BALDWIN CITY, Kan. – The McPherson Bullpups qualified for the 4A State Tournament for the third time in four seasons and officially began defense of their 2025 4A State title on Monday at Baker University. In a hard-fought quarterfinal battle, the Bullpups fell to top-seeded Fort Scott 3-2 to see their season come to a close.
4A STATE QUARTERFAL: L to Fort Scott 3-2
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | ||
| McPherson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | ||
| Fort Scott | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | X | 3 | 4 | 1 |
After Kyndal Aikin pitched a 1-2-3 top of the first inning for Fort Scott, the Tigers attacked early on offense. Leadoff hitter Raylee Cowan triple on a bloop hit to center field and would later score on a stolen base to give Fort Scott the 1-0 lead. Despite the tough start, McPherson pitcher Carmin Pavlovich would go on to retire the next 12 batters the Tigers sent to the plate. In what became a pitcher’s duel, the scored stayed at 1-0 until the top of the sixth inning.
McPherson got a leadoff bunt single from Pera Bauer to get the offense going, then Rylie Whitfield singled to center and a fielding error allowed Bauer to score and Whitfield to advance to third. Ashlyn Schroeder followed with an RBI single to bring in Whitfield and give the Bullpups the 2-1 advantage. Aikin reeled things in from there for Fort Scott, limiting the damage to just two runs.
Undeterred, the Tigers responded quickly in the bottom of the sixth. Number nine hitter Ali Wheeler singled to leadoff the inning and stole second base. Cowan came up big again, driving in Wheeler with an RBI double to tie the game at two. After Cowan stole third, Kaylee Aikin grounded out to first, but was able to drive Cowan in for the go-ahead run. Pavlovich would retire the next two batters on groundouts, but the Tigers took a one-run lead into the top of the seventh. Freshman Everlee Buchman led off with a single, but Kyndal Aikin was able to retire the final three batters with a strikeout sandwiched between two groundouts for the Bullpups.
Both Aikin and Pavlovich went the distance for their respective teams on the mound. Pavlovich pitched six innings as the Tigers did not need to bat in the seventh as the home team. She struck out eight, surpassing the 100 strikeout mark and finishing the season with 101. Aikin registered nine strikeouts and no walks, moving her totals to 138 strikeouts and just 11 walks on the season. She improved to 13-0 with the win, while Pavlovich finished 11-4 on the mound.
McPherson finished with six hits, with no player having more than one. The Bullpups closed out the 2026 campaign at 21-8. Fort Scott had four hits, led by Cowan who went 2-3 with a double, a triple and an RBI. The Tigers are now 26-3 and move on to face 24-4 Rock Creek on Wednesday at 3:00 in Lawrence in the 4A State semifinals.
