Here are the standings for all softball districts involving Big Country schools (through April 5):
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Trailing Wichita Falls Memorial 4-1 after two and a half innings, the Abilene High softball team found itself in an unfamiliar spot Thursday at the AHS softball field.
But after mustering just one run through the first two innings, the Lady Eagles scored 10 runs over their final four trips to the plate, chasing Lady Mavericks starter Madi Walker after just 2.1 innings before abusing reliever Sam Lail for seven runs in an an 11-4 win.
The victory, which came on Strikeout Cancer and Teacher Appreciation night for AHS, kept the Lady Eagles (17-9-1 overall) perfect in District 4-5A play at 5-0. With it, they remain game ahead of second-place Wylie, which they’ll face for the second time April 14 after matchups against Cooper (Tuesday) and Wichita Falls Legacy (April 10).
The end result might have been the same, but the journey to get there was anything but when the Wylie and Cooper softball teams started the second half of District 4-5A play Thursday night at Bulldog Field.
The Lady Cougars were without normal shortstop Abbey Alvarado and with six players playing different defensive positions than they did two weeks earlier against the Lady Bulldogs, they committed seven errors while Wylie’s offense pounded out 12 hits in a 13-2 win.
Thursday’s win gave the Lady Bulldogs a season sweep of the Southtown Showdown after taking the first game 5-2 at Cooper on St. Patrick’s Day.
The Wylie softball team closed out the first half of District 4-5A play with a 10-0 thrashing of Wichita Falls Memorial on Tuesday night behind a stellar effort in the circle from Avie Faries.
Faries retired all nine batters that she faced in the game, recording five strikeouts, while benefiting from an offense that had six doubles in the first three innings. Faries needed just 35 pitches, including 25 strikes, to complete her easy night.
Wylie (15-12 overall, 3-1 in district) wasted no time putting the Lady Mavericks (12-10-1, 1-3) on the ropes as Faries retired Memorial in order on just 11 pitches in the first inning before the Lady Bulldogs offense got rolling with a six-run first inning — doing most of that damage with two outs in the frame.
As one would expect, the Jim Ned Relays had a quality field of competition last week, opening the door for one of its athletes to snag Big Country Preps Player of the Week honors.
So it’s not surprising that its top performer sits atop of our weekly list of highlighted competitors from around the area.
Wall senior Bryson McFarden takes our weekly accolade after medaling five times in Tuscola with four golds and a silver.
Wylie junior Avie Faries pitched a good game Friday against crosstown rival Abilene High. AHS senior Avah Reyes pitched a great one.
That was the difference as the Lady Eagles took sole possession of the District 4-5A lead with a 2-0 win on their home field.
Taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning, Reyes worked around one hit and a pair of walks to finish with a complete-game shutout, facing one batter over the minimum to outduel Faries, who allowed single runs in the third and sixth innings to take a hard-luck loss.
HASKELL — The first time Haskell and Hawley met on the softball diamond this season, the Maidens edged the Lady Cats 7-6 in a thrilling eight-inning road win on March 9.
Flash forward to Friday in Haskell, with both teams expecting another nail-biter and the results didn’t match what was anticipated. Haskell simply overwhelmed Hawley in the rematch, ending the contest via the 15-run rule with a 19-4 win in four innings.
Paige Scheets was 4-for-4 with a double, a homer and six RBIs and Rebekah Cunningham was 3-for-3 with a two-run homer to lead Haskell (10-6, 5-1 District 8-2A), which remains a game behind first-place Anson in the league race.
Hawley fell to 15-8 and 3-3, missing its chance to force a second-place tie with the Maidens. The Lady Cats were led by Lily Bailey, who was 2-for-2 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored.
Here are the area’s softball statistical leaders through March 26:
Statistics are from throughout the Big Country Preps circulation area as submitted by coaches. These lists will be continually updated as we receive more submissions.
If your favorite team is missing, please give your head coach a friendly reminder to check his or her email for our weekly stat request or send Evan Ren a note at Evan.Ren@BigCountryPreps.com.
In the pitcher’s circle, there are varying degrees of perfection. And in the case of our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, that statement was fully illustrated on Friday in a 6-0 Clyde win over Merkel.
Yes, CHS freshman Brynli Reynolds threw a perfect game. But this wasn’t your standard, every day, run-of-the-mill, garden variety perfecto.
In fact, it may have been the most dominating performance by a baseball or softball pitcher the Big Country has seen in the last two decades.
Aside from retiring 21 straight hitters from a very good Merkel team (19-2), Reynolds fanned the first 17 batters she faced and finished with 20 strikeouts. She also helped herself at the plate, going 1-for-2 with an RBI.
It was the second time this season that the Clyde freshman has taken our weekly accolade.
CLYDE — You know you’re witnessing a masterful pitching performance when fans of the opposition have been reduced to cheering foul balls. And in Friday’s 6-0 Clyde win over Merkel, CHS hurler Brynli Reynolds delivered exactly that — a game so dominating that any contact made by the opposition was greeted with encouragement.
To begin with, Reynolds tossed a perfect game against a Merkel team that entered the contest with a 19-1 overall record. There were no hits, no walks and no Clyde errors while 21 straight Merkel hitters were retired.
But that doesn’t fully illustrate what occurred at Clyde’s Hanner Sports Complex. In fact, it undersells it.
Reynolds, you see, is only a freshman. And in seven innings of work against a legitimate district title contender, she struck out 20 batters. Not only that, but she fanned the first 17 hitters she faced, with the only ball put into play being a routine groundball out to second base by McKinley Crouch with two outs in the sixth inning.
Lost in all this was an effective pitching performance by Crouch, who allowed four earned runs on eight hits against a 19-0 Clyde team with 11 strikeouts of her own.
The Lady Badgers fell to 19-2 overall and 3-1 in District 6-3A. Clyde is now 6-0 in district.
The Wylie softball team kicked off District 4-5A play with an impressive victory Tuesday, riding a fast start at the plate and a strong pitching effort from Avie Faries and Shae McAllister to a 5-2 win over crosstown rival Cooper at the Cougar Field.
The Lady Bulldogs followed a two-run first inning with another run in the second to take a 3-0 lead, and that was all the run support necessary for their two pitchers, who combined to limit the Lady Cougars to four hits and trio of walks in the win.
Faries started and tossed four shutout innings to earn the winning decision before giving way to McAllister, who allowed two runs (one earned) in a three-inning save. Tuesday’s outcome improved Wylie (13-10 overall) to 1-0 in league play, creating an early tie atop the 4-5A standings with Abilene High (13-9-1, 1-0), which defeated Wichita Falls Memorial 7-2 in Tuesday’s other league game.
Our Big Country Preps Player of the Week earned the accolade on the state’s biggest stage.
Jayton senior guard Sean Stanaland was a big contributor in several areas for the Jaybirds in a surprisingly easy 78-45 win over Kennard in the Class 1A Division II state title game. This began with the 28 points he scored to help JHS to its third straight championship.
He also pulled down 15 rebounds to go with five assists and three steals as Jayton capped its season with a victory in San Antonio’s Alamodome.
Trailing by one with runners on second and third and no outs in the bottom of the seventh, the Abilene High softball team looked poised to rally for a walk-off win over Wolfforth Frenship in its nondistrict finale Friday at the AHS softball field.
But a series of unfortunate events left the Lady Eagles with a 3-2 loss on a frustrating night where missed opportunities were a recurring theme.
AHS had a runner gunned down at the plate in the first inning and failed to cash in on a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the fourth, which left the game tied at 1-1 until the top of the sixth, when the Lady Tigers scored a pair of runs to set up the seventh inning’s dramatics. Down 3-1 in their last at-bat, the Lady Eagles didn’t flinch, getting a leadoff single from Jazlynn Johnson-Burns and an RBI double from Avah Reyes around a Leilani Valero walk to narrow the gap to one, but the rally would end there due to an out on the basepaths and back-to-back strikeouts with the bases loaded.
A week after Lipan’s Court Gaylor took our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award, yet another Lipan player has done the same thing.
And by sheer coincidence, her last name is Gaylor as well.
This time around it is freshman guard Sydni Gaylor, Court’s Younger sister, who has taken the accolade after leading the LHS girls to a Class 2A Division II state title in San Antonio on Thursday.
Helping the Lady Indians to a 42-35 over perennial power Martin’s Mill, Sydni finished with 23 points and was voted by attending media as the game’s MVP.
And the good news (at least for Lipan) is, this kid is only a freshman.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Wall-Jim Ned softball (85 images)” →
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: 2026 Eula Softball Tournament (126 images)” →
EULA — For the second straight season, the District 6-3A opener between the Wall and Jim Ned softball programs was impacted by the girls state basketball tournament in San Antonio.
In 2025, Wall delayed the scheduled game by one day because of the Jim Ned girls basketball team playing for a state championship. Following the season, the decision was made to push back district play by one week to avoid having the situation repeat itself — only to see the basketball season get pushed back by one week. Returning the favor from last season, Jim Ned coach Erica Jones was more than willing to push the game to Saturday.
After the massive rainstorm early Saturday morning rendered Jim Ned’s field unplayable, the programs were faced with a dilemma — find another field or postponement.
Ultimately, they moved the game to Pirate Field and played after Eula’s softball tournament concluded, and Jim Ned fended off No. 12 Wall 13-10 in an offensive slugfest under the lights. Runs were scored in every half-inning of the contest except for the top of the third.
Entering the week at 35-1 and ranked No. 1 in Class 2A, the Lipan Indians have won 33 straight games since suffering their only loss of the year to Class 4A Dallas Roosevelt in mid-November.
At the heart of that success has been standout point guard Court Gaylor, who performed at a high enough level in LHS’ first two playoff games to claim our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award.
When Cisco junior guard Carter Toof is on his game, there is little one can do to stop him. He’s going to get his point, whether you like it or not.
That was the case last week when Toof helped Cisco to a win over Abilene TLCA with 43 points, 14 rebounds and three assists. He followed that with 20 points, seven boards, four assists and three steals in a playoff warmup loss to Benjamin.
After recognizing the top pitchers, catchers, infielders and outfielders that the Big Country softball scene has to offer, we close our position rankings series with a celebration of versatility.
For the final installment in our five-part series, we take a look at the top utility players, ranking our top-10 multi-position standouts to watch in 2026.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading through these lists and encourage you to come back next week when we’ll feature the top baseball players in the Big Country.
After spending the first three days of our softball position rankings series in the dirt, we move the grass for Day 4.
For the penultimate installment of our five-part series, we take a look at the top outfielders in the Big Country, ranking our top 10 with others to watch in 2026.
We hope you enjoy our list.
After highlighting the top pitchers and catchers on the Big Country softball scene the past two nights, it’s time to turn our spotlight to the field.
For the third installment in our five-part position rankings series, we list our top-10 infielders in the area for the 2026 season.
We hope you enjoy reading through our rankings.
After kicking off our softball position rankings series on Monday with the pitchers, we now shift our attention to their battery mates.
For the second installment in our five-part series, we rank the area’s top 10 catchers with others to watch for in 2026.
We hope you enjoy our list.
Aside from being a traditional area area power in softball, the Clyde Lady Bulldogs are known for getting off to fast starts every spring and quickly establishing the fact that they’re a team to be reckoned with.
But this year, with freshman pitcher Brynli Reynolds making a major splash, Clyde is not only good, it’s scary good.
At this point, the Lady Bulldogs are 3-0, with wins over good teams from Hawley (8-1), Littlefield (10-0) and most recently, over three-time defending 3A state champion Coahoma (7-0).
Reynolds, who has taken our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, tossed a no-hitter in the Hawley win. And in 21 innings of work last week, she allowed only one earned run on seven hits with — get this — 51 strikeouts. Yes, you read that correctly.
With the softball season kicking off last week, it’s time to take a look at the players who will be making the biggest impact throughout the Big Country Preps coverage area in 2026.
For the first installment in a five-part series that will cover all position groups on the area softball scene, we’ll be taking a look at the Big Country’s top pitchers, ranking our top 10 with a list of others to watch this spring.
We hope you enjoy reading through our list.
Of all the Big Country area collegiate signees in the 2025-26 school year, what would the odds be for two of them to be from a tiny school from the six-man ranks? And what would the odds be that both would sign to participate in two sports?
What are the odds that they would have the same last name yet be of no relation? And what would the odds be that both would play in the prestigeous Military Appreciation Bowl in Frisco on Dec. 21 (featuring several of the top players in the country)?
Would the planets have to be aligned for both of them to be among the top academic athletes in the Big Country? Or for them both to sign with separate military academies to participate as two-sport athletes at the DI level?
Five local athletes put pen to paper at local Signing Day ceremonies on Wednesday, making their college decisions official in front of friends, family and the coaches who helped make their special day possible.
At Wylie, baseball players Colby Garrett and Hudson Tuley signed with Ranger College and McLennan Community College, respectively, while softball player Olivia Volz signed to continue her athletic and academic career at Cisco College.
And over at Abilene High, softball pitcher Avah Reyes gave her signature to Odessa College, while soccer player Rheauna De La Garza signed to play at Seminole State College in Seminole, Okla.
OTHER 2025 ALL-BIG COUNTRY PREPS TEAMS
Our All-Big Country Preps Softball and Baseball Teams, released Saturday and Sunday, respectively, are in place to honor those who achieved the most on-field success in 2025. It is off the field, however, where character, grit, and work ethic are often measured. And it is with our Big Country Preps All-Hustle Team that we wish to honor those players, male and female, who were (simply put) the hardest-working, best teammates in the area this spring.
This team isn’t about who the best baseball and softball players were.
The All-Hustle team honors effort, discipline, toughness, coachability and selflessness — traits that coaches wish they had in every player and upon which championships are built.
It is for that reason that this team is largely selected by area coaches and described in their own words.
Big Country Preps is now honored to present these individuals to you — the best team players (boys and girls) that the Big Country had to offer during the 2025 season.
The players below are listed in no particular order.
Here are our superlative award winners for the 2025 All-Big Country Preps softball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our first-team selections for the 2025 All-Big Country Preps softball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our second-team selections for the 2025 All-Big Country Preps softball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to release our 2025 All-Big Country Preps Softball teams.
Here, you will find our Rising Stars Team honoring the top freshmen and sophomores in the Big Country.
For the rest of this year’s softball selections, please click the links below.
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AUSTIN — Perhaps no softball pitcher in Big Country history has been more intimidating than Coahoma’s Hannah Wells, with a fearsome look of determination and velocity to match it.
But in the wake of Thursday’s 6-1 win over Lexington in the Class 3A DII State Championship game, Wells showed that she has a soft side, bursting into tears as soon as the final out was made at Red and Charline McCombs Field
The win clinched the third straight state championship for the Bulldoggettes (35-1), who became the first team in UIL history to record three straight state titles in softball. Wells, a senior, was the winning pitcher in all three, with Thursday’s win officially being her last at Coahoma.
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Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Snyder-Aubrey softball state semifinal playoff (30 images)” →
HOLLIDAY – Hannah Wells’ prolific high school career is ending the only place it was meant to end.
But Wells and her Coahoma teammates had to play twice Saturday to ensure a trip to Austin would occur after S&S Consolidated snapped the Bulldogettes’ 90-game winning streak.
How would Coahoma respond after suffering its first defeat in more than two years? With complete domination.
WEATHERFORD — Entering the second day of their Class 1A state semifinals series with Jonesboro one win shy of a fourth consecutive trip to the University of Texas’ Red & Charline McCombs Field, the Hermleigh Lady Cardinals saw their playoff journey end in heartache Saturday at Weatherford’s WHS Softball Complex.
Coming off a 10-8 win in the series opener Thursday at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, coach Sammy Winters’ team couldn’t close out a feisty Lady Eagles squad, losing Game 2 by a 13-3 margin in five innings before dropping a 7-6 heartbreaker in the series’ decisive third game.
With those results, the Lady Cardinals closed their season at 25-4 — one win shy of the Class 1A state championship game.
HOLLIDAY — Effective pitching, cleanly played defense and raucous enthusiasm is what one generally expects from a softball state semifinal.
And that is precisely what two-time defending state champion Coahoma and Sadler S&S Consolidated delivered in Game 1 of a 3A DII state semi on Friday when the Bulldoggettes topped the Lady Rams 2-0 at Holliday High School.
Hannah Wells tossed a one-hit shutout and hit a fourth-inning solo homer to lift Coahoma (33-0-1) which is now one win away from returning to the state title game for a fourth straight year.
It was the 90th straight win for Coahoma, which can clinch a trip to Austin if it defeats S&S (26-2) in Game 2. Action picks up again at Holliday High School at noon on Saturday. Game 3, if needed, will follow 30 minutes after Game 2.

STEPHENVILLE — The Snyder Lady Tigers dropped the opener of their Class 4A Division II state semifinal series on Wednesday, falling 2-0 to Aubrey at the Stephenville softball field.
Sydnee Gomez pitched around seven hits and eight walks to limit a potent Lady Chaparrals lineup to just two runs, but SHS could never solve Aubrey starter Mya Cherry, who surrendered just three hits and three walks in a complete-game shutout.
That allowed the Lady Chaparrals to take the win with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, putting the Lady Tigers in a must-win situation when the series resumes at 7 p.m. Thursday back at Stephenville. If Snyder can force a Game 3, the series would then be decided at 2 p.m. Saturday.

With 10 combined fielding errors, it may not have been the prettiest game of softball played by either team. But by the end of the evening, the Hermleigh Lady Cardinals played well enough to defeat Jonesboro, 10-8 in Game 1 of a Class 1A State Semifinal at Tarleton State University.
Dejah Richardson was 2-for-5 with a triple and four RBIs and Peyton Miller delivered seven solid innings of pitching to lead Hermleigh (25-2), which now leads the series 1-0. Jonesboro (16-10-1) was led by Julie Henderson, who was 3-of-4 with two RBIs.
Action will resume on Saturday with Game 2 at 5 p.m. in Weatherford. Game 3 (if needed) will take place 30 minutes after Game 2.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Haskell-Sundown softball region championship playoff (30 images)” →