2026 Little League Softball World Series: Johnston County, NC Wins the Championship

The 2026 Little League Softball World Series wrapped up Sunday at Stallings Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina, and the week delivered the kind of momentum swings that make this tournament worth watching with your own travel ball player — not just for the softball, but for what happens in the innings between the highlight-reel plays.

Here's the full day-by-day recap, from opening day through the championship, and what travel ball families can take from the whole run.

The Basics

Teams Everyone Was Searching For

A handful of teams drove most of the search traffic and bracket-watching all week — a mix of U.S. regional champs and international sides making a run.

2026 Bracket

The 12-team field split into two double-elimination brackets. Lose twice and you're out; the Orange and Purple bracket winners met in the championship game, with third place decided that same morning.

Final standings — the tournament concluded Sunday, August 9.

Orange Bracket Path

Purple Bracket Path

Johnston County, NC finished the tournament unbeaten to win it all.

Game Schedule & TV Times

Pool play (Aug 2-4) fed into a seeded double-elimination bracket. Here's the full schedule and results from the elimination bracket on — all times Eastern:

Final schedule and results — the tournament concluded Sunday, August 9.

Results So Far

Sunday, August 2

Just three games opened the tournament — the other six teams didn't debut until Monday:

• Lake Mary, FL (Southeast) put up 10 runs across the first two innings in a 14-0 run-rule win over Snohomish, WA (Northwest).
• Sangō, Japan (Asia-Pacific) ground through a mid-game weather delay to beat Toms River, NJ (Mid-Atlantic) 4-1.
• Daviess County, KY (Central) scored seven runs in the first inning on the way to an 11-1 win over Live Oak, CA (West), which had entered the World Series undefeated in regional play.

Monday, August 3

• Host-region Johnston County LL of Clayton, NC broke a close game open with 12 runs in the bottom of the third on the way to a 16-4 win over Repentigny, Quebec (Canada) in its tournament opener.
• Guayama, Puerto Rico (Latin America) trailed Sangō, Japan before answering with six runs across the final three innings to steal a 7-2 win.
• Lake Mary, FL (Southeast) beat Emilia Romagna LL of Bologna, Italy (Europe-Africa) 15-0, with seven different players recording hits — Zoey Brandon and Avery Little each finished 3-for-3.
• Johnston County LL (Host, NC) won a pitcher's duel over Greater Helotes LL of Helotes, TX (Southwest) 2-1, despite 13 strikeouts from Helotes ace Avery Cox.
• Daviess County, KY (Central) routed New England, Bristol CT 15-1 in its second straight lopsided win.

Tuesday, August 4

Pool play wrapped and the bracket moved into elimination games. Four results:

• Snohomish, WA (Northwest) beat Greater Helotes LL of Helotes, TX (Southwest) 7-3 behind Madison Locke, who went 3-for-3 with 3 runs and 4 RBI — including a first-inning home run and a bases-loaded double in the sixth — and pitched a complete game with four strikeouts.
• Toms River, NJ (Mid-Atlantic) run-ruled New England, Bristol CT 13-3 in 3.5 innings, scoring nine runs in the first inning on a bases-clearing triple from Juliana Florek-Doslik. New England's Keeva Knowles answered with a two-run triple of her own in the third.
• Sangō, Japan (Asia-Pacific) edged Live Oak, CA (West) 1-0 in a pitchers' duel — Sara Matsuda allowed just three hits and a walk with three strikeouts, while Live Oak's Charlotte Dudek struck out eight but took the loss. Japan's Mio Okamura scored the game's only run on a third-inning sacrifice bunt.
• Repentigny, Quebec (Canada) held off Emilia Romagna LL of Bologna, Italy (Europe-Africa) 2-1, with Livia Hardy striking out six over the win; Eva Benoit and Olivia Puga scored Canada's runs.

Wednesday, August 5

Two elimination games, two teams sent home:

• Toms River, NJ (Mid-Atlantic) eliminated Sangō, Japan (Asia-Pacific) 11-0, avenging a 4-1 loss to the same team on Sunday. New Jersey opened the scoring off a pair of Japanese errors, added three sacrifice flies across the first three innings, then broke it open with an eight-run sixth. Jaelyn Brown shut Japan out in the circle.
• Snohomish, WA (Northwest) eliminated Repentigny, Quebec (Canada) 9-1, scoring in the second and adding six runs across the third and fourth innings. Madison Locke threw 12 strikes over six innings for the win — with a fun wrinkle: Locke is the daughter of Team Canada softball Olympic medalist Danielle Lawrie, meaning she just knocked Canada out of the tournament.

Thursday, August 6

Both bracket leaders were decided:

• Johnston County LL (Host, NC) beat previously-unbeaten Lake Mary, FL (Southeast) 5-2, breaking the game open with five runs in the fifth inning. Anna-Lynn Clark struck out 13 over 6 innings for the win; Lake Mary's Chloe Cheek went 4⅔ innings with 5 strikeouts in the loss. Kylie Green tripled and scored for Lake Mary, and reliever Riley Tolan doubled and scored. Johnston County is 3-0 and moves straight to Saturday's Orange bracket final; Lake Mary drops to face Snohomish, WA — the same team it beat 14-0 in the tournament opener — in a win-or-go-home rematch Friday.
• Daviess County, KY (Central) shut out Guayama, Puerto Rico (Latin America) 2-0. Kentucky improves to 3-0 and gets a rest day Friday before Saturday's Purple bracket final; Puerto Rico now has to win three straight elimination games — starting Friday — just to reach Sunday's championship.

Friday, August 7

Both bracket finals were set:

• Lake Mary, FL (Southeast) eliminated Snohomish, WA (Northwest) 5-0 in a win-or-go-home rematch of the tournament opener, which Lake Mary had won 14-0. Chloe Cheek — the same pitcher who took Thursday's loss to Johnston County — threw a two-hitter with 7 strikeouts and 1 walk, and Lake Mary scored all five of its runs in the top of the first. Lake Mary advances to face Johnston County LL Saturday for the Orange bracket title.
• Toms River, NJ (Mid-Atlantic) eliminated Guayama, Puerto Rico (Latin America) 4-0. Jaelyn Brown drove in a run to make it 4-0 and was efficient in the circle, needing just five pitches to get through the third inning; Keilymar Vázquez Rosa started for Puerto Rico. Toms River advances to face Daviess County, KY Saturday for the Purple bracket title.

Saturday, August 8

Both bracket finals — the championship matchup is set:

• Johnston County LL (Host, NC) won the Orange bracket final, shutting out Lake Mary, FL (Southeast) 4-0. Anna-Lynn Clark struck out 11 for the win — her second dominant outing of the tournament after her 13-strikeout performance Thursday. North Carolina's Governor, Josh Stein, congratulated the team publicly, calling it "a beast of a game." It's Johnston County's third trip to the LLSWS championship game in the last four years. Lake Mary drops to Sunday's third-place game.
• Daviess County, KY (Central) won the Purple bracket final over Toms River, NJ (Mid-Atlantic) 2-1 in a back-and-forth game. Toms River led 1-0 after Jaelyn Brown drove in Aviana Gay in the first inning. Kentucky tied it in the fourth on Paisley Edge's RBI double, then took the lead for good in the fifth on an RBI single by Evelyn Chelstrom. Michaela Knight struck out 7 over 6 innings for the win; Jaelyn Brown took the loss despite pitching well herself. Toms River drops to Sunday's third-place game.

Sunday, August 9 — Championship

• Third place: Lake Mary, FL (Southeast) beat Toms River, NJ (Mid-Atlantic) 5-4 on a walk-off in the sixth inning. New Jersey led 2-0 early on an RBI single from Jaelyn Brown and a sacrifice fly from Briella Bognar, and retook a 4-3 lead in the fourth on an RBI double from Juliana Florek-Doslik and an RBI single from Leiana Gay. Lake Mary answered with three runs in the third off defensive miscues, then won it in the sixth when Kylie Green looped a single just under the center fielder to score Avery Little — set up by a sacrifice bunt from Brynn Fieser. Riley Tolan started for Lake Mary before Fieser closed it out in relief.
• Championship: Johnston County LL (Host, NC) beat Daviess County, KY (Central) 2-0 to win the 2026 Little League Softball World Series — North Carolina's first LLSWS softball title since the tournament moved to Greenville, and its third trip to the championship game in the last four years. Johnston County finished the tournament unbeaten across all five of its games, with Anna-Lynn Clark anchoring the pitching staff throughout. Daviess County, which hadn't lost until the final, finishes as runner-up behind Michaela Knight's strong tournament in the circle.

What This Tournament Teaches Travel Ball Families

Notice the pattern in nearly every result so far: these games aren't being decided by one big play, they're being decided by one big inning. Lake Mary's 10 runs in two innings, Daviess County's seven-run first, Johnston County's 12-run third — that's what happens when a lineup stops pressing and lets one hit turn into two, then three. It's the same thing coaches mean when they tell a team to "stay together" at the plate: momentum in softball is real, and it compounds fast in either direction.

Puerto Rico's comeback over Japan is the more useful story for most players, though. Falling behind at the LLSWS — in front of a national broadcast, in a round-robin format where every result matters — is exactly the kind of pressure that causes younger players to unravel. Instead, Guayama answered with three innings of sustained offense. That's the "next pitch" mentality in action: not fixing everything at once, just stacking one good at-bat on the next one.

And Avery Cox's 13-strikeout outing for Helotes, TX — in a loss — is worth pointing out too. A pitcher can throw the game of her life and still come up short if the lineup behind her goes quiet; that's not a reason to stop believing in the performance. Sangō's weather-delay win is another good example of mental toughness that has nothing to do with mechanics — a mid-game stoppage breaks rhythm for both the pitcher and the defense behind her, and finding a way to finish the job after sitting through a delay is its own skill.

Tuesday added two more worth talking about. Sangō's 1-0 win over Live Oak was decided by a single sacrifice bunt in the third — a reminder that in an elimination game, the at-bat that matters most is rarely the loudest one. And Snohomish's bounce-back behind Madison Locke, after getting run-ruled by Lake Mary two days earlier, is the clearest example yet: one bad loss on this stage doesn't define a team's tournament, what they do in the very next game does.

Toms River's Wednesday win is worth a closer look, too. Losing to the same team you face again days later — in an elimination game, no less — is its own kind of pressure. Instead of playing not to lose again, New Jersey came out and scored in the first inning off the other team's mistakes and never let up. That's the difference between a team that's still thinking about the last loss and one that's already moved on to the next pitch.

Lake Mary's Thursday loss is the one to sit your own player down and watch, though. This is a team that had outscored its first two opponents by a combined 29 runs — as dominant a start as you'll see at this level — and one pitcher's 13-strikeout outing turned that into a 5-2 loss and an elimination game. It's the same lesson as Avery Cox's outing three days earlier, from the other side: being the best team on paper doesn't guarantee anything on a given day, and how a team responds the very next game — not how dominant it looked before — is what people remember. Lake Mary gets an immediate chance to show that Friday, in a rematch against the same team it run-ruled in the opener.

And Friday delivered the answer, from the one player with the most to prove. Chloe Cheek took the loss for Lake Mary on Thursday — 4⅔ innings, 5 strikeouts, on the wrong side of a bracket-final-deciding game. Twenty-four hours later, she took the ball again in an elimination game and threw a two-hitter. That's the entire "next pitch" philosophy in one 24-hour window: the last outing doesn't get a vote in the next one. If your own player ever has a rough outing on a Thursday, Chloe Cheek's Friday is exactly what you point to.

Saturday belonged to Johnston County's Anna-Lynn Clark, and it's worth pointing out why. This wasn't a one-off: she struck out 13 on Thursday to eliminate a previously-unbeaten Lake Mary team, then came back four days later and struck out 11 more to shut the same team down again in the bracket final. That's not luck or a hot streak — that's a pitcher whose approach doesn't change based on the moment, whether it's a Thursday pool-play-adjacent game or a bracket final with a championship berth on the line. The lineup behind her mattered too, but a pitcher repeating her best performance on the biggest stage, twice, is the kind of consistency that's worth more to a travel ball parent than any single highlight.

The Daviess County–Toms River final is worth a look too, for a different reason: it was close the whole way, decided by one at-bat in the fourth and one in the fifth, not a blowout. Jaelyn Brown pitched well enough to win for Toms River and still lost. That's the flip side of the Avery Cox lesson from earlier in the week — sometimes the better performance is still the losing one, and the team that wins isn't always the one that played better in the circle. It's the offense that finds two runs late that decides these close ones, which is exactly what Kentucky did.

And the third-place game gave the tournament its best individual moment: Toms River's Jaelyn Brown produced runs in the first and the fourth to put New Jersey ahead twice, and it still wasn't enough. Lake Mary's walk-off started with a sacrifice bunt — a player giving up her own at-bat so a teammate could score — before Kylie Green delivered the winning hit. Nobody remembers the bunt in the box score. The team that wins usually has a player willing to make that play anyway.

Zoom out, and the whole tournament tells one story: every team that won a title game this year had already lost at least one game along the way — Johnston County was the only team that didn't lose at all, and even they needed a rematch with Lake Mary to close it out. Nobody went unchallenged. The team that lifted the trophy wasn't the team that never had a bad inning; it was the team that kept having good ones right after it.

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