Williston and Central Cass won the Class A and B state softball championships, respectively, last weekend.
As in baseball, the state tournaments were without any local representation this year. In Class A, Devils Lake went 2-9 and missed the Eastern Dakota Conference tournament. In Class B, Nelson County/Midkota made the final four of its region but lost the next two games to get eliminated.
Class A
Williston, which had never previously won a state softball title, has now won the last two.
Class A softball has existed in North Dakota since 2009, and only five total teams have won state championships. West Fargo has by far the most with 10 titles, but none since 2019.
Williston was the No. 2 seed from the Western Dakota Association this year. The Coyotes beat East No. 3 Shanley and East No. 1 West Fargo Horace to advance to the championship game at Scheels South Hill Softball Complex in Minot.
Williston met West No. 1 seed Dickinson in the title game on May 30. Dickinson had won state titles in 2021, ‘23 and ‘24.
The Coyotes pulled out a marathon 8-7 victory in nine innings to take this year’s championship.
Williston led 5-2 in the fifth, then surrendered four runs in the bottom half to go down 6-5. All four runs scored with two outs after Williston intentionally walked Dickinson three-hitter Kyndall Peterson.
Williston tied it at 6-6 on an error in the sixth.
Each team scored a run with two outs in the eighth, Williston on a passed ball and Dickinson on an RBI triple by Hali Henke. It sent the game to the ninth, where Morgan Strietzel put Williston up 8-7 with a two-out RBI double.
Williston senior pitcher Alana Thomas finished off a nine-inning complete game by stranding two hits in the final frame. She threw 126 pitches.
The last six Class A softball state championships have all gone to the WDA. In fact, no EDC team besides West Fargo has ever won a softball state title.
Elsewhere in the bracket, Horace won the third-place game over Mandan and Fargo Davies won the fifth-place game over Bismarck Legacy.
Runner-up Dickinson won both of the North Dakota High School Coaches Association year-end awards. Peterson was named the Senior Athlete of the Year and Amanda Mickey the Coach of the Year.
Class B
Central Cass won its eighth softball state title, which is the most of any Class B team. Class B softball has existed in North Dakota since 2012, and only four teams have won a state championship.
It was the second in a row and fourth of the decade for the Squirrels.
They were seeded No. 1 and went all the way. Central Cass beat Pembina County North — a first-time state qualifier out of Region 2 — in the quarterfinals, 13-3. The Squirrels then beat No. 4 seed Beulah 12-11 before taking down Kindred 10-2 in the championship at Lyle “Trapper” Lawrence Field in Jamestown.
During the eventual semifinal win over Beulah, Central Cass trailed 11-3 in the third inning. The Squirrels scored nine unanswered runs, tying it with two in the sixth and walking it off on a Holen single in the seventh. Central Cass scored at least one run in every inning.
The Squirrels blew out Kindred in the championship behind a nine-run fourth. Junior pitcher Whitney Mitchell limited the Vikings to two runs in a complete game with six strikeouts.
Kindred is second all-time in Class B state softball titles with four, most recently winning one in 2024. Central Cass and Kindred have combined for 12 of the 14 titles in North Dakota Class B softball history. The only other ones went to Enderlin/Maple Valley (2012) and Beulah (2023).
Around the rest of the bracket, Beulah won the third-place game over Velva-Drake/Anamoose, Thompson beat Des Lacs-Burlington in the fifth-place game and Glenburn took seventh place over Pembina County North.
Thompson was one of the teams that beat the NC/M Chargers in the Region 2 tournament.
Central Cass’s Scott Kost was named the NDHSCA Class B Softball Coach of the Year. The Senior Athlete of the Year went to Beulah’s Addie Dale Geiger.
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