From losing record to state final, Campus softball’s dream run keeps going
Campus did not look like a 12-loss softball team Friday afternoon.
The Colts did not look overwhelmed by the stage, spooked by another higher-seeded opponent or burdened by the weight of trying to finish off what others might deem a Cinderella run.
They looked loose. They looked fearless. They looked like a team that has spent the last two weeks discovering just how dangerous belief can become when it arrives at the right time.
Campus kept its dream season alive in the Class 6A state tournament with another upset by seed Friday, rolling past Mill Valley for a 7-2 semifinal victory at Wilkins Stadium to earn a trip to the state championship game.
The eighth-seeded Colts (18-12) will play either Gardner Edgerton or Topeka at 10 a.m. Saturday at Wilkins Stadium with a chance to win the first state softball championship in school history. Campus has reached the title game twice before, losing in 2002 and 2024.
This time, the Colts believe they are ready to finish the story.
“We’re just so excited right now,” junior Madi Harris said. “Because we know we can go in and take the championship.”
Campus has now won nine straight games since a 9-12 start to the season, a run that has transformed the Colts from a plucky underdog into the hottest team in Class 6A. They knocked off Washburn Rural on the road in a regional championship game, then stunned No. 1 seed and previously unbeaten Derby with a seventh-inning rally in a 3-1 quarterfinal victory over their rival this week.
On Friday, they added Mill Valley to the list.
“We feel completely unstoppable,” junior Kyra Caudillo said. “People were expecting us to be nervous, but I don’t really feel nervous. We all have each other’s backs and I feel like nothing can stop us right now.”
That confidence showed up everywhere in the semifinal.
Campus piled up 15 hits and drew five walks, turning nearly every inning into a stressful one for Mill Valley. The first five hitters in the Colts’ lineup — Harris, Emmie Cooper, Lilly Clements, Alexis Butler and Caudillo — combined for 12 hits. But this was not just a top-heavy offensive performance.
The bottom of the order helped start it.
Jocelyn Daily delivered the first blow in the top of the second inning, dropping an RBI single into the outfield to put Campus in front. Clements followed with an RBI double in the third inning to stretch the lead to 2-0.
“We just stayed within ourselves,” Campus coach Emily Prichard said. “They didn’t try to do too much at the plate. When we try to hit it over the fence, that’s when we don’t do well. So we were waiting for our pitches and being super patient.”
Mill Valley briefly made the Colts pay for leaving the door open in the bottom of the third when Liv Peery launched a two-run home run to tie the game at 2-all.
For a lesser underdog, that might have been the moment when the pressure started to creep in.
Campus answered instead.
In the top of the fourth, Butler and Caudillo produced back-to-back RBI singles to restore a 4-2 lead and give sophomore pitcher Kylie Matthews room to work.
“You can’t play scared,” Caudillo said. “If you play scared, you’re not going to get the results that you want. Right now we all have so much confidence because we know we all believe in each other.”
Matthews, who also silenced Derby’s explosive offense, did not overpower Mill Valley. She did not need to.
The sophomore right-hander allowed 10 hits and two walks and did not record a strikeout, but she kept finding her way out of trouble. Mill Valley had traffic throughout the afternoon, yet Matthews limited the damage to Peery’s home run and finished another complete-game performance.
Her biggest escape came in the bottom of the fourth.
Mill Valley loaded the bases and appeared ready to swing the game back again, but Campus produced the defensive play of the day. A fly ball went to left field, where Daily made the catch and fired a strike to the plate, cutting down the runner trying to score and ending the inning with a double play.
Campus took full advantage of the momentum.
Caudillo ripped an RBI double in the sixth inning, then Brooklyn Burling followed with an RBI single to push the lead to 6-2. Matthews worked around more trouble in the bottom half of the inning, keeping Mill Valley off the scoreboard again.
In the seventh, Aubrey Storm added one more run with a bunt, giving Campus a 7-2 cushion and Matthews did the rest to finish off her second win of the week.
“We just have so much energy right now,” Harris said. “We’re here. We’re ready. And we’re ready to show off.”
That energy has become the defining trait of this Campus run.
The Colts are playing with the looseness of a team that knows it was not expected by outsiders to still be here, but also with the conviction of a team that never viewed this as a fluke inside its own dugout. Prichard, who was an assistant coach on the 2024 state runner-up team, is now one win away from leading Campus to its first state title in her first season as head coach.
“I think we like being the underdog and feeling like everybody is doubting us,” Prichard said. “We always knew we could do it and the girls are just believing in themselves.”
That belief took time to harden into results. Campus spent the first part of the season searching, absorbing losses and trying to find the version of itself that could survive in May.
Now the Colts are playing like a team that has stopped worrying about seeding, records and outside expectations.
“We’re just being us,” Prichard said. “It’s the same thing that happened in (2024). We’re just having fun. The girls are living in the moment, having fun and doing the little things.”
For Campus, the mission is now simple.
The Colts have already outlasted their uneven start. They have already knocked off the No. 1 seed. They have already taken down three straight quality opponents in Washburn Rural, Derby and Mill Valley. They have already returned to the state championship stage that left many of these upperclassmen heartbroken two years ago.
Now they get another chance to change the ending.
“In all honesty, I knew since before the season that if we played like we can, then we can win it all,” Prichard said. “All of us coaches have been so confident in this team since Day 1. It was all about the girls buying in and believing in themselves. It’s been amazing to see them do that.”
Caudillo said the Colts always felt this was possible, even when their record told a different story.
“We knew what we were capable of,” Caudillo said. “We knew we should be here. We all have that feeling that everybody doubted us, so we like proving everybody wrong.”
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