SALINA, Kan. – The McPherson Bullpups softball team used an outstanding pitching effort from Addison Chapman and timely offense on their way to their first ever softball state championship on Friday. After a 7-0 shutout of Clearwater in the semifinals, the Bullpups battled a tough Eudora team in the 4A state championship game. McPherson scored a run in each of the first four innings and finished with a 4-1 win to finish the season at 31-0.
Chapman pitched 14 innings on day two, picking up both wins for the Bullpups. For the tournament, she pitched all 21 innings for the Bullpups, giving up just two runs during the tournament. She also had a combined 19 strikeouts over three games and allowed only 10 hits. Chapman finished her season 16-0 on the mound.
SEMIFINAL: W 7-0 vs. Clearwater
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | ||
| Clearwater: | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | ||
| McPherson: | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | X | 7 | 9 | 0 |
After giving up a leadoff single and a walk through the first three batters of the first inning, Addison Chapman faced the minimum number of batters through the second and sixth innings. She gave up a double in the seventh, but worked around it, finishing a complete game shutout. For the game, Chapman allowed just four baserunners with three hits and a walk for the Indians. She also struck out eight Clearwater batters.
Offensively, the Bullpups put two on by way of walks in the first inning, leading to a two-RBI double by Addie Herrera to take a 2-0 lead after one. Kynedi Huggard singled and was driven in by Chapman in the third.
Leading 3-0 going into the fifth inning, Chapman reached on an error and Pera Bauer singled to put two on with one out. Chapman was driven in on an RBI single by Haely Hagemann, while Bauer came home on a ground out by Herrera. Hagemann eventually scored on a single from Rylie Whitfield to put McPherson up 6-0.
Huggard led off the seventh with a triple and was brought home on a sacrifice fly by Carmin Pavlovich to cap the scoring.
Leading the offense, Herrera finished 1-3 with three runs batted in, while Chapman went 2-3 with an RBI.
CHAMPIONSHIP: W 4-1 vs. Eudora
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | ||
| Eudora: | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
| McPherson: | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | X | 4 | 6 | 0 |
Entering the state championship game, Eudora had not yielded a single run in the postseason. After posting shutouts in their two regional wins, the Cardinals won 4-0 over Rock Creek in the quarterfinals and 2-0 over Fort Scott in the semifinals. Pitching phenom and KU signee Sam Claire had registered 23 strikeouts and just one walk in the first two games of the state tournament. During the Fort Scott win, she set the single season record for strikeouts at Eudora. However, the unbeaten Bullpups were not fazed.
After a 1-2-3 top of the first inning by Addison Chapman and the McPherson defense, Chapman provided an immediate jolt for the offense with a leadoff triple. A wild pitch from Claire brought her home and McPherson held a 1-0 lead after one inning. Chapman retired three straight again in the second and Ava Romero led off the bottom of the inning with a single. A couple wild pitches later, she also scored and put McPherson up 2-0 after two.
Chapman retired the bottom of the order in the top of the third. Haely led off the bottom of the third with a double and two batters later, Rylie Whitfield drove her in with a single and McPherson led 3-0 after three. Chapman got the first batter of the fourth out as she ended up disposing of the first ten batters for the Cardinals. However, a walk and a hit batter put two on and Claire helped her own cause with an RBI single to put Eudora on the board. McPherson would answer again, though. With two outs, Cora Pavlovich singled and two batters later, Pera Bauer drove her home to extend the lead back out to three at 4-1 after four innings.
The pitchers controlled the game the rest of the way. Despite her toughest outing of the season, Claire still registered ten strikeouts for Eudora, bringing her single season record total to 253 for the Cardinals. Chapman had the last laugh, though. She reached base all four times against Claire on offense, going 2-2 with a triple and a run scored. She also had seven strikeouts of her own and gave up just two hits to the Eudora offense. Chapman finished the season at 16-0 and had 143 strikeouts in 110 innings pitched.
Also of note, Daryl Hoelting won his sixth state championship of his career. After leading Salina South to two and Sacred Heart to three more in Salina, he returned to his old stomping grounds at South to lead the Bullpups to their first title in program history.
