The 2026 high school softball season ended October 24 at Aurora Sports Park, where Lyons beat D'Evelyn 10-3 for the Class 3A title and Windsor beat Holy Family 6-2 in 4A. Three lower Arkansas Valley teams made the 16-team 3A field, Pueblo County reached the 4A semifinal, and the Southeast Colorado co-op of Wiley, McClave and Eads, a state semifinalist two years ago, missed the state field in its first season with McClave on the roster. Here is how the season went for each, from the Colorado High School Activities Association's scoreboards and brackets.

Southeast Colorado: a hard third season

Southeast Colorado is a CHSAA co-op hosted at Wiley. For the 2024 and 2025 seasons it was Wiley and Eads; McClave joined for the 2026-28 cycle. The program had been one of the best in Class 3A. In 2024 it was the fifth seed at state, beat The Classical Academy 9-5 and Lamar 13-7, and lost the semifinal 13-4 to Eaton. In 2025 it was the third seed, won its regional 13-1 over Florence and 10-0 over Alamosa, beat La Junta 3-1 at state and lost the quarterfinal 2-1 to Brush. This year was different. The team finished 6-12 in the regular season, ranked 25th of 49 teams in Class 3A, and went into the regional round as the 24th seed. They opened the season with an 8-5 win at Rocky Ford on August 18 and added a 10-7 win over Guymon, Oklahoma, on August 27. On September 8 they swept a doubleheader at Burlington, 7-3 and 23-10. They beat Woodland Park 12-5 on October 3 and split at Alamosa on October 8, winning the opener 16-6. The losses that will sting were the close ones: 5-4 to La Junta on September 26 and 3-1 to Lamar on October 5. In the regional on October 17 they lost 13-6 at Elizabeth, the ninth seed, which went on to win that regional.

Lamar: sixteen straight, then one run short

Lamar lost three of its first four games at a season-opening tournament, then did not lose again for seven weeks. From a 17-5 win over Weld Central on August 22 through a 5-0 shutout at La Junta on October 7, the Thunder won 16 in a row, including 4-1 over Forge Christian and 6-3 over Falcon in early September, 10-4 and 8-2 over Rocky Ford, and 9-0 over Alamosa. The streak ended 14-0 at home against Pueblo County on October 10. Lamar finished the regular season 16-4, ranked eighth in 3A, and hosted a regional as the eighth seed. It beat Platte Valley 15-0, then lost 1-0 to Elizabeth, and advanced to state as the regional runner-up. Reseeded ninth, Lamar drew eighth-seeded Forge Christian in the first round on October 23 and lost 6-5, to the team it had beaten 4-1 seven weeks earlier. Lamar finished 17-6.

La Junta and Rocky Ford: both to state, both out in the first round

La Junta went 14-9 in the regular season by CHSAA's count and was ranked 17th. The Tigers won six in a row in September, including 15-0 over Moffat County and 21-6 at Pueblo East, and beat Rocky Ford 9-3 on October 3 and Pueblo South 4-3 two days later. They lost 5-0 to Lamar on October 7. In the regional at D'Evelyn they beat Montezuma-Cortez 18-9 and lost 12-2 to the host, which was enough to advance as runner-up. Seeded 13th at state, La Junta lost 3-1 to fourth-seeded University on October 23 and finished 15-11.

Rocky Ford was 13-10 and ranked 18th. The Meloneers won their first four games after the opening tournament, including 13-5 at Montrose, and finished the regular season with three straight wins, 12-2 over Limon, 18-2 at Woodland Park and 6-2 over Southeast Colorado. They lost twice to Lamar and once each to La Junta and The Classical Academy. In the regional at Brush they beat Cedaredge 6-3 and lost 10-0 to the host, advancing as runner-up. Seeded 14th at state, they lost 13-1 to third-seeded Lyons, which won the championship the next day. Rocky Ford finished 14-12.

Pueblo County: a semifinal

Pueblo County was the best team in the Press's coverage area. The Hornets lost only three regular-season games, to Liberty, Pueblo West and Cheyenne Mountain, all by three runs or fewer, and beat Pueblo South, Central, Centennial and East, Canon City, and Lamar. Ranked sixth in 4A, they swept their regional, 8-3 over Cheyenne Mountain and 12-0 over Roosevelt, and went to state as the sixth seed. On October 23 they beat Mead 11-10 and then third-seeded Eaton 2-1 to reach the semifinal. On October 24 they lost 7-3 to second-seeded Holy Family, which lost the final to Windsor. The Hornets were 18-3 in the regular season and finished 22-4.

Burlington, Limon and Pueblo East

Burlington finished the regular season 13-10 by CHSAA's count, with wins over Yuma, Florence twice, Greeley Central, Moffat County, Holyoke three times and Limon twice. Seeded 29th, the Cougars lost 10-0 at fourth-seeded University in the regional. Limon was 3-20, closing by sweeping Holyoke 16-1 and 13-1 on October 8. Pueblo East was 2-20, with its late win coming 9-4 at Woodland Park on October 9.

The record

Regular-season records and ranks are CHSAA's. Game scores come from the association's daily scoreboards, and postseason seeds and results from its 3A and 4A state brackets and the regional brackets. The Press's weekly scores through the season are on the school sports scores page.