Idaho state softball: Owyhee walks off with a championship ‘for the seniors’
Owyhee softball’s freshmen left the Storms’ departing seniors with a magical graduation gift:
An Idaho 6A softball state championship.
Owyhee (28-1) rallied for a 3-2 win over 6A SIC rival Mountain View (16-7) to cap off an unbeaten run through the double-elimination tournament and capture a second title in the past three years.
The Storm have been to the finals all four years of the school’s existence, but this title would not have come without a pair of newcomers.
Freshman Kenadi Garrett launched a solo home run in the fifth inning and singled in the game-tying run in the sixth as the Storm overcame a 2-0 deficit. Then in the bottom of the seventh, freshman leadoff hitter Hailey Bock singled to left field to score Grace Groulx, who ran for Alaina Bryant after Bryant opened the inning with a double.
“The entire season, our coaches put an emphasis on seniors are always first,” Bock told the Idaho Statesman. “We’re just playing for the seniors, for their last season, and all those 11 seniors, they always did what they had to do in order to get us to win.”
The victory stamped Owyhee as Idaho’s first 6A state softball champion. Reclassification in the offseason saw the state create new divisions. Owyhee was in the 5A title game the previous three years, with many of these same players winning it all in 2023.
It was the first state championship for coach John Carpenter, who joined Owyhee in 2024 after a long and accomplished coaching career in Texas.
“Mountain View, coach (Kylie) Orr, that’s probably the best-coached team in the state, in my opinion,” Carpenter said. “And it’s about community. So you get excited, but the real excitement is about the kids you coach. I mean, that’s what this whole thing’s about.”
The Storm were the team to beat all season, going undefeated until they were upset by Eagle in the district tournament. They won their first three games of the state tournament by an average of 7.6 runs — including a 9-1 win over Eagle — so it was unfamiliar territory when Oywhee found itself 2-0 down heading to the bottom of the fifth.
Mountain View scored a run in the third and a run in the fourth off of starting pitcher Bock, courtesy of RBI singles from Emily Castiglione and Afton Janke, respectively.
That’s when Owyhee did what it always seemed to do this season — kick into high gear to come through in the end.
Garrett launched a ball over the left-field fence in the fifth, then came through to bat in senior McKenna Schab to tie the score an inning later.
“They’re focused, and you’re never out of the game,” Carpenter said. “I mean, it doesn’t matter where we’re at in the lineup. Something’s gonna happen. It might take a minute, but something’s gonna happen.”
Owyhee senior Grace Brooks threw three hitless innings to get the victory, striking out six of the nine batters she faced.
Her efforts keeping the Mountain View offense at bay led to Bock’s opportunity. It took just two pitches for her to smack the game-winning hit, scoring Groulx, yet another freshman.
“At the beginning of my bat, (Carpenter) was gonna have me bunt,” Bock said. “And then he just went, ‘You know what, I trust her,’ and decided that I was gonna swing away. And I’m glad he did that, because I got to show it.”
Mountain View reached the title game by defeating Eagle 6-3 in a game that was called after six innings because of the weather. Holding a narrow 3-2 lead, the Mavericks got a two-run homer from Kaitlyn Van Winkle in the top of the sixth and added another run to provide a cushion.
The Mustangs got an RBI double from Reese Northcut in the bottom half but couldn’t rally more as their season came to an end.
Kiki Bangham, Tayelynn Puyleart and Camille Jepson had three hits apiece to help spur the Mountain View offense in the win over Eagle.
[Related: 6A softball state playoff scores, brackets]
IDAHO 4A SOFTBALL STATE TOURNAMENT
[Related: 4A softball state playoff scores, brackets]
COLE VALLEY CHRISTIAN 11, KIMBERLY 5: A day after knocking the top-seeded Bulldogs into the losers’ bracket, the Chargers left no doubt which team was better as they rolled to the 4A championship, their second straight state title.
Cole Valley Christian (26-4) won the 2A state championship last season, and Kimberly was the 3A champion, before Idaho’s reclassification kicked in this school year.
Cleanup hitter and starting pitcher Karlie Barnum was the star Saturday at Skyview High in Nampa. She got the win with five innings of work, allowing three earned runs, and spearheaded a potent offense by going 3-for-3 with five RBIs, including a two-run homer in the second inning that gave Cole Valley a 7-2 lead.
Lauren Colson led off the game with a home run for the Chargers, who never looked back. They scored four in the first, three in the second and three more in the fourth to take a 10-3 lead.
“We have a mentality of all gas and no brakes,” Cole Valley coach Ryan Crosby said. “We constantly apply pressure from first to last pitch. Our girls just responded and absolutely put up the numbers.”
Lola Crosby went 2-for-2 and scored four runs for Cole Valley Christian, and Addy Herrera was 3-for-4 with an RBI.
The Chargers’ high-powered offense scored 49 runs in four games in the state tourney, and nothing was going to stand in their way Saturday — not rain or wind or cool temperatures.
“It’s incredible,” Crosby said. “Every girl wants to be in this spot, and we envisioned this from practice number one. ...
“We talked on the bus, when we got here today, that event plus response equals outcome. We don’t control the weather and we don’t control what time we’re going to start. We were prepared when we walked in here. We were just going to control how our response was going to be and play whatever the conditions were.”
SEASON ENDS FOR WEISER: Beating No. 1 seed Kimberly proved a step too far for the Wolverines, who fell 8-1 in the play-in game for the finals Saturday morning.
Weiser led 1-0 after shortstop Alli Navarrete stole home in the second inning, but Kimberly woke up in the fourth and fifth innings, scoring all eight runs before the game was ended after five innings because of inclement weather.
Weiser had just three hits in the game, with Navarrete responsible for two.
IDAHO 3A SOFTBALL STATE TOURNAMENT
[Related: 3A softball state playoff scores, brackets]
NAMPA CHRISTIAN 5, MALAD 3: The MaxPreps rankings that determine state tournament seedings had a bit of a mishap with the Trojans.
Nampa Christian was the No. 3 seed but certainly played like No. 1, and hoisted the championship trophy after beating top-seeded Malad in the final at Quad Park in Caldwell. That completed an undefeated run through the tourney for the Trojans (21-4), who outscored their four opponents 44-15.
Catcher Addison Gray’s two-run homer in the top of the seventh inning provided the winning runs in the finals. She smashed one over the center-field fence after Myranda Van Vliet walked to lead off the inning, giving Nampa Christian a 5-2 lead.
Malad got one run in the bottom half of the inning, but pitcher Peyton Shook then shut down the Dragons. Shook allowed two earned runs on five hits in the victory.
Gray finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored, and the big homer. Kate Nelson also was 2-for-3 and knocked in a run in the top of the sixth with a single that gave the Trojans a 3-2 lead.
This story was originally published May 17, 2025 at 4:34 PM.
