Broomfield graduated 12 seniors from its 2025 5A state championship softball team, including BoCoPreps.com players of the year Ireland Heer and Kiley Wheaton.
Holy Family said goodbye to the top three offensive run producers from its 4A championship squad, along with its near-unhittable ace, Emmaline Humphreys, who was later named Colorado’s Gatorade Softball Player of the Year.
Yet here they are — four wins away from repeating.
Broomfield and Holy Family will look to extend their reigns this weekend at Aurora Sports Park, while Erie, Mead, Frederick and Lyons have their own championship ambitions.
The first two rounds of the 5A-3A state tournaments take place Friday. Semifinals and championship games follow on Saturday.
Class 5A
Top seed: Cherokee Trail.
Area teams: Broomfield, Erie.
No. 5 Broomfield vs. No. 12 Liberty, 10 a.m.
After a one-loss 2024 campaign that ended in the semifinals, it seemed rather fitting Broomfield won the 5A state title last year.
How it will finish this season is anybody’s guess.
After graduating most of their state title contributors over the summer, the Eagles showed their inexperience early this fall, starting the season 1-6.
Coach Kale Gilmore believed his team would be OK, saying at the time, “You don’t win a state title in August.” And he was right.
Broomfield (16-9) got a boost when star player Myah Becker returned to the lineup in September, and the Eagles went on to win 15 of their final 18 games heading into this weekend.
Becker has a 3.54 ERA in 65 1/3 innings and is hitting .469 with 15 RBIs, while Brynlee Taga leads the offense with a .492 batting average and 39 RBIs.
If the Eagles advance, they’ll face the winner of No. 4 Columbine and No. 13 Pine Creek in the quarterfinals.
With four more wins, Broomfield would become the first 5A team to win back-to-back titles since Legend in 2017 and 2018.
No. 3 Erie vs. No. 14 Valor Christian, 12:15 p.m.
The Tigers sweated out a 4-3 win over Horizon in the 5A Region 5 championship game last weekend. But in the process, they may have gotten more comfortable with the question, ‘What’s behind pitcher No. 1?’ Sophee Horovitz.
In all likelihood, Horovitz will throw the majority of innings for Erie (20-5) this weekend. Skylea Lase-Weber, who had a two-inning save in the regional championship game, however, provides a nice second option. The freshman hasn’t allowed a run in her past three appearances.
Horovitz has a 2.30 ERA in 121 2/3 innings this season, while Lase-Weber has a 3.52 ERA in 30 1/3 innings.
The Tigers’ offense is led by Braelan Heer, who is hitting .568 with 21 RBIs, and Keyanna Reeves, who is batting .400 with 31 RBIs.
Erie beat Valor Christian 13-5 on Aug. 20 behind three RBIs apiece from Jaelyn Bandel and Lase-Weber.
The winner of Erie-Valor Christian will face either No. 6 Chatfield or No. 11 Eaglecrest. The Tigers have already beaten Chatfield twice this season, though they lost to Eaglecrest 7-6 on Sept. 5.
Class 4A
Top seed: Windsor.
Area teams: Holy Family, Mead, Frederick.
No. 2 Holy Family vs. No. 15 Palisade, 12:15 p.m.
The Tigers (22-3) don’t have many flaws on their 2026 résumé.
They found themselves on the wrong end of a couple of games against 5A playoff teams as well as a pitching masterpiece from Frederick ace Sidnee Sais. Other than that, they won 22 games, 18 by at least five runs.
During last season’s title run, the Tigers outscored opponents by an average of 6.1 runs per game (7.9-1.8). They’ve been even more dominant this season, with an average margin of 8.2 runs (11.6-3.4).
Lindsey Morris leads the offense, hitting .557 with nine home runs and 46 RBIs.
Junior pitcher Carly Tooley has a 1.88 ERA in 70 2/3 innings this season, while freshman Grace Becker has a 2.59 ERA in 54 innings.
No. 6 Pueblo County vs. No. 11 Mead, 12:15 p.m.
No. 5 Pueblo West vs. No. 12 Frederick, 10 a.m.
Mead (18-8) and Frederick (20-7) survived their regional tournaments, rallying from opening-round losses to win their final two games.
Neither team is a favorite to win it all this weekend, but both have shown they can play with the best in the state. Frederick beat 4A No. 2 Holy Family, and Mead beat the Golden Eagles twice.
The Mavericks are led by Abbie Hausotter. At the plate, she’s driven in at least one run in six straight games and has 27 RBIs on the season. In the circle, she has a 4.75 ERA in a team-high 91 1/3 innings.
Sais, meanwhile, has a 2.72 ERA in 126 innings for Frederick. She’s hitting .476 with 28 RBIs.
Class 3A
Top seed: D’Evelyn.
Area teams: Lyons.
No. 3 Lyons vs. No. 14 Rocky Ford, 12:15 p.m.
Ace Gretta Wynja, the Longmont Times-Call Player of the Year last season, doesn’t plan to continue playing softball after high school. She wants to focus on flying planes.
Before she takes off, she’ll aim to help the Lions win their first state title.
Wynja has a 1.14 ERA in 129 innings and is hitting .588 with 33 RBIs. She has seven home runs, as does Dahlia Oviatt, while Greta Hildebrand has five, Ava Vasquez four and Taylor Dickes three.
The Lions have 28 home runs as a team this season. And get this: they have more extra-base hits (101) than team strikeouts (87).