Jamestown Blue Jays, Carrington Cardinals Earn Spots in Softball Preseason Polls

Avery Graves hit .470 with five home runs and 46 RBIs for Jamestown last season. She is back for 2026, and so are most of the Blue Jays who went 17-14-1 a year ago. North Dakota Softball All-Stars took notice: Jamestown landed at No. 5 in the Class A preseason coaches' poll, and Carrington checked in at No. 10 in Class B, giving Stutsman County two programs with stated expectations to uphold before the first pitch has crossed a plate.

The Blue Jays return a strong senior core that includes Graves alongside Marissa Moltzen, Sophia Bond, Jordan Mikkelson and Brynn Sorenson. Bond provides versatility in the outfield while also hitting .378 and scoring 30 runs a year ago. Pitcher Madilyn Hoff is expected to handle a heavy workload in the circle, with additional pitching depth coming from Megan Jarrett and Morgan Scott, who will step into expanded roles. That depth behind Hoff is the team's clearest question mark: the Blue Jays bring back bats capable of competing in Class A, but how far Jamestown goes in May will depend largely on whether Jarrett and Scott can hold their own against top-tier competition.

Blue Jays head coach Mike Soulis believes the team's identity is already clear. "Our identity is probably just a team-first approach," Soulis said, calling it one of the most cohesive groups he has coached. That culture will be tested early. Soulis offered a measured take on what Softball Day in North Dakota will actually reveal: "We're not going to be in the state tournament based on the results of the first two games in the bubble," he said, adding the Blue Jays will take on West Fargo Horace at 7 a.m. — and then face defending Class A state champion Williston, the team sitting atop the same poll that placed Jamestown fifth. That matchup against Williston, all of it happening under the roof of the University of Jamestown's Nelson Family Bubble, is the early-season measuring stick: a win validates the ranking; a loss reframes the conversation.

For Carrington, the poll placement tells a different kind of story. The Cardinals sit 10th in Class B, a ranking that follows a 2025 season in which Carrington made the state tournament for the first time and finished 11-11, their first time reaching at least a .500 record. Central Cass, the 2025 Class B champion, tops this year's rankings. The Cardinals program only launched in 2022, and the preseason recognition reflects how quickly head coach Brady Smith has built something real in a small-school landscape where continuity is hard to maintain.

The 2026 NDHSAA Class B Softball State Tournament will be held May 28-30 in Jamestown at Lyle "Trapper" Lawrence Field, located at 4th Ave and 14th St. SE, with Jamestown High School Athletic Director Jim Roaldson serving as tournament manager. That means if Carrington can build on its momentum and return to the state field, it will do so in Jamestown itself — added motivation for a program still writing its early history.

The preseason poll carries no seeding weight and will bend to results as April and May unfold. But for two programs with recent momentum and a shared home in Stutsman County's orbit, being named at all is the kind of early-spring signal that fills bleachers and gives youth players something to aspire toward.