1 / 4

Box Elder’s Maclee Willard rejoins her teammates at home plate after blasting a homer during the softball state playoffs on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at Valley Regional Park in Taylorsville.

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

2 / 4

Box Elder’s Kailee Hall lets it rip during the softball state playoffs on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at Valley Regional Park in Taylorsville.

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

3 / 4

Davis High’s Serena Roth speaks with her first-base coach during the softball state playoffs on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at Valley Regional Park in Taylorsville.

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

4 / 4

Box Elder’s Kennadie Blackmer winds up her pitch during the softball state playoffs on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at Valley Regional Park in Taylorsville.

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

❮ ❯

TAYLORSVILLE — No. 2 Box Elder softball lost its first game with No. 3 Spanish Fork on Wednesday but got past the Dons 8-6 in the if-necessary rematch to conclude double-elimination play and send the Bees to the final round for the first time since beating Bountiful for the 2018 title.

A best-of-three championship series with No. 1 Salem Hills begins at 4 p.m. Thursday at BYU. Game 2 is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday and Game 3, if necessary, would follow at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

The Dons (25-9) beat No. 7 Maple Mountain in an elimination game to get another shot at Box Elder, which gave up six runs in the second inning en route to dropping an 8-5 loss in that first Wednesday matchup.

Like that first game, SF got the bats rolling early for 13 total hits.

“We just had to go to war,” Box Elder coach Brian Merrill said. “It was luckily just two (runs) higher than they were.”

The Bees (28-4) again found themselves down big, 6-1, when Lia Higginson barreled a grand slam off Maycie Moss in the second inning.

Kennadie Blackmer stepped into the circle for relief, and the bats soon followed. Completing the rally, Lucy Griffin’s go-ahead run in the fourth unlocked another RBI by Kailee Hall in the fifth.

It only takes a spark, and Merrill saw his team “cut the gap” with Griffin’s RBI.

“This group’s been battling together for a couple of years, and they’ve learned how to support each other,” Merrill said.

With the framework in place, Blackmer kept Spanish Fork at bay.

Higginson and McKenna Anderson went down on strikes with the bases juiced in the sixth, and Box Elder’s junior burner fired off her 11th strikeout in the seventh, helping her infield scoop the win. Blackmer allowed no runs on six hits and four walks in Wednesday’s finale.

To compete in her first-ever title series, Blackmer said, is a dream come true. She’d spent the past two seasons right alongside her senior class for two just-short finishes in the past two years — ironically, coming against Spanish Fork and Salem Hills.

“I’ve played (here) as a freshman and we’ve had two big chances,” Blackmer said. “This is a really cool moment to finally win and take it all the way. … I felt that we were always battling the whole time, and it’s never done. That’s how it needs to be every game, every pitch, every at-bat.”

DAVIS FORCES IF-GAME BUT FALLS

In 6A, Davis edged Bingham 5-4 in a Wednesday morning elimination game to get a rematch with No. 1 Riverton.

Davis later clung to an 8-7 lead and brought home a win, forcing an afternoon tiebreaker with the Silverwolves to determine a state finalist.

Koryn Mafi hit a three-run homer in the second inning for a 4-0 lead and Norah Sunderland’s solo shot put the Darts up 7-3 in the fourth. With Riverton chipping away, Cambell Christensen’s solo homer in the sixth put Davis up 8-5 and proved to be the winning run, forcing a second game in the afternoon.

Riverton ultimately claimed the second game in the double-elimination duo 10-5 to punch its ticket to the 6A title series in Orem.

Ella Nielson hit a two-run homer in the second inning for Davis but Riverton led the day’s second game 10-2 through five innings, cruising into the final series.

The Darts finished the season 27-8 overall after a perfect 12-0 in Region 1.

Connect with prep sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net, X @ctbecker and Instagram @standardexaminersports.