Valley Center wins first Kansas high school state softball title on late home run
It was the pitch Maci George was waiting for.
In a way, it was the pitch the junior on the Valley Center softball team had prepared her entire life for. The thousands of swings, the countless hours of practice had culminated for the most critical moment of the Class 5A state championship game.
“My favorite pitch to hit has always been a screwball,” George said. “And I was prepared to hit it as far as I could.”
George’s heart raced when she identified the pitch out of the hand of the pitcher and even more when the ball came in belt high, where she could put a level swing on it and launched it well over the wall in center field at Wilkins Stadium.
The three-run home run broke a tied game with two outs in the top of the eighth inning and eventually proved to be the game-winning swing in Valley Center’s 4-1 victory over Basehor-Linwood in the 5A title game on Saturday.
“In my head, I’m thinking, ‘Fly, fly, fly, get over!’” Valley Center coach Corey Jones said. “The entire place just went crazy when it went over. It was amazing. I still don’t think it’s sunk in yet.”
“It was an incredible feeling running around the bases and looking at the dugout and seeing them all run out,” George said. “That was one of the best feelings in the world.”
It was a historic 23-2 season for Valley Center, which won the first state championship in program history and won the school’s first girls team state championship in 44 years — the only other title being the 1978 title by the girls track and field team.
“Our girls will have their names and picture in the school forever now,” Jones said. “I’m so happy for them because this group deserves it. I told them before the game, ‘You’re as good as anyone and you deserve to be here’ and they went out and proved it.”
It was no surprise George was the one who delivered in the biggest moment for Valley Center, as the North Texas pledge finished her three games at the state tournament 8-for-12 at the plate (.667 batting average) with four runs scored, nine runs batted in and two crucial home runs: a grand slam in the 9-1 victory over Goddard Eisenhower in the semifinals and the game-winning, three-run shot in the championship game.
“Her swing is so, so good,” Jones said. “She’s just a competitor and I think that’s why she stood out at state. She wanted to win so bad and she’s going to compete every at bat, no matter what. She wants to win every battle.
“But Maci doesn’t hit a grand slam or a three-run home run if her teammates aren’t on base. The home runs were awesome, but we also have to tip our caps to her teammates.”
Trailing 1-0 entering the top of the sixth inning, Valley Center scratched across a run when Mykah Klumpp led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Kennedy Johnson, then scored from second on a throwing error by Basehor-Linwood.
That was all the support Valley Center ace Sykora Smith needed, as she finished an eight-inning complete game performance with eight strikeouts. She pitched 13-plus innings at the state tournament without allowing an earned run.
Valley Center’s eighth-inning rally was again ignited by the bottom of the lineup, as Klumpp walked and Johnson singled to set up George’s game-winning home run.
Victoria Turner earned the win in the circle for the team’s first two games at state, while Lucy Hooper, Alyssa Crumbliss, Ainsley Kraus and Morgan Thatcher all helped Valley Center finish the season on a 20-game winning streak that included a stretch where it allowed just seven runs in its final 12 games.
“It’s such a great feeling to win this,” Jones said. “You think back (to a 3-2 start) and then we figured out where everyone would fall in the lineup and we just kept the ball rolling the rest of the way. It all worked out and it’s just a tremendous feeling for everything to come together at the right time. It was just an unbelievable year.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2022 at 1:47 PM.
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