LAWRENCE — Trailing by two runs as the team went up to bat in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Olathe Northwest Ravens saw their championship hopes start to fade during the Class 6A softball state final on May 24 at Arrocha Ballpark in Lawrence.

Haysville Campus opened the title game with two early runs and responded to each flourish of offense by the Ravens with homers as the Colts built up a 4-2 advantage. 

But any sense of control by Campus in the game slipped away when Olathe Northwest senior third baseman Kendall Yarnell headed to the batter’s box.

With runners on first and second, Yarnell watched Campus senior pitcher Ava Baker throw a ball and strike before she finally decided to take a swing. 

“I knew I kind of wanted to just see a couple more pitches,” Yarnell said. “Then I just saw the one.”

Yarnell blasted the ball over the center field wall and put her team ahead for the first time in the game, a lead that the Ravens refused to relinquish. Olathe Northwest powered through to score five more runs on the way to a 10-4 victory to win the state championship.
  Before Yarnell’s fifth inning at-bat, Olathe Northwest head coach Shawn Lopez stopped his star slugger for a very short chat.

Lopez had a simple message for Yarnell: “Be clutch.”

“I turned right back around and she did just that,” Lopez said. “She just caught one and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ It was just poetic.”
 

With that bomb, her 15th homer of the year and second at state, Yarnell extended her all-time state record for career home runs to 47.

Because of Yarnell's track record of performing in the clutch, teammates such as Severino were not surprised when she delivered in the biggest moment of the season.

“I knew it as soon as (Yarnell) went up to bat,” Severino said. “She's been so dialed in this week and we've been kind of waiting on one of those Kendall bombs, so I think it came at the perfect time.

“When she has runners in scoring positions, she's elite and we know that. It’s just so awesome to see her really do the job when we needed it.”

Lopez said he’s always impressed with Yarnell and her performances like that one, but he’s also never surprised by it.

“I'm not surprised it was her, but you know what, I wouldn't be surprised if it was any of them to be honest,” Lopez said. “We've worked on the approach that they take and which pitches to swing at now. We don't always do it, but we strive for that. They really strung them together today.”

Campus started strong in the one, scoring two runs in the first inning. Campus freshman second baseman Emerleigh Cooper sent in the first run with a triple off a line drive to center field. Cooper would reach home on a pop-fly single from senior outfielder Kylah Parson a few batters later.

Olathe Northwest looked to close the gap in the bottom of second as junior outfielder Hannah Butterbaugh stepped up to the plate with junior catcher Lily Winright on second and junior outfielder Kennedy Glassford on third. Butterbaugh hit a grounder to send Glassford home, but also allowed freshman shortstop Alexis Butler to put out Winright at third.
 

The Ravens had just one out before senior Taylor Johnson hit a ground ball into a double play. Campus senior third baseman Lillian Clements fired the ball to Cooper for the out at second and Cooper’s throw to senior Gabrielle Stauffer beat Johnson to first, allowing the Colts to get out of the inning with a one-run lead still intact.

After a scoreless third inning, Campus extended its lead back to two when senior pitcher London Ysidro hammered the ball past right field and into the Jayhawk on the indoor softball building.

Severino mimicked Ysidro with her own solo homer to start the bottom of the fourth, only she sent her ball over the center field wall to ricochet off the scoreboard.

Cooper got in on the action with a solo homer to start the fifth, giving Campus a 4-2 lead.

That’s when Yarnell broke up the solo shots with her three-run homer in the fifth. Before her trip to the plate, senior outfielder Val Galligan and sophomore second baseman Avery Laha both hit singles by dropping fly balls into left field and setting the table for the go-ahead score.

In an attempt to achieve her coach’s instructions to “be clutch,” Yarnell said she focused on drowning out the crowd noise. She knew that would be the best way to avoid getting too nervous for such a big moment.

“I knew I had to go in with a clear mind, or else I'd be swinging for the fences and I'd probably not be hitting it over the fence,” Yarnell said. “I think the adrenaline and just the state of the game really helps. Our team was super hyped.”
 

The Ravens pushed their lead to 6-4 when Glassford followed up later in the inning with a line-drive double to send Gaughan across for the score.

In the top of the sixth, Butterbaugh reached base after taking contact from a pitch. Johnson followed up by sending the ball over the center field wall for the two-run homer.

Cooper caught junior outfielder Piper Greeson’s line drive for the first out of that half inning, but Laha responded with a line-drive double to center field. Yarnell tried to go yard again, but instead her deep shot found its way to the bottom of the outfield wall. Laha tagged back up at second with Yarnell gaining ground. Laha made it home while Yarnell slid into third. 

By the time she returned to her feet, Yarnell saw the third baseman drop the incoming throw from the shortstop. Campus junior outfielder Ava Strohm’s throw from centerfield to third was not reeled in but Butler, allowing Yarnell to pop right back up and run in for another score.

“Seeing the overthrow, that's just another way to make it around the bases if it wasn't going to go over the fence,” Yarnell said. “But I just try to run hard no matter where it goes, even if it’s straight in the air to the pitcher.

“‘Who knows?’ That’s just what went through my mind when I hit the ball.”

Severino, who pitched all but one inning during the team’s three wins at state, went three up and three down in each of the final two innings to seal the victory. Severino earned 11 strikeouts in the final, giving her 27 strikeouts over 18 innings in a two-day span.

Although that workload would explain why Campus was able to get its offense rolling early in the state final, Severino said the key for her turning things around late in the game was more mental than physical.

“I think I really just needed to dial in,” Severino said. “Not so much what my body was feeling, but how my mind could contribute. And just relying on my teammates, like putting the game kind of in their hands and knowing that they have my back. It just really helped me dial in and do what I needed to do.”
 

In the team’s semifinal game earlier in the day, Olathe Northwest got a little revenge in addition to earning their spot in the final. 

Olathe Northwest delivered a 10-0 run-rule victory over Washburn Rural, which is the same team that ended the Ravens championship hopes last season. The Junior Blues survived a grueling 12-inning battle in that one, delivering the Ravens their first loss of the season and sent them on their way to a fourth-place finish.

Lopez said that loss in last year’s state semifinals was just another step in the team’s journey to this year’s state championship win.

“It just gave them that experience and that taste of it,” Lopez said. “So they were ready and motivated and determined to finish the deal this year.”

Olathe Northwest took a 10-run lead over just four innings in this year’s semifinal and refused to let the game last any longer.

Washburn Rural loaded the bases with three consecutive singles by junior Salah Williams, junior second baseman Gabby Martinez and sophomore outfielder Josie Carlgren in the top of the fifth. But Olathe Northwest junior pitcher Ana Stasia Ballew, who took over on the mound in that inning to help Severino save her arm for the final, was able to get herself out of this pinch with a little help from Gaughan.

Washburn Rural freshman pitcher Olivia Koch sent a line drive that looked like it would make it over Gaughan, only for the shortstop to show off her fast reflexes and elite athleticism as she stretched out to snatch the ball out of the air for the out.

“It happened so fast,” Gaughan said. “I just literally reached my glove as far as I could take it. That felt really good because I knew it saved runs by catching it in the air and stopping it from going to the outfield.”

Just as the Ravens were not surprised by Yarnell’s clutch performance, none were surprised by Gaughan making that highlight reel play.
 

“Ashlyn's a really good athlete,” Yarnell said. “She's super fast and super quick on our feet. Tough plays are always pretty surprising and super hype, but I think she's definitely one of the ones to be put in that position that will make those plays in those big moments.”

Yarnell singled on her first at-bat against Washburn Rural, but sophomore shortstop Reagan Chapman snatched Severino’s line drive out of the air and made the throw to first to Yarnell out, ending a scoreless first inning.

With Laha in scoring position after her fly-ball double to start the bottom of the fourth, Washburn Rural elected to keep throwing to Yarnell. She made the Junior Blues regret that when she sent the ball over the outfield wall.

“After I hit the home run, I knew they were going to walk me,” Yarnell said. “There was really no doubt in my mind.”

Yarnell said she was actually a little surprised when Junior Blues did not immediately go for the intentional walk. Gaughan got walked next, sending Williams home for another score. Severino struck out to give the Ravens two outs in the inning, but Glassford sent the ball over the right field wall for the grand slam.

Winright singled to right field on the next at-bat. She reached home when Butterbaugh’s pop fly led to an error by the Junior Blues second baseman. Washburn Rural got out of the inning when Carlgren reeled in Johnson’s pop fly to left field.

“When we scored the 10, we knew it was a run spread and our second pitcher came in, it was more about saving Bre for the championship," Yarnell said. "For our other pitcher, we wanted her to end the game strong too."
 

In the fifth, sophomore Emma Duran hit a ground ball directly at Ballew, who blocked the ball. She quickly corralled it, flipping the ball to Winright at home plate and preventing Williams from crossing for the score.

Chapman hit a grounder toward second, only for Gaughan to make a play once again and secure the final out to help get the Ravens an extra two innings of rest.

Gaughan said that the players had revenge on their mind heading into the semifinals.

“We're like, ‘We're going to show them who we are this year,’” Gaughan said. “To get it done in just five innings, it was amazing. It showed how much work our team has done throughout the year to get to this point vs. last year. It just made me feel like I was on top of the world, that we were unstoppable.”

Severino said last year's semifinals loss also had a big impact on the team througout the season.

“It's definitely had a factor in how we practiced and how we played all season,” Severino said. “Just knowing that heartbreak and I guess knowing that failure, it really kind of drove us to be better. And going into today, we all knew we needed to do the job and that's exactly what we did. When we score that many runs, it's like we're unstoppable.”

In the state quarterfinals, Olathe Northwest also had to overcome a two-run deficit against Blue Valley. The Tigers took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the second, but the Ravens quickly stormed back. They started with Johnson hitting a sacrifice fly to center field to send in a run, followed by Laha hitting a line drive to right field to score two more. Gaughan sent a line drive to center field on the next at-bat, which ended up sending in two more runs following a Tigers’ error.

Blue Valley closed the gap to 5-4 with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth, only for Johnson and Laha to send in a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning. Laha and Yarnell did the same in the fifth to make the score 9-4, which the Ravens maintained through to the end of the game.

The Tigers had runners left in scoring position during all seven innings. For three of those innings, Severino earned strikeouts for all three outs while also leaving multiple runners stranded in scoring position. Severino got that last of those three strikeout innings in the sixth, when she got the Ravens out of the inning with the bases loaded.

“These girls are something else, they never quit,” Lopez said. “They get down to nothing and just bounce back. It’s unbelievable, but I’m not surprised. It's just an unbelievable feeling to reach this point.”

Olathe Northwest won the program’s fourth state title and first since 2017. This is the first under Lopez, who took over the program in 2020. Mark Mahoney, who is now the Shawnee Mission South athletic director, led the program to three state titles between 2009 and 2017.

For a handful of Ravens softball players, the team’s success at Arrocha Ballpark were just the beginning of their championship celebrations that weekend. 

Galligan won three gold medals at the state track and field meet in Wichita, including winning two of those before she rushed to Lawrence to play in the state championship game against Campus.

Galligan won the shot put with a throw of 42 feet, 11.25 inches, beating out Olathe West senior Addie Cline at 40 feet, 10 inches for state runner-up. Yarnell took third in the shot put with a throw of 39 feet, 5.75, despite only having three attempts before she rushed off to Lawrence to play in the semifinals against Washburn Rural. Galligan won the javelin with a throw of 141 feet, 10 inches before hitting the road.

After a shortened photoshoot with a softball state title trophy, both of those athletes wasted little time at Rock Chalk Park before heading back to Wichita.

They both competed in the discus the next. Galligan took first on a throw of 149 feet, 5 inches. Yarnell finished as the state runner-up with 146 feet, 4 inches.

Their performances helped lead Olathe Northwest to a 6A team title, the program’s second in the last three seasons. Yarnell's father Lucas is also the Ravens' throws coach.
 

In the third-place game, Washburn Rural earned a 6-4 win over Olathe South. Junior Blues sophomore catcher Henley Rapp, sophomore third baseman Ava Fowler and freshman Justice McBurney each had three hits. Olathe South, which reached state with six of its 17 freshmen players in the starting line-up, could not overcome the team’s six errors to only eight hits in the game.