain View on Saturday at 9 a.m.
MOUNTAIN VIEW REMAINS ALIVE: Mountain View beat Rocky Mountain 8-4 to send its crosstown rival home for the year, and then was locked in a 1-1 battle with Capital in the seventh inning. Three straight hits to open the bottom of the inning were capped by an RBI double from Kiki Bangham for a 2-1 walk-off win.
The No. 4-seeded Mavericks (18-7) went on to beat Timberline 8-4 in a game that saw five home runs. Timberline took a 2-0 lead into the third inning, but Mountain View scored in three innings in a row to pull ahead, getting home runs from Bangham and Tayelynn Puyleart, who both had three hits.
SEASON ENDS FOR TIMBERLINE: The Wolves began the day by edging Coeur d’Alene 2-1, and followed that up with a crisp 11-1 victory over Highland before falling to Mountain View.
Timberline (20-6) broke open the game against Highland with a three-run second inning. The Wolves then scored two runs in every inning after that, featuring home runs from four players, including Utah Tech commit Delaney Wright. The lefty pitcher also threw all six innings.
Wright remained in the circle for the Wolves’ game against Mountain View, but the Mavericks managed eight hits off her through 5-plus innings.
CAPITAL’S SEASON ENDS AFTER TWO TIGHT GAMES: Capital played 14 innings of softball on Friday, and all it took was two bad frames to send the Eagles packing.
Capital opened the day on the winner’s side of the bracket but fell 4-2 to Eagle. Capital gave up all four runs in the fifth inning, putting a dent in any excitement from a run apiece in the final two innings.
That loss set up an elimination game against Mountain View, which struck first in the fourth inning courtesy of an RBI single from Aleynah Vega. Capital thought it was back in the game when Juel Cavasuela responded with a home run to tie the score in the top of the seventh, but the three straight hits in the bottom of the inning gave Mountain View a 2-1 win.
IDAHO 5A SOFTBALL STATE TOURNAMENT
[Related: 5A softball state playoff scores, brackets]
SKYVIEW LOSES BUT REMAINS ALIVE: Skyview began its Friday by knocking off No. 1 seed Pocatello 6-4, putting together a three-run first inning and weathering 11 Pocatello hits.
Skyview (15-15) pitcher Makenny Shammy allowed just one run through the first six innings.
That high was followed by a 7-5 loss to Lewiston (18-11), which saw the Bengals get two seventh-inning runs for the victory. Skyview third baseman Grace Chambers had three hits and two RBIs in the loss.
Skyview will face Bishop Kelly at 9 a.m. Saturday in Nampa for a spot in the finals against Lewiston.
BISHOP KELLY PUTS TEAMS ON ALERT: Bishop Kelly’s tournament-opening loss put the Knights in a tough spot, but they outscored opponents 23-2 on Friday.
The Knights opened the day with an 11-0 shutout of Burley in five innings. Bishop Kelly scored eight runs in the third inning, highlighted by a three-run homer from Julia Baelocher.
Bishop Kelly didn’t stop there, crushing Middleton 12-2, with all 12 runs coming over the final four innings. The Knights hit three home runs, including two from Kingsley Shea, who finished with five RBIs.
That sets up the big rematch with Skyview, which posted an 8-3 win over Bishop Kelly in the first round.
MIDDLETON ELIMINATED AFTER IT SCORED BIG UPSET: Middleton saw its state run come to an end in a 12-2 loss to Bishop Kelly, but that’s not before the Vikings shocked No. 1 seed Pocatello, which had been knocked into the losers’ bracket by another Treasure Valley team, Skyview.
Middleton entered the seventh inning trailing 11-7 after Pocatello scored five times in the bottom of the sixth. A two-run double from Sydney Qualls brought the Vikings to within 11-10, and a double from Rylee Rodriguez scored two more for a 12-11 lead. Another run scored on an error to set the 13-11 final score.
IDAHO 4A SOFTBALL STATE TOURNAMENT
[Related: 4A softball state playoff scores, brackets]
COLE VALLEY REACHES FINALS: The Chargers (25-4) dispatched Treasure Valley rival Weiser 7-2 to open winners’ bracket play Friday at Skyview High in Nampa, and then rallied in the late innings to post an 8-5 win over top-seeded Kimberly to reach the finals.
No. 2 seed Cole Valley Christian will need just one win Saturday to capture a state title. The Trojans will meet the Weiser-Kimberly winner at 11:15 a.m., with an if-necessary game set for 1:30 p.m.
Weiser was the last team to defeat CVC on April 23, but the Chargers have since won two straight over the Wolverines. Their victory Friday was spurred by a five-run second inning in which all the runs scored with two outs. No. 9 hitter Emery Hawkins delivered a two-run single, and leadoff batter Lauren Colson followed with a three-run homer.
Karlie Barnum got the win by allowing just one earned run and four hits in a complete-game effort.
The Chargers then had to rely on come-from-behind ball to stay unbeaten in the tourney, scoring single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, and three runs in the top of the seventh, to erase a 4-3 deficit and defeat Kimberly.
The decisive hit in the seventh came from Barnum, who singled to right field with the bases loaded to score all three runners. Barnum also got the win in the circle again.
Colson finished 3-for-4 with three runs scored and two RBIs vs. Kimberly.
WEISER STILL ALIVE: The No. 3 seed Wolverines rebounded from the loss to Cole Valley with a 4-2 win over Gooding and a 5-3 victory over Timberlake to advance to Saturday’s game against Kimberly at 9 a.m. with a shot at making the finals, where they’d have to defeat Cole Valley twice.
Natalya Hoobery was the hero in the first victory, going 2-for-3 with three RBIs, all of those coming on a game-winning, three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning to keep the season alive. Weiser (18-7) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the losers’ bracket final and held off Timberlake behind the pitching of Madi Janicek, who allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out seven.
Bennett Torres paced the offense in that game with two hits and two RBIs, and Hoobery drove in another run.
IDAHO 3A SOFTBALL STATE TOURNAMENT
[Related: 3A softball state playoff scores, brackets]
NAMPA CHRISTIAN ADVANCES TO FINALS: The No. 3 seed in the 3A tournament has won three games by a combined score of 39-12.
On Friday at Quad Park in Caldwell, Nampa Christian bulldozed 3A WIC rival Parma 16-4 before steamrolling North Fremont 10-0 — a pair of mercy-rule wins that leave the Trojans one victory away from a state championship. They will face the winner of Malad-North Fremont at 11:15 a.m., with a second game at 1:30 p.m. if necessary.
Nampa Christian pounded out 15 hits in the win over Parma, with Myranda Van Vliet and Addison Gray, the 1-2 hitters in the lineup, going a combined 8-for-9 with seven RBIs. And the offensive firepower was just hit after hit after hit — there was one double, no triples and no homers in the five-inning game.
In the shutout victory over North Fremont, the No. 4 seed, Peyton Shook scattered five hits over six innings and struck out 10. She also went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored.
Van Vliet and Gray did a lot of damage again as well, with Van Vliet getting two hits and scoring twice, and Gray going 3-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored. Gray had eight hits and eight RBIs on the day.
PARMA ELIMINATED: The No. 2-seeded Panthers fought their way to the losers’ bracket final Friday by following up the loss to Nampa Christian with a 19-2 win over Firth. But top-seeded Malad ended their run with a 12-5 victory.
Malad will face North Fremont, the team that upset the Dragons on Friday, with the winner facing Nampa Christian and needing two wins over the Trojans.
Parma’s mercy-rule win over Firth featured all 19 runs being scored in the first two innings, including a 12-run second. Kinlea Cole, Wesli Crockett, Zoey Heffelfinger and Lakota Leppert had three hits apiece, with Leppert hitting two homers and driving in five runs, and Heffelfinger homering and knocking in three.
Crockett scored three runs and drove in two, and Cole had two runs scored and two RBIs.
Malad jumped out to an 8-0 lead after two innings in the losers’ final, and the Panthers could not recover, despite outhitting the Dragons 12-11. They were undone by six errors in the field.
MELBA’S SEASON ENDS: A day after being smashed 23-0 by Parma, the Mustangs (10-15) lost 15-5 to Declo to go two-and-out at the tourney. Olivia Atack and Jessie Rea drove in runs for Melba, who got only four hits in the game.
IDAHO 2A SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT
[Related: 2A baseball state playoff scores, brackets]
POTLATCH BACK ON TOP: The Loggers won their second state title in four years, topping conference rival Genesee 10-7 in the finals to cap an undefeated run through the state tournament.
Hayley McNeal led Potlatch (19-1) at the plate and on the base paths throughout the tournament, finishing 6-for-10 with five RBIs and 10 stolen bases.
This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 9:35 PM.
