Kansas high school state softball scores: LeGrand powers Goddard to 5A semifinals
Kendal LeGrand is the only senior on the Goddard softball team and as the ace pitcher, she’s certainly playing like it this postseason.
After striking out 18 hitters and winning a 10-inning pitcher’s duel against Andover in a regional championship game to reach state, LeGrand punched out 11 more hitters on Thursday in Goddard’s 3-1 win over Spring Hill in a 2-over-7 seed upset in the Kansas Class 5A state softball tournament at Wichita State’s Wilkins Stadium.
Goddard (17-7) will play for third place Friday afternoon after a 1-0 loss to Basehor-Linwood (21-3) in Friday’s semifinals.
“She has just been on point this whole season and it’s been so much fun to watch her compete,” Goddard coach Rita Smith said. “I think she wants this as bad as I do.”
LeGrand held Spring Hill to a single hit — a home run in the second inning — to give Goddard’s offense plenty of time to get into gear.
Sure enough, the Lions plated two runs in the top of the fifth inning when Laci Dryden delivered an RBI single and Goddard capitalized on an error for its second run. Goddard tacked on an insurance run in the seventh inning, scoring on another Spring Hill mistake, this time a passed ball.
That was all the run support LeGrand needed.
“We feel like we can compete with anyone when she’s hitting her spots and mixing her speeds,” Smith said. “She throws hard and she has been pretty on-point with her off-speed pitch. We just need to push a couple of runs across and then anything can happen.”
Meanwhile, the perfect season of Bishop Carroll (21-0) chugged along with an opening-round victory over St. Thomas Aquinas, 4-0, behind a combined shutout from Kadence Brewster and Anna Stephen.
The Golden Eagles will play Eisenhower (19-4) in Friday’s 1 p.m. semifinal after the Tigers knocked off defending champion Shawnee Heights, 3-1, behind a superb pitching performance from Allyson Montgomery, who struck out 10 hitters. Carroll-Eisenhower will be a rematch of a regular-season game from two weeks ago that Carroll won 3-1.
In another quarterfinal game, Valley Center pushed Basehor-Linwood to the brink but ultimately lost on a walk-off home run in a 5-4 loss. The Hornets (17-6) were led on offense by three hits from Maci George and a 2-RBI triple from Kennedy Johnson.
Cheney rallies from deficit for walk-off win to 3A semifinals
Cheney junior Korri Lies is known more for her superb pitching, but it was her hitting that helped save the season for the Cardinals.
Lies drilled a line drive to center field to bring home Kylie Scheer for the game-winning run and walk-off, 6-5 victory over Rock Creek in the first round of the Class 3A state tournament at Twin Oaks Complex in Manhattan.
The top-seeded Cardinals (24-1) faced Silver Lake in Friday’s championship after beating Hoisington 4-2 in the semifinals on Friday.
Cheney fell behind 5-1 after the top of the fourth inning, but rallied behind a two-run home run by Peyton McCormick in the bottom-half of the fourth inning, then tied the game by capitalizing on two errors to score two runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Meanwhile, Lies kept Rock Creek scoreless after the fourth inning. She finished with 11 strikeouts in a complete-game performance. But she’ll remember the game-winning hit more, as Cheney rallied in the seventh inning when Scheer reached on a lead-off error and Jailyn Adolph followed with a single and Elina Bartlett executed a sacrifice bunt to move the winning run to third base with one out for Lies to bring her home.
In another quarterfinal game, Haven topped Prairie View, 6-0, on the strength of a one-hit, complete-game shutout from Maguire Estill. Amie Yoder led the Haven offense with three hits and two runs batted in. The second-seeded Wildcats (22-3) played for third place Friday after losing 7-3 to Silver Lake in the semifinals.
Belle Plaine knocks off top seed in 2-1A bracket
After taking down the No. 1 seed in regionals, Belle Plaine did the same thing on the first day of the Class 2-1A state tournament at the Green Sports Complex in Pratt — this time an 8-over-1 seed upset, 3-1, of Jayhawk Linn.
The eighth-seeded Dragons (20-5) will play for third place Friday after losing 3-1 to Burlingame (22-3) in Friday morning’s semifinals.
Belle Plaine ace Victoria Lujan threw a complete game, striking out nine hitters and only allowing one earned run. The Belle Plaine offense did the rest, as Gabriella Lujan delivered a 2-RBI single in the first inning and Josie Walker added an RBI single in the second inning for the scoring.
Inclement weather delays the 4A tournament in Salina
The first day of the Class 4A state tournament in Salina was delayed due to inclement weather, pushing Thursday’s quarterfinals to Friday and the semifinals and championship game to Saturday at the Bill Burke Complex.
Friday’s opening-round action includes Andale-Garden Plain (19-3) playing Eudora (18-4) at 6 p.m., Winfield (14-8) taking on Holton (21-1) at 4 p.m. and Pratt (17-5) taking on Clay Center (20-2) at 4 p.m.
Thursday’s state softball tournament game scores
Class 6A
No. 1 Topeka 5, No. 8 Olathe East 0
No. 5 Gardner Edgerton 13, No. 4 Garden City 3
No. 2 Lawrence Free State 6, No. 7 Olathe South 0
No. 6 Olathe North 5, No. 3 Washburn Rural 2
Class 5A
No. 1 Bishop Carroll 4, No. 8 St. Thomas Aquinas 0
No. 4 Eisenhower 3, No. 5 Shawnee Heights 1
No. 7 Goddard 3, No. 2 Spring Hill 1
No. 3 Basehor-Linwood 5, No. 6 Valley Center 4
Class 3A
No. 1 Cheney 6, No. 8 Rock Creek 5
No. 5 Hoisington 12, No. 4 Holcomb 1
No. 2 Haven 6, No. 7 Prairie View 0
No. 3 Silver Lake 7, No. 6 Frontenac 6
Class 2-1A
No. 8 Belle Plaine 3, No. 1 Jayhawk Linn 1
No. 5 Burlingame 6, No. 4 Marion 0
No. 7 Pittsburg-St. Mary’s Colgan 6, No. 2 Spearville 2
No. 3 Mission Valley 11, No. 6 Ell Saline 4
Friday’s schedule
Class 6A (at Shawnee Mission District Softball Complex)
No. 1 Topeka 1, No. 5 Gardner Edgerton 0
No. 2 Lawrence Free State (20-1) vs. No. 6 Olathe North (17-6), 1 p.m.
Championship: No. 1 Topeka (24-0) vs. TBA, 3 p.m. (Field A)
Third place: No. 5 Gardner Edgerton (17-5) vs. TBA, 3 p.m. (Field B)
Class 5A (at Wichita State’s Wilkins Stadium)
No. 3 Basehor-Linwood 1, No. 7 Goddard 0
No. 1 Bishop Carroll (21-0) vs. No. 4 Eisenhower (19-4), 1 p.m.
Third place: No. 7 Goddard (17-1) vs. TBA, 3 p.m.
Championship: No. 3 Basehor-Linwood (21-3) vs. TBA, 5 p.m.
Class 4A (at Salina’s Bill Burke Complex)
No. 1 Holton (21-1) vs. No. 8 Winfield (14-8), 4 p.m. (Field A)
No. 2 Clay Center (20-2) vs. No. 7 Pratt (17-5), 4 p.m. (Field B)
No. 4 Andale-Garden Plain (19-3) vs. No. 5 Eudora (18-4), 6 p.m. (Field A)
No. 3 Bishop Miege (19-3) vs. No. 6 Wamego (17-5), 6 p.m. (Field B)
Class 3A (at Manhattan’s Twin Oaks Complex)
No. 1 Cheney 4, No. 5 Hoisington 2
No. 3 Silver Lake 7, No. 2 Haven 3
Third place: No. 2 Haven (22-3) vs. No. 5 Hoisington (20-5), 1 p.m. (Field B)
Championship: No. 1 Cheney (24-1) vs. No. 3 Silver Lake (22-3) vs. TBA, 1:30 p.m. (Field A)
Class 2-1A (at Pratt’s Green Sports Complex)
No. 5 Burlingame 3, No. 8 Belle Plaine 1
No. 7 Pittsburg-St. Mary’s Colgan 3, No. 3 Mission Valley 2
Third place: No. 8 Belle Plaine (20-5) vs. No. 3 Mission Valley (23-2), 1 p.m. (Field B)
Championship: No. 5 Burlingame (22-3) vs. No. 7 Pittsburg-St. Mary’s Colgan (21-3), 1:30 p.m. (Field A)
This story was originally published May 28, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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