By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The first season of the Joy Marie Galliart era in Washburn Rural softball will end in the destination that all teams shoot for -- the state tournament.
The Junior Blues, who have posted back-to-back runnerup finishes in Class 6A, punched their ticket for another trip to state with a come-from-behind 8-1 win over Maize in Thursday's regional final at Rural.
Washburn Rural softball celebrates after wrapping up its regional championship with an 8-1 win over Maize Thursday at Rural. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
After rolling to a 14-4 win over Liberal in its regional semifinal, Washburn Rural fell behind Maize (19-9) 1-0 in the championship game as the Eagles pushed across a run in the top of the second.
But the Junior Blues dominated the rest of the game, riding a complete-game five-hitter from senior pitcher Makayla Ekis and a 12-game hitting attack that included three doubles from sophomore Reagan Chapman.
"This is always everybody's goal, I feel like, at the beginning of the season,'' said Galliart, who came to Rural this season after a very successful career in Oklahoma. "Everybody around here, and everybody in the state of Kansas knows the talent that this program has graduated in recent years and we believed from the very beginning that we still had a shot, that we were still going to be in the mix despite the talent that they graduated.
"So this was always our goal. We had some kids who have had to wait their turn and specifically Makayla Ekis has waited her turn to throw until she was a senior and she was outstanding today. She has progressively, as the season has gone on, gotten better and better and better and she was outstanding today and earned the opportunity to have the ball and she got the job done for us.''
Washburn Rural senior Makayla Ekis (center) pitched a complete-game five-hitter in Thursday's 8-1 win over Maize in Thursday's Class 6A regional tournament. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn Rural, now 18-7, has been installed as the No. 6 seed for next Thursday and Friday's 6A state event at Lawrence's Arrocha Ball Park and will face No. 3 Blue Valley West (22-6) at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Rural tied the game in the bottom of the third and then took control with a five-run fourth inning as the Junior Blues sent 10 batters to the plate.
The Junior Blues sealed the deal with a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth and Ekis and the Rural defense did the rest, not allowing a run over the final five frames.
"This is what we've worked for all season long and we're family so we always have each other's back,'' Ekis said. "Once they started getting a couple of hits the nerves came a little bit, but we took kind of a little minute to breathe together and we all had each other's back so it was a feeling of nerves and excitement and trusting each other.
"We came back in the dugout (after falling behind) and we had a little talk and we came back out here and got our runs back and got the energy back. They had momentum for a little bit, but we were quick to take it back so I'm really proud of my team.''
If Washburn Rural can get past Blue Valley West in the opening round of the state tournament the Junior Blues will advance to play the winner of the first-round game between No. 2 Olathe Northwest (20-4) and No. 7 Blue Valley (17-11) in an 11 a.m. semifinal next Friday.
A year ago Washburn Rural took a 3-1 marathon win over Northwest in the semifinals to advance to the title game before losing to Olathe West, 10-0.
The championship game is set for 5 p.m. next Friday.
"Once you get there anything can happen,'' Galliart said. "I think that's evidenced by some of the teams that aren't even there because they didn't make it out of their regionals and everybody expected them to. So the goal is to get there and then when you get there you take it one game at a time and one inning at a time and you give it your best shot and anything can happen so that's what we'll prepare for.''
CLASS 6A REGIONAL SOFTBALL
At Washburn Rural
Championship
WASHBURN RURAL 8, MAIZE 1
Maize (19-9) 010 000 0 -- 1 5 0
Washburn Rural (18-7) 001 520 x -- 8 12 0
Joslynn Stiglitz, Mara Pederson (4) and Hayley Topping. Makayla Ekis and Henley Rapp. W -- Makayla Ekis. L -- Joslynn Stiglitz. 2B -- Washburn Rural: Reagan Chapman 3, Collins.
