Rossville responds to early blow with impressive KOs of its own in sweeps of defending champs McLouth, Wamego | North Central Kansas Softball, Baseball Standouts (2024)

Sometimes a punch in the gut isn’t such a bad thing.

Losing only one key starter off last year’s Class 3A state championship softball team, Rossville came into the 2024 season with the highest of expectations. And even in splitting with Santa Fe Trail – last year’s state runner-up – early in the season, the Bulldawgs felt pretty good about where they sat going into their rivalry showdown with Silver Lake on April 8.

So when the Eagles came out and KOed Rossville to the tune of a dominating 12-1, 14-0 sweep, it was a somewhat tough pill for the Bulldawgs to swallow. Which they took like champs.

“We just said, ‘Forget about it. Those games don’t mean much in the long run so let’s just get back to work,’” Rossville coach John Nitsch said. “We still had to finish the season strong. I think they responded well. They don’t take losing very easily, so it just focused them to work even harder.”

Rossville has responded very well, indeed. The Bulldawgs have reeled off eight straight victories since getting swept by the Eagles. More important than the wins themselves is who some have come against.

Sprinkled in between dominating sweeps of St. Marys (13-8, 18-1) and Hayden (12-0, 12-5), Rossville took a pair of games with defending Class 2-1A state champion McLouth. The Bulldawgs won 6-3, 9-1 in the April 16 twinbill, handing McLouth its first losses since the 2022 season.

“We added them to the schedule when we could get more games in this year,” Nitsch said. “We were really looking forward to that, especially after we had them in our (preseason) jamboree and didn’t perform too well against them. We were excited when we got them on the schedule. I love to challenge the girls and want to play the best of the best that’s out there and that’s something that can help us get better and be stronger at the end of the year.”

If picking off the defending 2-1A champions wasn’t challenging enough, Rossville answered arguably an even bigger call on Monday. After seeing its doubleheader with Onaga last Thursday rained out, Rossville claimed arguably its biggest wins of the season on Monday in a huge sweep of defending Class 4A champion Wamego.

The Bulldawgs handed Red Raider junior ace Peyton Hardenburger the first loss of her career in eking out a 2-0 win in the doubleheader opener. Emma Mitchell broke up Hardenburger’s no-hitter in the fifth inning and the Bulldawgs used their bunting prowess and speed to scratch out a pair of runs for the win.

Rossville then rolled to a 10-0 win in the second game, improving to 15-3 on the season.

“We really like playing against Wamego,” Nitsch said. “We said if we could play defense and keep them from scoring, we’d figure out how to squeeze in a run if we could get a runner on. That’s what we do pretty good right now, playing some small ball. Then we started squaring the ball up in game two.”

Mitchell had a pair of hits on the night while Kinsey Perine went 4 for 4 in the second game and Shyanne Haehn added a pair of hits in the second game as well and Hailey Horton belted her fourth home run of the season.

Katie Spielman won the pitcher’s duel with Hardenburger in the opener while Nagos Hale got the shutout in the second game.

Spielman has been solid taking over the ace role from the lone key departure off last year’s team, All-Class 3A first-team pitcher Brinley Dyche. She’s 7-2 with a 4.11 ERA and 56.

Hale, meanwhile, has stepped in as a senior and been a solid No. 2 for the Bulldawgs, going 8-1 with a 3.07 ERA and 33 strikeouts.

“Lately, our pitching has been really good,” Nitsch said. “The first of the year, I think they were a little nervous and now they’ve settled down and have really started hitting their spots and working the count to their advantage. They’ve really focused in on that and it’s really helped them out.

“Nagos is a senior who has pitched for her summer team all the time, but we’ve always just had somebody there ahead of her. When she was a freshman, we had Gracie Rabe and Brinley in front of her and then Vanessa Quinones when she was a sophom*ore and Brinley and Katie last year. We’ve just been loaded with pitching so she’s bided her time. Now she’s shining and what she’s doing doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Rossville is hitting .365 as a team led by. .490 average from Horton, who also has a team-high 31 RBI. Freshman Nora Burdick is hitting .480, while Perine is at .460 and Brooke Springer is hitting .421. Mitchell and Springer each have 19 RBI and Spielman has 16 and Perine has eight of Rossville’s 35 stolen bases.

Rossville gets another challenging stretch to close the season with games against Rock Creek, which is 17-3, and Sabetha, which is enjoying the best season in its program’s brief history with a 15-3 mark.

That will lead into what is arguably the toughest regional in any classification. The 3A regional at Hayden includes last year’s 3A champion in Rossville (15-3), last year’s 3A runner-up in Santa Fe Trail (14-4) as well as Silver Lake (17-2) and current Big Seven League leader Perry-Lecompton (12-4).

Continuing its momentum will be key as the Bulldawgs look to get back to state to defend their title.

“We’ve already started talking about taking it one game at a time from here on out to get that mindset going,” Nitsch said. “We’ll just treat it like a bracket from here on out and that’s helped our girls focus and get locked in.”

OTHER SOFTBALL STANDOUTS

• Jefferson County North picked up its first wins of the season in sweeping Pleasant Ridge 17-15 and 22-12. Kennadi Hernandez smashed three home runs in the doubleheader and was 5 for 8 overall with 7 runs scored and 10 RBI.
• Sabetha continued its best season in program history with a sweep of Jefferson West that pushed the Bluejays to 15-3 overall. The Bluejays also got their first-ever win over Holton on April 15, splitting a doubleheader with the Wildcats. Laura Edelman is hitting .542 with 36 RBI while Kiera Keim is hitting .519. Chloe Detweiler is 8-0 pitching.
• Santa Fe Trail’s Brooke Neidhardt tied the Chargers’ career home run record when she blasted a grand slam in the first inning of the second game against Wellsville. That gives her 6 this season and 10 in her career, tying her with Shelby Dahl on the career chart. Neidhardt was 5 for 7 on the night with 8 RBI. Kaelee Washington threw a perfect game against Wellsville, striking out 13 of the 15 batter she faced. She also was 3 for 4 on the night while being intentionally walked 4 times.
• Prior to getting swept by Rossville, Wamego split with Silver Lake taking a 6-0 win in the opener before falling 13-6 in the second game. Hardenburger threw a one-hitter in the shutout win, striking out 16 to push her over the 500 mark for her career. Alana McCarthy had two home runs in the doubleheader and Landi Adams added a homer as well.
• Rock Creek’s Brooklyn Plummer went 13 for 17 last week with 6 doubles, pushing her team-high average to .551. The Mustangs added to their school record for home runs, now sitting at 25 after the sweeps of Riley County and Clay Center.

BASEBALL STANDOUTS

• Rock Creek picked up a big sweep of Clay Center, pulling out 4-2 and 6-5 victories – the latter a 9-inning affair in which Brandon Krainbill winning run scored on a wild pitch. Brock Lubbers got the wins in relief in both games to improve to 4-0, working a combined 4 innings with 8 strikeouts. The Mustangs rallied with three runs in the bottom of the sixth in the first game after being down 2-1 with Drew Becker, Casey McCarn and Kade Welfringer all doubling in the inning, Krainbill tripling and Peter Martinie adding a safety squeeze. Becker also homered and tripled in the nightcap as Rock Creek improved to 18-1.
• Marais des Cygnes Valley outfielder Landon Traver had three assists in a game last week, throwing out two runners at home plate and another at third base.
• Santa Fe Trail’s Kyle Strother broke the Chargers’ single-season RBI record, driving in his 38^thof the year against Wellsville. Strother had a huge night at the plate, belting three home runs as Trail it 5 as a team.
• Despite splitting with Jefferson West, Sabetha stayed atop the Big Seven League standings. The Bluejays dropped the first game 6-5, but won the second 4-2 after Jacob Grimm cranked a three-run home run in the top of the seventh. Christian McAfee thtew a complete game and had an RBI double to start Sabetha’s seventh-inning rally for the win.
• Jackson Heights handed Pleasant Ridge just its second loss of the season with an 11-10 victory. Weston Schultejans hit a game-tying double in the bottom of the seventh and scored the winner on JW Moore’s walk-off single to right. Drake Mellies hit a pair of home runs across three days last week as well for the Cobras.
• Silver Lake got a big sweep of Hayden, winning 9-8 and 8-7. Logan Cathcart, Brody Renfro and Tanner Martin each had four hits with Martin driving in 5 and having a big three-run triple in the first game. Dysen School drove in two in the second game and got a two-inning save while Cathcart got the save in the opener and win in the second game, getting the final out in the first game with runners on second and third.
• Southeast of Saline sophom*ore Grady Gebhardt broke the Trojans’ school record for stolen bases in a season, swiping his 30^thbase last week. That broke the old record of 29 set by older brother Jackson in 2021.