Palo Verde’s softball team hopes the third time is the charm heading into this week’s Class 5A state tournament.
The Panthers reached the state tournament the previous two seasons but didn’t come away with the title.
Palo Verde isn’t just chasing a championship this year. The Panthers are aiming for perfection. Palo Verde enters the state tournament at UNR’s Hixson Park with a 22-0 record.
The Panthers — the Southern Region champion and the South’s No. 1 seed — face Reed (28-7-1) at 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Centennial (18-13) faces Northern champion Spanish Springs (25-11-1) at 1 p.m. the same day.
“We’re really hungry for it this year,” senior Mya Bartlett said. “After feeling what it feels like to lose in those big situations, we know what we need to do this year to come out on top.”
There has never been an undefeated state softball champion, according to known Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association records.
Rancho went 16-0 in 1974, but that was before softball was an NIAA sanctioned sport. Bishop Gorman was 15-0 in 2021 but there was no official state tournament that year due to COVID-19.
The added pressure to make history hasn’t affected Palo Verde’s confidence.
“We’ve handled (the pressure) really well,” junior Taylor Johns said. “The pressure is just added to our work ethic instead of making us more nervous.”
‘Over losing’
The Panthers lost their first two games of the 2023 state tournament and were eliminated. They were the No. 1 seed and Southern Region champion last year and won the first day. Then they lost twice the following day and were eliminated again.
Palo Verde still entered this season as a state title favorite after not graduating any seniors from last year’s team.
“Given it’s (a lot) of the same girls, we have had built up motivation, getting slowly closer (to the state title),” Johns said. “We’re finally just over losing. We’re going with a different mindset this year, knowing how it felt to lose the last two.”
Johns, a Georgia commit, leads the state with a 1.661 slugging percentage. She leads Palo Verde in batting average (.678), home runs (11), RBIs (39), hits (40) and runs (40).
“Given how we’ve played all season and how it’s continued through the entire season, we don’t really have any doubts,” Johns said. “We have a lot of confidence going into it, trusting each other a lot more than we did the last two years.”
Junior Ava Koenig has stepped up for Palo Verde as a starting pitcher. The Boston University commit is 17-0 with a 1.70 ERA and 134 strikeouts.
“I just try to trust all the work I’ve put in and everything and stay composed and let my defense work behind me and trust my teammates,” Koenig said. “That’s how it gets us through games.”
‘Takes the whole team’
Two of Palo Verde’s closest games have come against Centennial. The Panthers won two of their meetings 1-0, including Saturday’s 5A Southern Region title game.
Centennial’s lineup is strong like Palo Verde’s, and the Bulldogs also have two standout starting pitchers. Senior Lily Fournier is 12-4 with a 1.56 ERA and sophomore Sloane Merrell has a 1.93 ERA in 20 appearances with 125 strikeouts.
Reed won the 5A Northern League regular-season title, but lost twice to Spanish Springs in the region title game.
A state championship is still in play even if Palo Verde loses a game in the double-elimination tournament. But with the heartbreak the Panthers have been through, they’re hoping they can get the trophy without a blemish.
“We just learned it takes the whole team,” said Bartlett, an Idaho State commit. “It can’t just be a couple of girls producing for the team and this year, the whole team has been helping out and producing every game. We’ve been passing the bat so I feel it’s everybody coming together to play for each other is what’s going to help us win.”
Contact Alex Wright at [email protected]. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
Class 5A softball state tournament schedule
at UNR’s Hixson Park
(Regions: N=North, S=South)
Thursday, May 15
Game 1: No. 2S Centennial vs. No. 1N Spanish Springs, 1 p.m.
Game 2: No. 2N Reed vs. No. 1S Palo Verde, 3:30 p.m.
Friday
Winners’ bracket
Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 12:30 p.m.
Elimination games
Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 10 a.m.
Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 30 minutes after game Game 4
Saturday
State championship
Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 10 a.m. (Game 7 to follow if necessary)
