MANHATTAN -- It was one of those games where no matter what Wichita Collegiate did, Minneapolis had an answer.

In the 2021 Class 3A state quarterfinals, Collegiate went into the state tournament as the No. 2 seed and as Spartan coach Joe Gehrer said, "kind of thought we were pretty good."

Which the Spartans were. But on that day, Minneapolis just had it.

"They got the hitting bug at the right time," Gehrer said. "It didn't matter what we threw, what we did. I think they had 15 hits and nine of them were with two strikes against our No. 1 pitcher. We even bounced a ball up there that a kid hit down the line for a double. Everything was going their way. and we just ran into an absolute machine."

That part, Gehrer could accept. Sometimes, that's just baseball.

The part that didn't set well was how his team responded in that 11-0 drubbing.

"I thought we crumbled upon ourselves," he said. "We started bickering back and forth, blaming everybody. We lost our focus and unity as a team."

That setback became a driving force throughout the offseason and into the 2022 season. And given a shot at redemption in Manhattan this year, this time as the tourney's No. 1 seed, Collegiate took full advantage.

After shaking off a somewhat sluggish start in Thursday's quarterfinal to beat 8-seeded Goodland 7-1, Collegiate was on top of its game Friday. The Spartans used a five-run fifth inning to jump-start a 7-2 win over Girard in the semifinals and then built a 5-0 lead through two innings of the championship game en route to a 10-3 victory over Columbus.

Collegiate finished the season with a 23-1 record.

"We had a great day," Gehrer said. "Our group was ready for this after the sting of last year's loss and having pretty much the same crew. ... Every practice, it was talked about what we needed to change from that day last year. There was a lot, but the nice thing was everybody experienced it, one through nine in the lineup. They worked really hard in the offseason and that carried into the season."

Pitching depth was a strength for Collegiate this season with the Spartans coming into state with a team ERA of 1.574, having allowed just 45 runs all season and striking out 176 while walking just 51. That strength certainly showed up in a big way at the state tournament. 

Hayden Malaise and Brett Black combined for a four-hitter in the quarterfinal win over Goodland with Malaise working just 1.2 innings so he was able to come back and pitch on Friday. He got the start in the semifinal against Girard and delivered six innings of work, striking out 10 before giving up two runs in the seventh after Collegiate had built its 7-0 lead.

In the title game, Landon Ramsey scattered three hits and three runs over five innings with two of the runs coming after Collegiate had taken a commanding 10-1 lead. Drew Charbonneau finished it out, allowing one hit in two innings of work.

"Winning that first one (Thursday) really loosened us up and we had fun playing the game, because we were kind of tight to begin with," Gehrer said. "We were able to get our pitching set up to do what we needed to do today. We knew what we'd get from Hayden in the first game and he was unbelievable. And we knew the next two guys were very capable and Drew and Landon were up to the task today."

The bats that were slow to get going against Goodland came alive on Friday as Collegiate pounded out nine hits against Girard and 10 against Columbus. Black, Jace Campbell and Brett Wetta each had two hits against Girard with Wetta driving in two, while Ashtun Villagomez had three hits and drove in two in the title game with Ramsey and Brady Hunt each driving in two with Ramsey's two-run single keying the Spartans' four-run second inning.

"We kind of broke the seal (against Goodland) and hitting is contagious with us," Gehrer said. "Once we got that first one, it relaxed everybody and even our outs today we hit the ball hard right at somebody. We see that as a win."

The title was the first for Collegiate since 2001 when the Spartans sent back-to-back with Geher a standout player for the Spartans and his dad, Mike, the coach. Mike was on the bench again for the latest title, this time as Joe's assistant coach.

"It's such a special experience," Joe said. "Not a lot of people get to work with their parents and I've had that blessing really coaching with him since I was 9 years old, traveling across the country with him. I'll cherish every minute of it."

Columbus (22-3) had knocked off Bishop Ward 9-3 in its semifinal game to reach the championship game for the first time in program history, riding Landin Midgett's inside-the-park grand slam in the fourth to break a 3-3 tie.

Ward bounced back to top Girard 7-6 for third place.