WICHITA – No two seasons are the same, but St. Thomas Aquinas finished its 2025 baseball campaign Friday with a couple fond reminders of last year.
 
James Forgy was on the mound recording the final out. And the Saints were in a dogpile in the center of the Eck Stadium diamond.
 
Aquinas captured its fifth Class 5A state championship with a 7-4 victory over Great Bend, going back-to-back for the first time behind standout performances from junior Lincoln Boyle and senior Cru Huenfeld. The Saints completed a 27-4 season with a pair of victories over Western Athletic Conference teams on the season’s final day, returning to the title game after an 11-3 semifinal victory over Hays.
 
“We’ve been working for this since November,” said Boyle, who pitched the first five innings of the finale, delivered a pair of run-scoring hits and stymied a Great Bend scoring threat with a running catch in right in the sixth. “I’m really proud of these guys. They mean the world to me.
 
“I had confidence in them and they all had my back. It was great to see that.”
 

Huenfeld, a University of Kansas signee, ignited a three-run first for the Saints by lining an RBI single off Great Bend first baseman Ian Premer’s glove. He later roped a run-scoring double into the right-field corner and scored on junior Will Ray’s sacrifice fly during a two-run fifth that stretched Aquinas’ lead to 7-3.
 
“Obviously being the senior season, this one is a little more valuable,” said Huenfeld, whose freshman sister, Lauren, won a 5A softball title with her Aquinas teammates across the street from the baseball team Friday evening. “Last year’s is still valuable, but it just meant much more with how hard we’ve worked since November. The 5:30 a.m. workouts all paid off in the end.”
 
Aquinas’ offseason commitment led to the second title in as many seasons under Rick Sabath, who coached against his longtime friend Randy Beck in Friday’s championship. Both were former players at Fort Hays State in the early-1990s.
 
Great Bend, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, finished 25-6 in its final game under Beck, who announced in March he was stepping down after 15 years as an assistant and 15 more as the Panthers’ head coach.
 
“We made a goal in November just to see how good we could get by this time,” said Sabath, who also led Blue Valley Southwest to a 5A title in 2015. “I’m very thankful. I’d like to congratulate Great Bend on an amazing season. Randy Beck is a good friend and this was just an unbelievable game.”
 

The Saints entered the championship with a premium pitching set-up, thanks to Ray’s complete-game, two-hit shutout of Valley Center in Thursday’s quarterfinals and junior lefty Nic Sabers’ six-inning, nine-strikeout performance Friday morning against Hays. That set the stage for Boyle, who entered the finale with a 1.73 ERA in 52 1/3 innings.
 
Boyle’s fastball reached 90 miles per hour in the first as he struck out the side on 14 pitches.
 
“Saving your ace for the championship, that’s not normal,” Huenfeld said. “The traditional way is throwing them in the first game. We all knew coming in, he’s our dog. He’s going to be a bulldog on the mound and at the plate, and that’s why everyone respects him.”
 
Aquinas’ offense took its cue from Boyle’s dominant opening inning. In the bottom half, leadoff batter Westin Boyle, Lincoln’s brother, chopped a single up the middle and stole second. Huenfeld’s liner plated the Saints’ first run. Then Lincoln Boyle made it 2-0 one pitch later, rifling a triple down the right-field line that scored Huenfeld.
 
Boyle later scored on Great Bend starter Daxton Minton’s wild pitch.
 

But the Panthers had their moments against Boyle, as well. Senior Carson Umphres hit a one-out triple in the third and scored on Minton’s grounder to second.
 
Great Bend scored without a hit in the fourth. Junior Koehn Ribordy walked, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and crossed home after an errant pickoff throw from the catcher.
 
In the fifth, junior Trenton Kern drove in Great Bend’s third run with a two-out single to center.
 
“We’ve done that throughout the season,” Beck said. “When we got behind, we never panicked. We just came in with some confidence and made some adjustments at the plate, and some adjustments with the umpires. Those are things that are very important if you’re going to get back into a game.”

Great Bend collected three runs – two earned – on seven hits against Boyle.

“He’s still a young guy,” Sabath said. “I really think this is one of his early ventures into a game of this caliber and championship style. I thought he got a little excited at the beginning and truthfully was tired earlier than normal. But he did an unbelievable job of competing through that and finding a way to settle down and execute some pitches.”

 Great Bend’s issue was that Aquinas was equally adept at countering.
 
The Saints answered each of the Panthers’ first three runs with runs of their own in the bottom halves of innings. Lincoln Boyle’s second hit of the game made it 4-1 in the third. Westin Boyle’s sacrifice fly off Great Bend reliever Slade Mohr put the Saints up 5-2 in the fourth.
 
The Heunfeld double-Ray sacrifice fly combo also offset a Great Bend run.

“If someone’s throwing punches at us, we want to throw them back twice as hard,” Lincoln Boyle said. “We’re not going to let up. We’re going to keep our foot on the gas the whole game.”
 
Boyle gave way to junior Sterling Thornton, who worked a scoreless sixth that ended with Boyle’s highlight-reel catch in the gap. Forgy, who pitched 3 1/3 innings in relief in last year’s 6-4 championship-game victory over Spring Hill, came on the seventh Friday after Minton led off with an infield hit.
 

The Panthers loaded the bases and scored their final run when Forgy plunked Jaxon Wondra with an 0-2 pitch. But Forgy came back to strike out Hunter Herman to end it.
 
“We were going to get their best,” Huenfeld said. “We knew they were going to keep it close. It’s a state championship. Everyone’s going to play their best, everyone’s hungry to win it.
 
“They’re a great team and it’s just a good thing we played our best.”