AURORA — You may not have known it by the tears falling from her face on the way out of Aurora Sports Park, but junior pitcher Gretta Wynja and her Lyons softball team put on a masterful display on the first day of the sport’s state tournament.
On Friday, the Lions, ranked 10th in the 3A classification, routed No. 7 Strasburg 16-0. A round later, they put three-time defending champ No. 2 Eaton on the ropes in an oh-so-close, oh-so-heartbreaking, 4-3 loss.
The ending was a lava pit before the flag. Up 3-1 in the sixth inning, the Reds scored three runs to take the lead as 3A’s top two home run hitters — Emma Anderson and Bria Foster — went deep off Wynja.
Lyons had one more chance, and made one last push for what would’ve easily been the biggest upset of the tournament. It put two runners in scoring position in the seventh, but they were left stranded and the Lions were eliminated.
“We worked towards this our whole season and put everything we worked towards into this one state game,” said a teary-eyed Wynja, who will end up being an all-state player after a season where she struck out 200 batters and hit .513 with 37 RBIs. “I think that (game) shows what we are as a team and what we can accomplish.”
While the Lions may need time to gain perspective on what they were able to accomplish this fall, 5A No. 1 Broomfield and 4A No. 3 Holy Family have little of it as both advanced to Saturday with their state title hopes still intact.
In 5A, the Eagles continued one of the most dominating seasons in state history, winning their first two games of the tournament by mercy rule.
Delaney Meehan tossed a five-inning, one-hitter in a 10-0 win over No. 16 Arapahoe; Ireland Heer followed it up with four sharp innings in a 13-1 win over No. 8 Fossil Ridge; and Avery Gines drove in five runs, sending the Eagles back to the semifinals for a second straight season.
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A year ago, Broomfield’s undefeated run ended in the semifinals in a 9-8 loss to eventual champ Riverdale Ridge. It remembers it well, with the entire starting line from then all back in 2025, looking to make amends.
Up to this point, the Eagles have beaten every state opponent this fall by at least three runs.
“The fact that we lost last year gave us a lot of motivation this season,” said Gines, whose Eagles face No. 5 Eaglecrest Saturday morning (they beat the Raptors 14-1 on Oct. 6). “Especially with 12 seniors, we just really want to win this year. We trust each other and believe in each other.”
Like Broomfield, Holy Family is two wins away from a state title, its fifth overall and first since 2021.
Stanford-commit Emmaline Humphreys fanned 15 in a 3-0 win over No. 14 D’Evelyn in the opening round and Jaelyn Sandoval drove in four in a 10-4 victory over No. 6 Frederick.
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The Tigers, who’ve now reached the final day in eight straight seasons, will face No. 2 Palmer Ridge in the semifinals. Humphreys will look to lead the way in a 4A player of the year-type season, where she’s posted a 0.80 ERA and 253 Ks.
“At first (this fall), I had to learn how to deal with the pressure — a young team, a commitment to my name, being a pitcher and a senior,” said Humphreys, who missed 2024 with an injury, and has only gotten better in the circle as 2025 has progressed. “I had to deepen my faith because I didn’t know how else to deal with it. I had to pray a lot. I had to think about my teammates a lot, because if I continued to make it me, me, me, I was never going to come back from that. I just had to make it bigger than myself.”
Broomfield and Holy Family were two of the five Front Range teams to make one of the three classifications’ 16-team state tournaments this weekend. All five local teams won in the first round before three were ousted in the second.
Class 5A No. 4 Erie beat No. 13 Horizon, 2-1, behind a three-hitter from junior pitcher Sophee Horovitz. Its potent offense never came alive on Friday (as it had all season long) and the Tigers were eliminated a round later by Eaglecrest, 4-1.
The 4A sixth-seeded Golden Eagles beat No. 11 Widefield, 12-9, in the first round, pulling ahead in a three-run sixth. Brealea Stendel and Ella Stromberg each drove in two in the win, while Elayna Fisher brought home two in the loss to Holy Family.
Lyons beat Strasburg in three innings, led by Dahlia Oviatt’s five RBIs and Wynja’s no-hitter. Ava Vasquez had three hits against Eaton, including an RBI double in the first.
The Lions could return all but one player from their starting lineup next year.
“We’re just going to get better over the summer and we’ll be back next year for sure,” Vasquez said. “I think this game (against Eaton) really set a tone for next year.”
Broomfield and Holy Family’s semifinals games start at 10 a.m. Saturday at Aurora Sports Park. Finals for all three classifications follow at 1:15 p.m.
Lyons masterful in defeat at state softball tourney; Broomfield and Holy Family advance
