State softball · Recap · Class A
Kampbell drives in five as Millard North reaches Class A final
Millard North beat Lincoln Southwest 12-3 in five innings to reach Monday's Class A final.
HASTINGS, Neb. — Top-seeded Millard North beat No. 2 Lincoln Southwest 12-3 in five innings in Class A Game 11 on Saturday at the Bill Smith Softball Complex and clinched a spot in Monday's state championship game. The Mustangs, who entered the tournament 30-4, are 3-0 at state. They play Elkhorn South in Game 15 at 7:00 p.m. Monday at Bowlin Stadium in Lincoln. Lincoln Southwest, the defending Class A champion, needed two wins Saturday and is eliminated.
How it went: Neither team scored in the first two innings. Lincoln Southwest went up 3-0 in the top of the third, and none of the three runs was earned. M. McCarty drove in one with a sacrifice fly, and H. Madson drove in another. Millard North tied it 3-3 in the bottom of the third, then pulled away with six runs in the fourth and three in the fifth. The game ended with one out in the bottom of the fifth.
At the plate: T. Kampbell went 3-for-4 with a double, a home run and five RBIs, and she scored three times. M. Closman went 2-for-3 with a home run and a walk and also scored three runs. A. Beard (1-for-2, two RBIs, a walk) and J. Pokorny (1-for-3, two RBIs) homered too, so Millard North hit four home runs in five innings. T. Parks and L. Paulson had two hits each, and Paulson scored twice. The Mustangs finished with 13 hits and left four runners on base.
In the circle: J. Severson started and pitched three innings. She allowed three runs, all unearned, on two hits with two walks and a strikeout, on 54 pitches. A. Ballard got the win with two hitless innings of relief. She faced seven batters, hit one and struck out one, on 20 pitches. Millard North made four errors, two of them by Ballard.
Lincoln Southwest: The Silver Hawks had two hits, singles by H. Svendsen and V. Vela. Svendsen scored, and so did B. Trautman and M. Coatman, who walked, was hit by a pitch, stole a base and had a sacrifice. B. Pribnow took the loss. She was charged with three runs on four hits, two of them home runs, in 2 1/3 innings on 47 pitches. McCarty pitched the last two innings and allowed nine runs on nine hits, including two homers. Southwest made three errors and left five on base.
The game was a rematch of last year's Class A final, which Lincoln Southwest won 4-2, according to NSAA's finals history. Southwest's 2026 tournament included a 14-6 win over Lincoln East in five innings, a 6-4 loss to Elkhorn South and a 6-5 win over Papillion-La Vista on Friday night.
Millard North opened with a 16-1 win over Elkhorn North in three innings and beat Millard West 9-1 in six on Friday. That's 37 runs scored and five allowed in three state games. NSAA's finals history shows Millard North was the Class A runner-up in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and its only title came in 1993.
Line score
1 2 3 4 5 R H E Lincoln SW 0 0 3 0 0 3 2 3 Millard North 0 0 3 6 3 12 13 4
Sources: NSAA official box scores, Class A, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026 (via NSAA Softball Championships HQ); NSAA Class A bracket sheet (bracket sheets retrieved Oct. 17, 2026, 9:37 p.m. CT); NSAA softball state finals history. Innings are noted only where NSAA's results data marks them.
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