Olathe West earns decisive Kansas 6A softball championship win: State scores, results

Kansas City Star
·4 min read

Olathe West’s softball team may have suffered its biggest scare at the 6A state tournament in the first round. At KU’s Arrocha Ballpark in Lawrence, the Owls survived their first-round test against seventh-seeded Olathe North thanks to a game-winning sac-fly from senior Rori Hornung.

After that? The 6A state champion and No. 2 seed Owls (24-1) found their groove and never looked back.

Olathe West dominated Friday’s state championship game, winning 10-0 against a formidable Washburn Rural (21-4) squad that ended the perfect season for Olathe Northwest in the first semifinal on Friday.

The top-seeded Ravens were a perfect 23-0 before running into fourth-seeded Rural — and they even had the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh before the Topeka school came up with a double-play to extend the game. Rural won the marathon semifinal 3-1 in the 12th inning.

In the final, Olathe West’s Madison Walker hit a home run in the bottom of the first to put the Owls up 1-0. Even though they didn’t need it, the Owls got nine more runs of support for pitcher Brevyn Kellepouris, who threw a complete game shutout.

The Owls advanced to the final with a 5-2 win over No. 3 seed Derby (23-2) earlier in the day. Derby earned the win in the third-place game over Olathe Northwest 5-3.

Here are state softball scores from the semifinal and final rounds in Kansas:

Class 5A

In a wide-open bracket at Wichita State’s Wilkins Stadium, with the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds having been knocked out Thursday, it was No. 3 seed Valley Center (23-2) that earned the 5A state championship with a win over No. 4 seed Eisenhower (19-6).

To start the day, Eisenhower scraped past No. 8 seed Shawnee Heights (17-8) 4-3 to reach the state championship game. Valley Center won 6-0 over No. 7 seed Salina South (16-9), which wiped out No. 2 seed Basehor-Linwood a day earlier.

Shawnee Heights, which knocked top-seeded Bishop Carroll out of the tournament in an upset win Thursday, also took down the seventh-seeded Salina school 2-0 to win the third-place game.

Class 4A

The state tournament in Class 4A — both the semifinal and final rounds in held at Salina South — came down to a trio of one-run games, as top-seeded Wamego (20-1) squeezed by No. 4 seed Eudora in a 1-0 ballgame before taking the state crown in a 1-0 win over No. 2 seed McPherson.

Earlier in the day, McPherson (21-4) advanced to the final with a 5-4 victory over No. 6 seed Clearwater. Eudora (17-6) earned third place by dispatching Clearwater (15-10) by a final score of 9-5.

Class 3A

The Class 3A bracket broke open for Rossville, which earned the state title on Friday with a 2-0 win over Santa Fe Trail (21-4) in Manhattan. Of course, that was the case because Rossville eliminated both the No. 2 seed Southeast of Saline and No. 3 seed Columbus on its impressive run to the title game.

Earlier on Friday, No. 6 seed Rossville (20-4) earned a 6-4 semifinal victory over Southeast of Saline while Santa Fe Trail took out top-seeded Haven. Haven ended the year 24-2 with a third-place win over Southeast of Saline (22-4) by a final score of 8-3.

Class 2-1A

State champion McLouth proved extremely deserving of its No. 1 listing atop Class 2-1A. In fact, McLouth didn’t allow a single run on Friday, earning a 10-0 win over No. 4 seed Eli-Saline before capping off a perfect 26-0 season with a 3-0 win over No. 6 seed St. Marys (20-6) in the championship game.

In the third-place game, Eli-Saline defeated Bluestem 5-4, finishing the year 20-4. No. 2 seed Bluestem, which fell 8-1 in the semifinals against St. Marys, ended the year 23-3 at Green Sports Complex in Pratt.