No. 1 Mayfield survived the Storm Thursday at Cleveland High School.
The top seed in the Class 5A state softball tournament posted a four-run bottom of the sixth inning to rally past No. 5 Cleveland on their home field in a back-and-forth quarterfinal.
The Trojans (27-2) got home runs from Jayleen Ponce, Ausaundra Roberto and Ariana Lujan.
They play No. 10 Las Cruces at noon Friday at Cleveland in the semifinals.
Las Cruces (17-12) beat No. 6 Piedra Vista, 14-5, on Thursday. While the Bulldawgs were swept by Mayfield in the regular season, in the state tournament the 10 seed has wins over the 2, 6 and 7 seeds.
Cleveland faces three-straight elimination games to get to a Saturday championship, starting with No. 2 Alamogordo at 9:30 a.m. on Friday.
In other 5A action Thursday, Centennial ended Los Lunas’ season, 11-1, and Alamogordo beat Organ Mountain, 14-8.
2026 CLASS 5A SOFTBALL BRACKET
Class 4A
It’s a No. 1 vs. No. 2 semifinal showdown at Cleveland High School at noon Friday between top-seeded Artesia (25-4) and Aztec (21-5).
Artesia slapped 17 hits, including a Kayden Apodaca home run to go along with her pitching shutout in a 6-0 win over No. 6 Lovington on Thursday. Aztec advanced with an 11-4 win over No. 3 Silver, including a Kayci Phillips home run.
In Friday morning’s first set of elimination games, Silver faces No. 9 Goddard and Lovington faces either No. 11 Belen/No. 7 Kirtland Central.
2026 CLASS 4A SOFTBALL BRACKET
Class 3A
Top seed West Las Vegas continued to steamroll into Friday’s championship series with a 5-0 win over No. 2 Dexter on Thursday at Los Altos Park.
Superstar sophomore Malie Satete was 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs. In the circle, last season’s New Mexico Gatorade Player of the Year — as a freshman — struck out 14 in the shutout.
And the payoff? A rematch with defending state champion Cobre. The No. 4 seed ended Dexter’s season Thursday afternoon with a 1-0 win and will try to avenge Wednesday’s 3-2 quarterfinal loss to West Las Vegas.
Friday’s 3A championship series is at noon at the UNM Softball Field with an if-necessary Game 2 at 4 p.m.
2026 CLASS 3A SOFTBALL BRACKET
Class 1A/2A
In a rematch of last year’s 1A/2A championship, No. 1 Loving will look for blue trophy number 22 and its fourth-consecutive title, while No. 3 Hozho Academy seeks its first championship.
Loving (21-3) beat No. 8 Jal 8-1 on Thursday and Hohzo Academy (27-4) won three-straight elimination games — 13-12 over Capitan, 12-9 over Eunice and 14-12 over Jal — to get to the championship series, which is at noon at UNM on Friday. The if-necessary game is at 2 p.m.
2026 CLASS 1A/2A SOFTBALL BRACKET
Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.
