LAWRENCE — With the 6A state championship on the line at Arrocha Ballpark, Olathe West relied on a pitcher named Kellepouris to lead the Owls against Washburn Rural.

If all that information sounds familiar, it’s because the description matches the 2023 state championship game as well as this year’s game played on May 30 in Lawrence.

For a minute, this year’s matchup between these two teams even looked like it might be on the way to replicating the run-rule finish to the game two years ago when Olathe West clinched the program’s first state title.

But a few things were a little different this time around.

For one, the pitcher on the mound was not Brevyn Kellepouris, although she did end up playing a different role in this one. For another, the Junior Blues refused to let their opponents wrap up this game early.

Still, Brevyn and the Owls made sure the final result remained the same.

After taking a seven-run lead through four innings, Olathe West ended up needing to hold off a strong comeback attempt by Washburn Rural late in a 8-7 victory, clinching the Owls second state title in three seasons.

Olathe West head coach Cynthia Adams said she knew her team wanted the win so badly that the late game heroics from the Junior Blues never caused her confidence to waiver in her team.

“We know that the longer your game goes, the harder the outs get,” Adams said. “They know, they were ready. We prepare for these high pressure situations. They executed, they believed, and I didn't have a doubt that they were going to end up on top.”

Of course, it helped knowing that she had a Kellepouris on the mound.
 

This time it was Brevyn’s younger sister, sophomore Celise Kellepouris, who played the role of workhorse pitcher for the Owls at state. Brevyn ended up suffering an injury to her pitching arm in mid-April, which took her out of the bullpen and limited a designated hitter role since then.

“I adopted a new role of being the best cheerleader I could be, especially with my sister out on the field,” Brevyn said. “I knew that it was really important for me to be her hype woman.”

Without Brevyn on the mound, Celise became the team’s go-to ace down the stretch. 

“It’s really unfortunate that she got injured,” Celise said. “I really wanted to help win it for her, especially because it’s her last year here. I don’t know, I just wanted it for the whole team and I’m super excited when I was able to pull it off for her and the team.”

The younger Kellepouris pitched all 21 innings for the team over its three games in two days at state. In the first 18 of those innings, she delivered the same level of dominant numbers that her older sister had given the team at state two years ago.

Just an eighth grader during the Owls’ previous championship, Celise was in the stands watching her sister’s performance.

“She was young, she knew what she was going to come into,” Brevyn said. “Just watching it I think helped her a lot. But we’ve been working on being mentally strong together, both of us. I think it’s obviously paid off.”

Brevyn’s evaluation for her sister’s state performance?

“(Celise) did great,” Brevyn said. “She showed that she was mentally strong enough to win three games in two days that she had to pitch all innings for. She did amazing. I’m really proud of her.”

Prior to the final three innings of the final, Celise had 27 strikeouts while allowing just seven hits and two earned runs. Olathe West outscored its opponents 15-3 during that stretch, putting them on the precipice of winning another state title.
 

In the final, Washburn Rural took an early 1-0 lead after a rare wild pitch from Celise went over her catcher’s head, allowing sophomore outfielder Olivia Koch to take off from third and reach home.

Olathe West responded immediately in the bottom of the first inning. Brevyn hit a line drive double, followed by a pair of line-drive singles from senior shortstop Maliyah Warren and junior first baseman Emma Heineman. The latter of those sent Brevyn in for the score. Senior outfielder Kyla Crawford hit a sacrifice fly to left field, allowing Warren to score.

The Junior Blues made a quick move to the bullpen, bringing in senior Reagan Chapman for senior Addie Keys. Chapman got the team out of the inning with Heinemann stranded on third.

After both teams got started scoring early, it took a few innings before Olathe West got its offense rolling again to extend its lead.

In the bottom of the fourth, junior third baseman Hadlee Baum earned a walk to quickly get the Owls a runner on base. Junior outfielder Lindsay Ruder followed up with a line-drive single to center field. Junior catcher Aly Sherry hit a bunt to load the bases. Freshman Madie Sloup entered as the courtesy runner for Ruder while senior utility player Bella Jaso did the same for Sherry.

Senior second baseman Haley Dougherty mimicked Ruder’s shot to the outfield, allowing Baum to score. Brevyn mimicked Baum's walk to send Sloup home.

Washburn Rural decided to replace Chapman with senior pitcher Madi Davison, but it would not stop the bleeding for the inning. That’s when Warren broke the game open with a line-drive double to right field, sending Jaso and Dougherty easily into home. Brevyn also scored as she beat the throw at the plate.

Warren said that going into that at-bat, she just had to remind herself to stay calm and keep it simple.

“It was bases loaded, and I knew that if I tried to do too much, then it wasn't going to be successful for me,” Warren said. Despite the Junior Blues still not securing an out to that point, Davison was able to escape the inning while only allowing one additional run. Freshman outfielder Olivia Adams singled to right field to send Warren in for a run. During her second at-bat of the inning, Baum hit a pop fly out to the shortstop for the third out.
 

Warren did not know it at the time, but her big play ended being key to the victory. Her own scored run to follow it up became the winning run.

“We just had to go out and play our best game, and I had to do everything I could for my team,” Warren said. But with Celise’s arm finally showing signs of wear after throwing 307 pitches in two days at that point, Washburn Rural finally started to connect at the plate.

Senior first baseman Avery Rupp and senior shortstop Salah Williams hit singles to put two runners on, followed by a sacrifice grounder from junior outfielder Josie Carlgren to put both runners in scoring position. Koch hit a pop out, leaving the Junior Blues with two outs. Freshman second baseman Adda Boleski hit a line drive to center field to send in Rupp for a run. Williams was able to advance to third and ultimately home during junior catcher Henley Rapp’s trip to the plate, which ended with a line drive snatched out of the air by Adams to conclude the inning.

After Davison and her teammates in the field were able to make quick work in the bottom of the fifth, Washburn Rural kept the scoring going in the next inning 

Sophomore third baseman Justice McBurney earned a walk as the first batter up to the plate, putting sophomore Molly Schuler on as her pinch runner. The Owls earned two straight outs before Rupp hit a single to center field, allowing Schuler to reach third. Williams singled to left field to advance Rupp to second and send Schuler home.

Washburn Rural junior Emma Duran earned a walk to load the bases. Koch hit a line drive to center field for a three-run triple, cutting the team’s deficit to just one run. Celise left Koch stranded on third as she struck out Boleski for the third out.

After a single by Warren, Washburn Rural secured three pop-fly outs to reach the seventh inning with the chance of comeback still in play.

But Celise and the Owls had other ideas. Rapp hit a pop out to Dougherty on the second pitch she saw. McBurney stayed patient as she built up a 3-0 count. Celise still baited the batter into a pair of strikes before McBurney also popped out to Dougherty.
 

Senior outfielder Layla Collins tried to get Washburn Rural’s offense going again with a line-drive single to left field. But Chapman hit a grounder toward third base, which Baum scooped up and fired to Heinemann at first for the final out to clinch the state championship.

Brevyn said the team holding on late against Washburn Rural showed the team’s grit, after otherwise dominating all of the team’s other state games, including the ones from its previous state title run.

“We weren't going to back down no matter what the other team threw at us,” Brevyn said. “We saw three different pitchers. We produced off of all three of them. We did what we had to do. 

Even in the moments when a few of her pitches got away from her, or when Washburn Rural started to really get rolling late, Celise said her teammates continued to voice their support and confidence in her to keep going.

“Just reassuring me one play at a time, one pitch at time,” Celise said. “(Her teammates) were saying they had my back the whole time. They never doubted me.”

Celise said her sister was at the forefront of that support, as well as in the preparation for this postseason run.

“(Brevyn) definitely pushed me, even though she wasn't pitching,” Celise said. “She was always talking to me and trying to make me be better for myself and for her. It's really good that she's still able to hit, because she's definitely a very powerful person to have in the lineup. And I'm just really glad she was able to be there for me.”

Celise said she didn’t feel like her throws were quite as hard as the previous day, but obviously it was still enough to finish with 14 strikeouts while allowing just six hits and one earned run in the 7-1 victory over Derby.

“I just knew I'd be really tired (in the championship game), but I wanted to push through it and get the team a win,” Celise said. “I just kept pitching.”

Celise said she felt stronger than she was expecting in the quarterfinals.

“I iced last night and I was pretty good this morning, not really sore at all,” Celise said. “I guess I just don’t get sore that easily. I pitched the whole game this morning and I was still feeling pretty good.”
 

In the state semifinals, Olathe West scored a pair of runs in each of the team’s first two at-bats on the way to a 7-1 win over Derby.

Warren got the Owls started with a home run that sent Brevyn and herself in for scores in the bottom of the first. Adams sent both of those players in for runs in the bottom of the second with her line-drive single to left field.

Ruder led the team with 3 RBIs in the game, thanks to a triple on a hard ground ball with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Her shot to right field sent Crawford, Adams and Baum in for runs to put the game out of reach late.

In the state quarterfinals on Thursday, Olathe West scored six runs in three early innings as the team rolled to a 8-1 win over Topeka.

Brevyn led the team with three hits while her and Heinmann both had two RBIs in the game.

As much as the 2023 state title added to the experience for this group of seniors, Brevyn said it was last year’s regional final exit that had the biggest impact on the team’s performance this year.

“We went out a little empty handed,” Brevyn said. “We didn’t play to the best of our ability, so we worked all offseason for this moment. Then we went through a bunch of ups and downs this season and ultimately we pulled through.”
 

Brevyn and senior teammates Warren, Dougherty, Crawford and Jaso were dead set on returning this year to follow up on their plans to leave high school as multiple-time state champions. The Owls looked primed to pull it off with the team going 22-1 in the regular season. 

But Brevyn last pitched a full game in a 2-1 win over Silver Lake on April 18. In addition to throwing 10 strikeouts while allowing just five hits and one earned run in her full-game on the mound, she also scored the two-run homer to get the victory.

Then in the first inning of the team’s doubleheader against Gardner Edgerton the next week, Brevyn showed signs early that something wasn’t quite right with her arm. She stuck it out for the inning, forcing three ground outs while allowing just one hit, before the team turned to Olivia Adams to pitch the rest of the game.

Despite not being able to pitch, Brevyn continued to provide that type of power from the plate.

By the time the team reached state, Brevyn had been cleared to return to the mound. But her coach did not want to risk her ace pitcher’s future.

“If I would have let (Brevyn) throw, she would have thrown,” Adams said. “But she has a future at Penn State. I wasn’t going to chance anything there and Celise wanted it. She wanted the ball.

“I think (Celise) wanted it a little extra for her sister. She knew that her sister wanted it so bad.”

With Celise’s performance this season, people have started to wonder if Celise will break her older sister’s school records by the time she graduates in 2027. Brevyn didn’t hesitate when asked if she thought that would happen.

“I do,” Brevyn said. “I think she's at a higher level than I was when I was a sophomore. I think she has a little more behind her.”