Southeast Nebraska will be represented at the 2025 NSAA Softball State Championships, which begin this week in Hastings: reigning champions Beatrice are back to defend their 2024 state title in Class B, with fellow district champion Norris also in the mix, while Freeman earned a spot in the Class C field by springing an upset win in their district final.
Ol’ Red 99.5 and KWBE will be there to provide live coverage of any and every game all three of those schools play starting this Wednesday at the Bill Smith Softball Complex in Hastings. Every school is guaranteed to play at least two games this week in the double-elimination tournament, and, of course, all are hoping to play a lot more than that: the state championship games are slated for next Monday, October 20, at Bowlin Stadium on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Beatrice won last year’s Class B softball state championship in thrilling fashion, and after another excellent season the Lady Orange are back to defend their title as the #2-seed in this year’s tournament. Beatrice was the top seed in the district they hosted last week. They defeated #4-seed Seward 4-2 in the semifinal before outlasting #2-seed Elkhorn 8-7 in game one of the best-of-three championship series on Friday – game two was much more like it for Beatrice, an 8-1 win to lock up a return trip to state…