How Eisenhower softball became the Cinderella story of Kansas softball
For most of the spring, Eisenhower’s softball season looked like one long test of belief.
The Tigers lost their first six games. They opened 1-8. They took enough early lumps against a demanding schedule that their record never fully recovered, even as their play began to sharpen.
Then came Tuesday night in Salina when the team with a losing record and a No. 14 seed in Class 5A started playing like the version of itself it had always believed was still in there.
Eisenhower stunned No. 3 seed Salina Central 8-1, then knocked off crosstown rival Goddard 6-3 in the regional championship game to complete one of the most improbable state-tournament runs in Kansas softball this postseason.
At 13-13, Eisenhower is the only team in Kansas so far, regardless of classification, to qualify for the state tournament with a non-winning record.
But to first-year head coach Allyson Montgomery and her players, the record was never the full story.
“This team just loves playing for each other,” Montgomery said. “They’re very unselfish. They want to win for each other. And they were just really motivated to get our seniors back to state.”
That belief was tested immediately Monday.
Eisenhower had already seen Salina Central once this season and the matchup had been ugly. The Mustangs swept the Tigers on April 24 and outscored them 20-5 across the two games.
Less than a month later, the third meeting had a chance to go the same direction when Salina Central loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the first inning. But Eisenhower starter Seryn Bellick escaped with a strikeout and a lineout, a sequence that felt like the first crack of momentum in a regional that would soon swing fully toward the Tigers.
Eisenhower rallied in the second inning. Faith Duncan led off with a single. Bellick followed with a double. Keira Mercer and Aubrey Pate delivered back-to-back RBI singles, then Emilee George ripped a two-run single to put the Tigers ahead 4-0.
The Tigers added two more runs in the third when Liz Lindeman drilled an RBI double and Bellick brought home another run on a sacrifice fly. Kylie Hahn tripled in a run in the sixth, then George added an RBI double to stretch the lead to 8-0.
Bellick handled the rest.
After dodging that first-inning threat, she quieted a Salina Central lineup that had punished Eisenhower earlier in the season. The Mustangs managed one run in the sixth, but Bellick finished the game with authority by retiring Salina Central in order in the seventh.
The 14-over-3 win was the biggest upset in the Class 5A postseason.
“Seryn does such a good job of keeping hitters off balance,” Montgomery said. “She can move the ball around really well and she’s very confident and trusts her teammates to back her up behind her. So she’s not afraid to pound the strike zone.”
The night still was not finished.
If the Salina Central matchup required Eisenhower to prove how much it had grown since April, the regional final against Goddard required the Tigers to prove they could finish against a rival that already knew them well.
The teams had split their regular-season doubleheader with both games decided by one run. Eisenhower knew it could hang with Goddard. After taking down Salina Central, the Tigers believed they could do more than that.
Bellick again had to survive early pressure. Goddard put runners at third base in the first and second innings, but Eisenhower stranded both threats to keep the game scoreless.
The Tigers broke through in the fourth, capitalizing on a Goddard error before Mercer brought in a run with a sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead.
Then came the inning that pushed Eisenhower to the brink of state.
Aubrey Brunswig started the five-run fifth with an RBI single. Elleigh Tarpley followed with another RBI single. Duncan drove in two runs with a double and Bellick helped herself with an RBI double to give Eisenhower a 6-0 lead.
“Our girls said they were ready to hit and ready to pass the bat and that’s exactly what they did all day,” Montgomery said. “They were ready for the challenge. They didn’t want to go home.”
Goddard did not go quietly.
Breckyn Baxter doubled to lead off the sixth, Austin Watkins walked and Abella Northcutt brought in a run with an RBI groundout. Sophia Castorena followed with an RBI single to cut Eisenhower’s lead to 6-2.
In the seventh, the Lions tried one final push. Sariah Potter was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Baxter’s RBI single to make it 6-3.
By that point, Bellick had already thrown nearly two full games. Across the two wins, she pitched 14 innings, threw 223 pitches and held two quality opponents to four combined runs.
With the tying run still far enough away but the tension rising, Bellick reached back for one final pitch and ended the game with a swinging strikeout.
That was the moment Eisenhower’s long, emotional season became something else entirely.
The Tigers were going back to state.
For Eisenhower, the run carries extra weight. The program is playing its first season since the death of longtime coach Amber Brunswig, who died last June following complications from a cardiac event.
Montgomery, a former Eisenhower standout pitcher who went on to pitch at Butler Community College, spent the previous two seasons as an assistant on Brunswig’s staff. She was also one of Brunswig’s former players.
This season has asked Eisenhower’s players and coaches to carry grief and competition at the same time. The team had shirts made with Brunswig’s name on them. As the postseason approached, the Tigers talked about honoring the coach who had helped build the program’s standard.
Eisenhower finished in the top four at state three straight years from 2021-23, including a Class 5A runner-up finish in 2023. After missing state the last two seasons, the Tigers are headed back.
“Coach B made such a huge impact in so many players’ lives, including mine,” Montgomery said. “I think our girls wanted it so bad for her. This was her goal every year. She wanted to get to the state tournament. This year has been so, so tough, but I’m so happy that we got it done for her.”
Eisenhower will soon learn its official state opponent and location under KSHSAA’s new postseason format. The Tigers appear likely to face No. 1 seed Great Bend, which is 25-1, in a neutral-site quarterfinal game in Salina.
That challenge will be steep. But so was opening 1-8. So was facing Salina Central again after being swept by a combined 15 runs. So was asking Bellick to throw 223 pitches in one night. So was trying to turn a season marked by loss into one more trip to state.
Eisenhower did all of it anyway.
“Our motto this season has been, ‘A confident you is really good,’” Montgomery said. “So our focus in practice has just been about being confident and showing confidence in our teammates and having each other’s backs.”
For one night in Salina, that confidence carried Eisenhower all the way back to the state tournament.
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