The Blair High School softball team closed out the first day of the NSAA Class B State Championships with a 1-1 record.
After an 8-0 win against Norris to start Wednesday in Hastings, the Bears fell to top-seeded Grand Island Northwest by the same score.
BHS next plays in an elimination game 2 p.m. Thursday against Hastings or Waverly. If they win, they’ll play another game at 4:30 p.m.
In their second game Wednesday, though, the Bears lost 8-0 to the Vikings. The game was even at 0-0 through 3.5 innings, but Northwest scored eight runs during the bottom of the fourth frame to win by run rule after earning three outs in the fifth.
BHS didn’t produced a fifth-inning base runner, but Mia McClain highlighted play during the third inning when she ripped a double down the third-base line.
Bears beat Norris
The more-experienced team won Wednesday during the first round of the state tournament.
Fifth-seeded Blairl improved to 4-1 against the Norris Titans this season, beating them 8-0 in five innings at the Bill Smith Softball Complex.
“We came in very level-headed, which was good,” Bears coach Jennifer Fangmeier said after the Norris victory. The start of her team’s first 2025 state game was delayed by the morning’s rain, but BHS still came out fast.
McClain, Kaitlynn O’Neil and Taytum Macholan loaded the bases during the top of the first inning before Regan Blattert’s RBI swing. Jacy Schueth hit next, plating another run when she sent the ball into a Titan error.
Next, the Bears’ Taylor Munger belted a two-run single up the middle of the infield for a 4-0 advantage. Schueth scored on a passed ball, too, as Blair took a five-run advantage.
Coach Fangmeier’s team would add to it, too, scoring on an error in the third inning before both Laynie Brown and McClain scored on passed balls in the fourth.
BHS’ defense was, arguably, the star of the state opener, though. Macholan earned the win in the pitching circle, allowing a single hit.
“Taytum pitched really, really well,” Fangmeier said. “That’s an extremely good offensive team that we kept off of the basepath until, basically, the last inning.”
The right-hander got help from McClain on a hard liner, Claire Anderson on two flies into foul territory and Brown on a sliding catch in shallow centerfield, but she did a lot right herself, too.
“We told (Taytum) to just, ‘Enjoy the moment. You’ve got that great defense behind you,’” Fangmeier recalled. “‘(Norris is) going to put the ball in play, but we’ve just got to trust who’s behind us.’ She did just that and I think that made the game.”
Keep coming back to enterprisepub.com/sports for more state softball coverage throughout the tournament. A full story and photos will appear in Tuesday’s Enterprise edition.
