Owyhee softball extends no-hitter streak. Up next? The last team to get a hit
The Owyhee and Eagle softball programs have remained on a collision course all season.
They finished first and second, respectively, in the 6A SIC preseason coaches’ poll. They split a pair of regular-season meetings. And now, they’ll meet for a third time this season for the district championship.
No. 2 Owyhee (23-2) hosts No. 1 Eagle (20-5-1) at 6 p.m. Friday in the championship game of the 6A District Three Tournament. Both teams punched their tickets to the state tournament with semifinal victories Tuesday. But Friday’s championship game will settle the battle for regional supremacy, if only temporarily.
The rubber match comes with an additional hook: No one has mustered a hit off an Owyhee pitcher in five straight games. The last one to do it? Eagle during an 8-7 victory on April 16.
[Related: 6A to 2A district softball brackets, scores]
OWYHEE 5, MOUNTAIN VIEW 0: Sophomore Hailey Bock stands as one of the top pitchers in the state. But she often flies under the radar thanks to another shutdown arm on her own team also named Hailey.
Bock and junior Hailey Brennan represent what the Storm call the “Killer B’s” inside the pitcher’s circle. Brennan led all classifications in ERA and opponents’ batting average the past two seasons, and she threw her second perfect game of the season Monday.
But Bock continues to build up her own resume, firing a complete-game no-hitter Tuesday and finishing with a career-high 15 strikeouts.
“We’ve just kind of gone back and forth all season, and neither of us can really compare ourselves to each other,” Bock said. “We kind of just go with it.”
Bock started the night striking out the side in the first inning, and she only grew stronger and did it again to wrap up the seventh. She credited her rise ball and a rare dialed-in appearance from her change-up to keep the Mavericks guessing all night.
Tuesday’s victory marked her first high school no-hitter, and it made her 10-1 with a 1.22 ERA this season. Only a third-inning error prevented her from the perfect game.
“Bock is just a workhorse. She’s a stud,” Owyhee coach John Carpenter said. “She has that grit, that fire and that passion that you want to see in any athlete. But to see it in the circle, that’s what you got to have this time of the year.”
The two aces give the reigning state champs an enviable luxury in a day when sluggers often rule high school softball. Carpenter said the Storm plan to let the duo split innings each game and share the workload. The strategy has paid off with five straight no-hitters, including a pair of combined efforts, and a staff ERA of 1.24.
“How many coaches are pulling a kid with a no-hitter in the fourth inning,” he said. “It’s just an unbelievable faith in what those two kids are doing this year.”
Bock aided her own cause, too, belting her fifth home run of the season to center field in the second inning. That followed a three-run first inning from the Storm that saw Brennan provide the highlight with a one-run double off the center-field wall.
The loss drops Mountain View (13-7) into the losers’ bracket, where it faces Capital in a winner-to-state game on its own home field at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
EAGLE 10, ROCKY MOUNTAIN 0 (5 innings): The Mustangs recorded their second straight mercy-rule victory at the district tournament and punched their ticket to state for a 14th consecutive season behind the arm and bat of Peyton Bargen.
The senior fired a five-inning, three-hit shutout and cranked a two-run home run as the reigning district champs rolled into Friday’s title match.
Eagle coach Tim Souza said the veteran provides the Mustangs with a simple but elusive trait.
“Confidence — with a capital ‘C,’” Souza said. “There’s a lot of confidence with her in the circle. And I think what’s really evident with Peyton this year is that she’s healthy and she feels fresh.
“... Her bat has been quieter this year. But she’s just a big-time player, so she’ll step up in big-time moments.”
Bargen calmly and coolly worked through the Rocky Mountain lineup, never letting a runner advance past second base. But she didn’t need to overpower hitters, instead relying on a host of ground balls to finish the afternoon in just 56 pitches.
“I always enjoy the ground balls a lot more than I do the strikeouts,” Bargen said. “It makes me feel happy that I have a team behind me that can field even when they are getting hits off of me consistently.”
Eagle pounced on back-to-back errors from Rocky Mountain in the bottom of the first inning thanks to Makenzie Owens’ two-run double. The Mustangs played add on from there, scoring another two runs on Bargen’s third-inning homer before breaking the game open with a six-run fifth inning to trigger the mercy rule.
“When we get those errors, we’re just going to keep going. We’re not going to stop,” Bargen said. “If they’re going to make mistakes on us, we’re going to take advantage.”
Rocky Mountain (14-13) falls into the losers’ bracket with Tuesday’s defeat. The Grizzlies next face Boise at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in a winner-to-state game at Mountain View.
CAPITAL 14, CENTENNIAL 11: McKenna Chavez ripped a three-run, walk-off home run to center field to extend the Eagles’ season in the losers’ bracket of the 6A District Three Tournament at Mountain View.
The 21st home run of the season for the BYU signee capped a seventh-inning comeback as Capital (15-9) entered the final inning trailing 11-10.
Grace Liese tied the game in the previous at-bat, plating Cora Terry with an RBI single to left field. Chavez then provided the exclamation point with her third home run of the game after a pair of solo shots.
Capital advances to face Mountain View in a winner-to-state game at 5 p.m. Wednesday on the Mavericks’ home field. The loss ends Centennial’s season at 10-16.
BOISE 19, MERIDIAN 12: The Brave erased a two-run deficit in the bottom of the sixth inning with a 10-run outburst to extend their season in the losers’ bracket.
Kate Walsh started comeback with a solo home run, and Boise (12-14) took advantage of three errors and three walks in the inning to hang a monster number on the scoreboard.
Kamryn Newbery and Kira Anderson added homers for Boise, which takes on Rocky Mountain in a winner-to-state game at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Mountain View.
Alexia Flygare homered twice and drove in three runs in the season-ending loss for Meridian (10-12).
This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 10:18 PM.
