The addition of one of the state's top freshmen has Vale entertaining thoughts of winning its first softball state championship.
Sophia Navarrete has dominated at the plate and in the circle for the Vikings, who are 14-0 and No. 2 in the OSAAtoday 3A coaches poll. She has bolstered a team that returned all but one starter after making the state quarterfinals last year.
“She just has a presence, and the other girls work really hard to rise to her level,” Vale coach Cirbi Morrison said. “We'd be a great team without her, but she just adds that extra to take us to that next level.”
The 5-foot-3 Navarrete is hitting .775 (31 for 40) with 13 doubles, one triple, five home runs and 32 RBIs. In 34 innings in the circle, she has allowed 11 hits, struck out 82 and walked one and has a 0.21 ERA.
Navarrete, the daughter of Vale assistant coach Dan Navarrete, moved from Ontario to Vale as a third-grader and became part of outstanding youth teams.
“She's been working on it since she was about five years old with her dad,” Morrison said. “This is what she wants to do. She wants to go play in college. She's a determined young lady. She's petite, but she's strong. She's very muscular.”
Vale not only has benefited from adding Navarrete, but also from the return of senior pitcher Emma Carpenter, who missed the 2025 season after suffering a knee injury in wrestling. Navarrete and Carpenter have joined junior Grace Chamberlain, last year's ace, to make a formidable pitching trio.
“Our three pitchers, it's a coach's dream,” Morrison said. “It's pretty unheard of. At the 3A level, if you've got one good pitcher, you can go pretty far. But I've got three.”
Carpenter, who opted not to wrestle during the winter, has “come back with a vengeance,” according to Morrison. In 24 innings, she has allowed eight hits, struck out 33 and walked two. Her ERA is 0.58.
Chamberlain also has excelled in her 23 innings of work. She has given up 15 hits, struck out 26, walked seven and posted a 2.13 ERA.
“Grace and Sophia have more speed than Emma does,” Morrison said. “Emma's got more movement. They just complement each other so well. It gives us really good looks if we want to change things up.”
The pitching depth will give the Vikings options in the postseason.
“We get to play it by ear and see,” said Morrison, a 2005 Vale graduate who took over as coach in 2019. “We can lay out the best plan. Our goal is a state championship this year, so we're going to put the best girls out there that we feel can get us to that.”
Navarrete has shut down Vale's tougher opponents this season. In a season-opening, 9-0 win over 2A/1A No. 1 Weston-McEwen, she threw a one-hitter with 19 strikeouts and no walks. She tossed a five-hitter with 15 strikeouts to beat 4A No. 8 Pendleton 5-2 and pitched a one-hitter with 16 strikeouts to blank 3A No. 4 Yamhill-Carlton 1-0.
Navarrete has an RBI in all but one of her games this season. In Friday's doubleheader sweep at Enterprise, she went 5 for 6 with a double, two home runs and seven RBIs.
“She's traveled and played in so many tournaments against high competition,” Morrison said. “She's seen a lot of pitching. Not a whole lot fazes her.”
The Vikings have beaten two other ranked teams, downing 2A/1A No. 2 Union/Cove 17-6 and 3A No. 9 Warrenton 11-1.
Vale is batting .436 as a team and averaging 11.5 runs per game. Navarrete, Chamberlain (.516, one home run, 15 RBIs) and sophomores Sadie Blake (.511, 16 RBIs) and Braelyn Keller (.447, 18 RBIs) are leading the way.
The Vikings have several players from the 3A runner-up basketball team, including senior first baseman Izzy Maag and senior second baseman Bailey Blake. They are fourth-year starters in softball, with Blake making first-team all-state in 2025.
Vale has appeared in the state championship game once, losing to Rainier 5-1 in 2014. The Vikings last made the semifinals in 2017.
Highlights from the past week:
Co-No. 2 Sherwood (14-3, 3-1) used a six-run second inning to take a 6-2 lead and held on for a 9-3 home win over No. 1 Glencoe (14-3, 2-1) on Friday in a 6A Pacific Conference game. Senior Maisy Schindler had a triple and three RBIs, junior Kaya Stevenson drove in two runs and sophomore Presley Sarono-Ramos picked up the win in the circle, allowing six hits, fanning seven and walking four. … Grant (8-7, 7-2) entered the week in first place in the 6A Portland Interscholastic League after posing a pivotal 10-6 win at McDaniel (9-8, 7-3) on April 22. The Generals scored six runs in the fourth inning to open a 9-3 lead. Freshman Uva Tomita went 3 for 5 with a double and three RBIs and junior Hazel Heron hit a two-run homer and pitched a four-hitter with nine strikeouts and eight walks. …
No. 10 Mountainside (13-4, 4-0) made an unearned run in the first inning stand up for a 1-0 home win over No. 7 Sunset (12-6, 2-2) in a 6A Metro League game Friday. Senior Skylar Hins and junior Jojo Appling combined for a three-hitter with eight strikeouts and one walk for the Mavericks. … Co-No. 2 West Linn defeated host Lake Oswego 7-2 in a 6A Three Rivers League first-place showdown April 22. The Lions (13-2, 5-0) bolted to a 5-0 lead in the second inning over the Lakers (14-3, 4-1). Seniors Mckayla Castro (2 for 5, three RBIs), Vivienne McGraw (3 for 5) and Kendall Atwood (2 for 3) led West Linn's attack. Junior Avery Wolf held Lake Oswego in check on six hits, striking out seven. …
No. 4 Dallas (12-4, 6-0) rapped 11 hits to subdue visiting Silverton 8-4 in a battle for first place in the 5A Mid-Willamette Conference on April 22. Sophomores Harlow Nelson (RBI) and Mashayla Benoit (two RBIs) each went 3 for 4 for the Dragons, who led 8-0 after three innings. Junior Maddi Jones and freshman Kyleigh Cram drove in two runs each. Jones held the Foxes (10-6, 5-1) to four hits and four runs over the first six innings, striking out 13 and walking one. … No. 1 Caldera (16-0, 8-0 5A Intermountain Conference) kept its perfect record intact by outlasting Bend 13-12 at home April 22. The Lava Bears (6-10, 4-4) led Caldera 5-0 in the first inning and 8-3 in the second inning before the Wolfpack rallied to pull ahead 12-9 in the fifth inning. Caldera had 13 hits, led by juniors Brooke Chapin (4 for 4, two doubles, three RBIs) and Analeigh Miller (2 for 3, two doubles, two RBIs) and freshman Makenzie Guerin (3 for 4, two doubles, two RBIs). …Senior Saige Casey pitched a one-hitter with eight strikeouts and no walks to propel 4A No. 1 Scappoose past 3A No. 6 Banks 1-0 on Saturday. The host Indians (15-1), who had six hits, scored the game's only run on a groundout in the fourth inning. The loss ended an eight-game winning streak for the Braves (11-3). …
No. 9 North Bend/Reedsport (11-1) suffered its first loss of the season Friday, falling at No. 2 Astoria 10-0 in six innings in a 4A nonleague game. Junior Taryen Wray showed the way for Astoria (11-4) by pitching a one-hitter with 12 strikeouts and no walks and going 3 for 4 with two doubles, a triple and two RBIs. … No. 1 Weston-McEwen (10-2, 6-1) held off No. 6 Pilot Rock/Nixyaawii 4-3 on April 23 to remain unbeaten in 2A/1A Special District 7. The visiting TigerScots led 4-0 after three innings and escaped after giving up three runs on three errors in the seventh inning. Senior Brielle Ward threw a three-hitter with 14 strikeouts and five walks and went 2 for 2 with a home run and two RBIs. ... Junior Hallie Buller had a big week for 2A/1A Lost River (9-5). She had two doubles and three RBIs in a 12-2 win over Riddle/Days Creek and went 6 for 6 with two triples, two homers and eight RBIs as the Raiders swept Illinois Valley in a doubleheader, 17-6 and 19-4.
jerryu@osaa.org
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