Long before Shawn Behr was Great Bend’s head softball coach, he was teaching many of the Panthers’ current stars the game in summer ball.
Now, he’s guiding that same group into the postseason with a 23-1 record.
“I've actually coached this group since they were 8 years old,” said the first-year Panther coach. “The opportunity came available to step in for their senior and junior years. I was not going to pass that up.
“For me, it's really a dream come true and you can’t put it into words. You started with a bunch of these girls and now you get to coach them to the finish.”
After returning a strong core off last season’s 22-win team, the Panthers have been as good as advertised, closing the regular season with the top record on the west side in Class 5A.
The Panthers celebrated senior day in last Friday’s triangular at Great Bend Sports Complex with an 11-5 win over Junction City and a 9-6 win over reigning Class 4A state champion McPherson.
All hands were on deck in the regular-season finale as the Panthers rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Bullpups.
Kya Behr hit two home runs and Katherine Mazouch had a two-run home run. Alyssa McCauley made her first pitching appearance of the season in relief and earned the victory.
“A great team effort,” Behr said. “The best part of that is we used 14 girls, and a lot of them produced. Hats off to those girls because they all know the game and they love it.”
After racking up 14 hits against Junction City, the Panthers had to adjust early in the nightcap against McPherson pitcher Carmin Pavlovich.
The Panther lineup heated up in the third inning with four runs, highlighted by Mazouch’s home run. Great Bend also took advantage of three McPherson errors in the frame.
“Junction City had a spinner pitcher, so we had to slow ourselves down a little bit,” Behr said. “And then Pavlovich came in, and she throws it pretty hard. That first time through, we had to make the adjustment and back off a little bit, shorten our swings up, and they did that. They timed her up. And then they brought in another spinner pitcher. We had to adjust from a spinner, a fastball pitcher, back to a spinner pitcher.
“It just took a little bit of time. We work on that a lot throughout the week, and they did a fantastic job.”
The Panthers have a deep and balanced lineup with nine regular starters hitting .338 or better. Kya Behr has a team-best .528 batting average and leads the team with seven home runs.
Mazouch is hitting .476, followed by Denver Ringo (.456) and Callie Umphres (.431). McCauley has a team-high 30 RBIs. Kamryn Koelsch leads the team in doubles with 10 while Camdyn Post has a team-high five triples. Freshman Baze Hogan has also been a key bat in the lineup, as well as senior pitchers Braelyn Turner and Chayla Prendergast.
The Panthers are putting up nearly 11 runs per game.
“They take hitting pretty seriously,” Behr said. “There's a lot of them who all winter long and all summer long will go out on their own to the batting cages and hit.
“Just a great bunch of girls that enjoy being around each other. And so it makes it easier to go and put in an hour at the batting cage with your buddies.”
In the circle, Prendergast has allowed just 15 earned runs all season in 78.1 innings pitched for a 1.34 ERA. Turner has a 2.98 ERA in 56.1 innings pitched.
When Prendergast experienced some tightness in her Achilles in the McPherson game, Behr turned to McCauley, who went 2.1 innings, allowing one run in her season debut in the circle.
“She hasn't pitched all year and she got the win,” Behr said. “That's Alyssa. Those are the kind of girls that I'm blessed to be their coach because they just step in and they do their jobs.”
Great Bend has six seniors — Koelsch, Turner, McCauley, Ringo, Mazouch and Ava Kaiser.
“They're great girls, great leaders,” Behr said. “Day one, they went around and helped the freshmen, and they took them through the whole practice. Big sister mode.
“(On senior night), we had our pep band come out. The whole town wants to be part of this, and it's a lot of fun.”
The Panthers, who lost to Seaman in regionals last year, will be off this week as they set their sights on a deep postseason run. Their only loss this season came to Derby, 3-1.
“We've been about little steps all year,” Behr said. “Our first little step was to win the WAC. The next one was to prepare ourselves for regionals, host regionals and win two at regionals. We're not going to look any further than what regionals hold.”
OTHER WESTERN KANSAS SOFTBALL STANDOUTS
– Thomas More Prep-Marian softball is 24-2 on the season. The Monarchs are coming off a doubleheader split against Haven, winning Game 1, 10-6 in 10 innings, and losing the second game, 3-1. Brynn Schoepf, Addison Watson and Paige Koenigsman all had three hits for the Monarchs in the first game and Brynn Rebel earned the win in the circle. TMP’s only other loss came to Hays High.
– Stanton County’s Kynzi Fehringer is hitting .517 with 10 home runs and 33 RBIs. The Trojans are 16-6 on the season.
– Cimarron’s Quinn Campbell went over 600 career strikeouts. Campbell is 17-5 on the season with a 2.90 ERA, and she’s hitting .558 with 29 RBIs and 18 doubles. The Bluejays are 19-7 on the season.
– Southwestern Heights is 23-1 on the season with its only loss coming to Scott City. The Mustangs closed the regular season with a doubleheader sweep of Ulysses, earning 19-3 and 14-7 wins. Kimber Flowers had six hits during the twinbill while Katelyn Reiss and Leslie Garcia had five hits each.
– Colby’s Ryler Carter has posted a 15-3 record in the circle with a 2.00 ERA. Carter is also hitting .488 with 13 doubles for the Eagles.
– Haskell County (Sublette/Satanta) pitcher Victoria Lee went over 200 career strikeouts this season.
– Goodland’s Allison Cure hit the 300 career strikeout milestone this season.
– Scott City is 19-5 on the season. Peyton Gentry is hitting .494 with 39 runs driven in.
– Sylvan-Lucas’ Harlee Nelson recorded her 300th career strikeout this season.