Though he likely would have preferred to win the Kansas Association of Baseball Coaches All-Star Game, Fort Scott coach Josh Regan cherished the experience of overseeing the Powder Blue squad Wednesday at Wichita’s Equity Bank Park.
 
“When we went to hit before the game, and when we were hitting ground balls and fly balls to them, it’s like, ‘Holy cow,’” Regan said. “It’s just another level. You’ve got dudes everywhere who are just the very best of the best.
 
“To coach a game at that level is just very special.”
 
With 50 of the top graduated seniors from across the state gathered for the annual showcase, McPherson’s Brody Seidl drove in Little River’s Logan Renken with a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the eighth to give the Navy team an 8-7 victory.
 

For Regan, two of his assistants, Jared Martin and Josh Messer, and Tiger all-state performers Dub Chipman and Lennox Vann, their participation in the all-star game was an extension of a banner season. Fort Scott won the Class 4A championship – a first in the program’s 36-year history – with a 6-4 victory over 2024 champion Rock Creek on May 30 at Salina’s Dean Evans Stadium.
 
“Ever since we were little kids, we’ve been talking about getting to that mountaintop, reaching that end goal of winning that state championship, and that’s what we finally did,” said Chipman an All-4A first-team pitcher. “If we wanted it for anyone, we wanted it for Coach Regan.”
 
Like many programs across the state, the Fort Scott baseball team leans heavily on a “Family” culture that Regan likes to refer to as Tiger Pride.
 
But for the Tigers’ there’s maybe a little more substance than most to that family culture.
 
It starts with Regan, who not only is a Tiger alum, but has the deepest ties to the program’s rich history. He and his three brothers all played baseball for the Tigers when their father was in charge – the late Dave Regan launching Fort Scott’s baseball program in 1990 as the team’s first coach.
 
In 1998, Regan was a senior when Fort Scott finished runner-up at the Class 5A state tournament to Great Bend, playing alongside his cousin, Adam LaRoche. After Josh took over as head coach of the program in 2012, LaRoche returned to coach alongside his old teammate in 2015, right after wrapping up his 12-year MLB career and donating the money needed to build Dave Regan Stadium and the rest of the facilities at LaRoche Baseball Complex in Fort Scott.
 
Although LaRoche is not still on staff, Regan has continued to surround himself with coaches who have first-hand experience with what it takes to play Tigers baseball. Martin (1995), who is stepping down after 14 seasons as Regan’s assistant to pursue an administrative role, Messer (1999) and Jarrett Lyon (2017) are all Fort Scott alumni.
 
“I’ve dreamt of this whole scenario, including the title, the celebration afterward and then picking out the rings,” Regan said. “And then this (all-star) game is just a huge bonus. It’s the culmination of the hard work of a lot of people, not just me. A whole lot of people have contributed to this.”
 

In seeing the Tiger present maintain ties with the past, Messer, who was also part of the 1998 squad, got to watch his son Brady help deliver the state title that had eluded his team. With Brady working the first six innings of this year’s state championship game, the Tigers knocked off Rock Creek in the title game to cap the best season Fort Scott history.
 
"I am so proud of our kids,” Regan said. “This title means so much to so many people. And this group played like champions all season long. They are a special group. Great players and even better young men.”
 
“I want our alumni to know that this one is for them too. Everyone had a hand in building a championship culture here, and this title was won through pure Tiger Pride. Thank God for making us all Tigers!"
 
Fort Scott, which had also previously posted third-place finishes at state in 2019 and 2023, as well as fourths in 1991, 2001, 2014, finished the season with a school-record 28-3 mark – two of those losses coming to Class 6A Blue Valley West in the finals of the Adam LaRoche Tournament and Webb City (Mo.).
 
The only loss the Tigers suffered against a fellow 4A school this season was a 3-2 loss to Paola on April 3 as the two teams split a doubleheader. They earned a rubber match with the Panthers in the state semifinals with Fort Scott fighting off Abilene 4-2 in the quarterfinals and Paola taking a 4-3 win over Clay Center.
 
Fort Scott took an early 1-0 lead and held onto it for most of the game before the Panthers tied the game in the top of the fifth inning. But in the bottom of the inning, the Tigers took back the lead and pushed it to a three-run advantage before hanging on for the 4-2 victory. Lennox Vann pitched a complete game with six strikeouts while allowing two hits and one earned run.
 
That put the Tigers back in the title game for the first time since 1998 where they met up with Rock Creek, which had knocked off top-seeded McPherson 3-1 in the other semifinal.
 
After Rock Creek got out to a 1-0 lead in the early going, Fort Scott responded with a three-run inning in the bottom of the first and never looked back.

The Tigers expanded their lead to 5-1 before Rock Creek responded with a run in the top of the sixth. After Fort Scott got the run back, Rock Creek mounted a seventh-inning rally. The Mustangs scored two runs, not having an out until a sacrifice fly for the second of those scores, but the Tigers shut down the next two batters to close out the championship victory.

Messer pitched the first six innings of the championship game, holding the Mustangs to seven hits with two earned runs while striking out two batters. Vann closed out the final inning, allowing one hit and two runs while striking out one batter.
 
“It’s been so fun, and to end it on that high of an achievement was just great,” Vann said. “In the game, I felt like I’d be a lot more nervous than I was. But it just felt like another game until the final inning.”

Vann struck out 12 batters while allowing four hits and three earned runs across his 8 innings of work at state. Chipman pitched a complete game in the quarterfinal win over Abilene, scattering five hits and two runs while striking out five batters.
 

 
NAVY SQUAD RALLIES FOR ALL-STAR VICTORY
 
Vann and Chipman were key contributors early in Wednesday’s KABC game.
 
Vann registered the game’s first hit, lining a one-out single off Great Bend’s Carson Umphres in the top of the first for the Powder Blues. Chipman worked a scoreless second on the mound, striking out Seidl and Umphres.
 
The Powder Blues broke through for the game’s first four runs in the third, with RBI singles from Hayden’s Cooper Grace and Paola’s JD Troutman, and a two-run bouncer up the middle from Basehor-Linwood’s Will Howard.
 
But the Navy squad rallied for three in the fifth, with Umphres driving in Seidl with a ground-rule double and Douglass’ Jace Pichler adding a sacrifice fly. Umphres later scored on a throwing error.
 

The Navy added four in the sixth to take a 7-4 lead, with Renken drawing a bases-loaded walk and Louisburg’s Luke Schultz adding a two-run double before Umphres plated him with a single to center.
 
The Powder Blues tied it in the seventh on an RBI single by Wichita Trinity’s Josiah Sems, a run-scoring wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Howard. After both teams went scoreless in their next at-bats, Renken started the winning rally for the Navys with a one-out double to left center. He stole third to set up Seidl’s run-scoring fielder’s choice.
 
McPherson’s Ian Razak retired the Powder Blues in order in the ninth.
 
“Just watching them interact with each other and watching them have fun together and meet each other, it’s just a cool dynamic and I’m really happy that we all got to experience it,” Regan said. “It’s awesome. I could do this every day.”
 

KABC ALL-STAR GAME ROSTERS
 
NAVY
 
Carson Umphres, Great Bend; Ian Razak, McPherson; Logan Page, Humboldt; Logan Cathcart, Silver Lake; Jackson Kolterman, Onaga; Corey Crumrine, Sedgwick; Keaton Humphrey, Blue Valley Northwest; Carter Allen, McPherson; Jace Pichler, Douglass; Carter Rose, Shawnee Mission East; Carter Graham, Hays; Caden Beavers, Hutchinson; Luke Schultz, Louisburg; Eli Dean, Perry-Lecompton; Nash Wray, Haven; Logan Renken, Little River; Karston Wall, Sedgwick; Carter Aslin, Manhattan; Brody Seidl, McPherson; Keagen Shelite, Hesston; Connor Commerford, Oxford; Drew Konrade, Lebo; Caige Starnes, Perry-Lecompton; Brayden Innes, Blue Valley; Drew Becker, Rock Creek. Coaches: Todd Reed, Shawnee Mission West; Dan Hypse, Jefferson West.
 
POWDER BLUE
 
Owen Ruge, Emporia; Braxton Martin, Bishop Carroll; Dub Chipman, Fort Scott; Grady Dougherty, Iola; Trenten VanHoutan, Valley Falls; Cooper Grace, Hayden; Cole Adams, Eisenhower; Grady Clements, Campus; Will Howard, Basehor-Linwood; Austin Green, Pleasant Ridge; Brady Boomsma, Wichita Heights; Carter Hepner, Ottawa; Westin Boyle, St. Thomas Aquinas; Erickson George, Kansas City Turner; JD Troutman, Paola; Mitchel Kramer, Sabetha; Lennox Vann, Fort Scott; Hayden Kearney, Valley Falls; Spencer Wade, Northeast-Arma; Will Beckmann, Wichita Northwest; Owen Schmidt, Pratt; Sam Nordhus, Nemaha Central; Braden Roberts, Wichita Trinity; Kole Klaassen, Remington; Deacon Pomeroy, Shawnee Heights; Josiah Sems, Wichita Trinity. Coaches: Josh Regan, Fort Scott; Rick Sabath, St. Thomas Aquinas; Luke Burns, Valley Falls.