McPHERSON, Kan. – After winning the 4A State Softball title in 2025, the McPherson Bullpups had to regroup, losing their top two pitchers from that team. Regroup they did and for the second straight year and the third time in four seasons, the Bullpups are headed back to state. McPherson hosted the 4A West Regional 2 on Tuesday, opening with a 13-0 win over Hugoton in the semis and beating AVCTL Division 3 rival Circle in the championship game 4-1.
SEMIFINAL: W 13-0 vs. Hugoton
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | ||
| Hugoton: | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | X | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| McPherson: | 3 | 1 | 6 | 3 | X | X | X | 13 | 11 | 0 |
Although the Bullpup offense put up 13 runs in the semifinal victory over Hugoton, the story of the game was the pitching for McPherson. Carmin Pavlovich and Ashlyn Schroeder combined to throw a perfect game over the five innings of play, facing the minimum of 15 batters. After inducing a groundout to open the game, Pavlovich struck out the next eight Hugoton batters. With a 10-0 lead going into the top of the fourth, McPherson coach Stephanie Patterson handed Schroeder the ball and she retired the final six batters for the Eagles, including three strikeouts. Pavlovich and Schroeder combined to throw 67 pitches with 49 strikes in the win.
McPherson got the offense going in the bottom of the first. After a strikeout to start the game, Rylie Whitfield double and advanced to 3rd on a passed ball before being driven in by Schroeder on a ground out for the first run. Pavlovich followed with a triple and Brooke Doile got on with an error. Each of their courtesy runners, Hadley Bearley and Meg Cullinane would come around to score for the 3-0 lead after 1. McPherson added another in the second inning as Pera Bauer brought in Ava Mendoza on a ground out for a 4-0 lead.
The floodgates opened in the third inning for McPherson as they would score six more runs. Everlee Buchman got the scoring started with a two-RBI double and she came around to score on a Kynedi Huggard ground out. Kadence Zaharis followed with a triple and scored on a throwing error to put the Bullpups up 8-0. Mendoza scored on a wild pitch and Bauer on a passed ball to wrap the inning with the 10-0 lead. McPherson added three more in the fourth inning to cap the scoring. Mendoza had a two-RBI double and ended up scoring the final run on an RBI single from Bauer.
Mendoza finished 2-2 with two RBI and three runs scored. Buchman went 2-3 with two RBI and two runs and Bauer was 2-4 with two runs batted in. The Bullpups moved to 20-7 and advanced to the championship game to face Circle, which beat Larned 11-1 in five innings in the first semifinal game of the day.
CHAMPIONSHIP: W 4-1 vs. Circle
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | ||
| Circle: | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | ||
| McPherson: | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | X | 4 | 7 | 1 |
After splitting two games in the regular season, the regional championship was expected to be a battle between McPherson and Circle and it did not disappoint. Picking up where she left off in the first game on the mound for McPherson, Carmin Pavlovich retired the first five batters for the Thunderbirds before issuing a walk in the second inning. She promptly struck out the next batter to finish off two scoreless innings to start. Meanwhile, the McPherson offense put up a run in each the first and second inning on Circle pitcher Whitney Wilbur. Pera Bauer had a leadoff walk in the first and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Rylie Whitfield drove her in with an RBI single to put McPherson up 1-0 after one. In the second inning, Wilbur retired the first two Bullpup batters, but Kadence Zaharis got on board with a two-out single and was eventually driven in by a single from Bauer.
Leading 2-0 in the top of the third, Circle put pressure on McPherson for the first time. Brynne Bowman reached on a throwing error with one out and a single from Wilbur moved her over to third. Logan James brought her home on a sacrifice fly to cut McPherson’s lead to 2-1, but Pavlovich induced a ground out to get out of the inning. McPherson was held scoreless in the bottom of the third and it looked like Circle was set to tie the game in the top of the 4th. Kendyl Acker led the inning off with a double for the Thunderbirds. A groundout followed, but a hit batter put the second runner on base. Pavlovich got a strikeout after that, but the number eight hitter Bailey Fouquet spun an infield single in front of second baseman Everlee Buchman to load the bases. However on the same play, the ball bounced directly to the pitcher Pavlovich for McPherson and Acker turned too far at third base. Pavlovich saw the long turn and dove across the third base line to tag Acker out and end the inning.
That would be the final threat of the game for the Thunderbirds as Pavlovich retired nine of the next 10 batters. A single by Acker in the sixth inning was the only hit in the final three innings for Circle. Meanwhile, the Bullpups put up two more insurance runs in the fifth inning Pera Bauer reached on a single to start the inning and stole second base. For the second of three times in the game, Whitfield was intentionally walked. They both came around to score on two bunts and a single from Brooke Doile, giving McPherson a 4-1 lead, which would end up being the final score.
Pavlovich pitched the complete game with the only run being unearned off of an error. Of her 108 pitches, 74 were strikes and for the second straight game she struck out eight batters, allowing just four hits, a walk and a hit batter. At the plate, Bauer went 3-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Whitfield, Schroeder and Pavlovich all drove in runs as well.
McPherson is now 21-7 on the season and is headed to the 4A State Tournament. The quarterfinal round is scheduled to be played on Monday, May 25 at a site to be determined. Brackets will be revealed when all state qualifying teams have been determined.
