Last season, Cherokee Trail rolled into regionals with a 15-4 record and every reason to be confident. After all, the Cougars barley missed out on the Centennial League crown by way of a 3-1 loss to Grandview in the last game of the regular season, and a state tournament appearance seemed imminent.
But such postseason success wasn’t in the cards for the Cougars; after defeating ThunderRidge in the opening game at regionals, they lost their next two contests to Mountain Range (the Mustangs would go on to win the title) and Smoky Hill (a team they had defeated twice during the regular season) to end their season on what felt like a premature note.
Fast forward to this fall, and the Cougars are again in the conversation when it comes to the 5A elite. They’re ranked second in their classification, and boast a 13-2 record that indicates this program is just getting started making noise.
“We had the talent last year to go to state, and we just overlooked Smoky Hill in regionals,” second year coach Caley Mitchell explained. “We didn’t play our A game, and they snuck up on us and played great. So this fall, it’s a one game at a time mindset, and we’re not even talking about state — we’re only talking about our next game at Mullen on Thursday.”
Leading the way for Cherokee Trail in the circle is senior Emily Bell (7-1, 5.62 ERA) and senior Audrey Pickett (6-1, 1.41 ERA), both of whom will continue to share innings as the Cougars descend into the regular season stretch with tough conference showdowns looming at home against Grandview on Oct. 3 and on the road at Eaglecrest on Oct. 5.
“Audrey and I have been playing together since the 7th grade, and we really compliment each other well,” Bell said. “She’s a hard-throwing pitcher, and when I get in there, I’m a little slower so it throws batters’ timing off. It’s two contrasting styles that work really well for our team.”
And offensively, the likes of senior centerfielder Chloe Knapp, junior catcher Meghan Medus and junior outfielder Alyssa Pinto pace a Cherokee Trail lineup boasting nine players hitting .400 or better.
“Our goal is just to play our game, get runners on, move runners over, score runs and make the routine plays on defense,” Mitchell said. “We’re going to go to work the rest of the week in practice, get ready to play Mullen and keep plugging away, because we just try to take it one game at a time and not let the rankings get in the way.”
And as Mitchell stressed, this year’s Cougars know they posses the talent, experience and leadership to make a run at the program’s first state championship. Now execution is the only thing between the team and its lofty postseason goals.
“We’re in a good place right now, so we’re just trying to keep it going,” said Mitchell, who also noted earning a top eight seed for the playoffs and thus hosting regionals would be a huge advantage. We have good team chemistry right now, so we’re not trying to fix anything major—we’re just trying to keep oiling the machine.”
