“It’s great to go win one but when you go back-to-back, you’re really making a statement about your team and your program.”

Those were the words of Frontenac head coach Cassie Rhuems after her Raiders did just that, winning a second straight Class 3A State Tournament title defeating Silver Lake 2-1 in nine innings. In doing so, they finished as the only repeat softball state champion across all classes in the state.

Top-seeded Frontenac got a ninth inning walk-off single from senior Ella Sullivan to start the celebration and put a bow on a 30-1 season and 58-3 two-year stretch. For a second consecutive year the win in the circle of the championship game went to senior Avery Johnson, who struck out seven while allowing eight hits and just one unearned run.

After winning a pair of five inning contests, 10-0 over Colby in the quarterfinals on Thursday, and 11-0 over Riverside in the semifinals, the nine-inning affair was a rare test for Frontenac.

“I think it shows their true character,” Rhuems said. “This has been a team with that character all season. I told them after the game if they have learned anything about this season to take with them through life is that things can happen and go wrong and as long as you have the right mentality and truly believe in yourself great things can happen.”
 

Silver Lake finished with a 25-6 record, falling just short of avenging last year’s 3-0 championship game loss to the Raiders.

“They played hard,” Silver Lake coach Nick Hamilton said. “Like I said before, everyone wants to win the title but if they leave it all on the field that’s all I can ask for and these seniors left it on the field. It’s hard for high school kids to take criticism and judgment and these young ladies, they leaned into it, they took what we taught them, the conflicts we had in practices, and they turned it into something special.”

Through two innings it was a shutout pitchers’ duel at the Envista Softball Complex in Topeka between Johnson and Silver Lake senior Kendra Cook, who had just twirled a no-hitter in the 8-0 semifinal win over Burlington. The first run of the game came off the bat of a pitcher as Johnson lined a one-out solo homer over the left field wall in the third inning to open the scoring.

“I just knew I had to wait for my pitch and stay confident and be patient. Because I knew she would throw me a good pitch and I knew I could hit it,” said Johnson, who went 2-3 at the plate and reached base three times.
 

The score stayed that way until the Eagles loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth. Singles from Kailyn Hanni and Kira Lowrey put two on, and Taylor Zordel was hit to juice the bases. Cook grounded back on the infield but the throw home was bobbled, allowing Hanni to score and tie the game. Johnson escaped the bases-loaded, no-outs jam to keep the score knotted.

Silver Lake threatened to go in front with two in scoring position and one out in the eighth. Johnson was able to get a pop up on a bunt that turned into an inning-ending double play. In the bottom of the inning, Cook worked around an error to strand a pair of Raiders at second and third, ending the game to the ninth.

A one-out walk from Frontenac senior Skylah Hutchinson was followed by a passed ball moving her to second base set up the heroics from Sullivan.

“I was just looking for a pitch down in the zone so I could drive it. I saw it there and I just swung,” Sullivan said. “I felt like I had all the confidence in the world and my team believed in me so I knew I could do it.”

In addition to being one of three Sullivans on the Frontenac team (joining triplet sisters Tenley and Alana), Ella is one of seven seniors that ended their Raider careers with three state championships in four years with Frontenac also claiming the 2022 title their freshman season.

“Any time you can get seven kids to stick together for four years you get to build great relationships with them and they build great relationships between each other and it’s just a great group,” Rhuems said.
 

Frontenac was out-hit by the Eagles 8-7 in the title contest, but for a second year in a row held Silver Lake to no extra base hits in the championship game. Cook finished with five strikeouts across 8.1 innings for the Eagles. At the plate senior Kira Lowrey had three hits in the game and sophomore Savanah Wende had two.

In addition to Johnson’s multi-hit day, Ella Sullivan also had two hits while Hutchinson reached base twice.

It was another balanced effort in a season of balanced efforts for Frontenac, culminating in a fifth state championship in school history and a second in as many tries the past two seasons.

“It brought tears to my eyes, I was so happy for Ella ... it’s incredible what this group has done because everybody in our lineup 1-9 has produced something big for us all season and that’s what’s so special about this group,” Rhuems said. “It’s incredible, we got to make school history.”