MHS - Softball / May 24, 2015 By Kasey McDowell
Coach Mason’s Softball team has once again brought home the Regional Championship trophy and will be heading to the 4A-D1 State Softball tournament next week. This will be the 8th trip to State for Coach Mason and 4th trip in the last 6 seasons. The best finish for the Wildcats was in 2010 when they finished 2nd in State behind Basehor-Lindwood and had a 22-4 record.
The Wildcats faced the Wellington Crusaders in the first game of regionals last Wednesday. The Cats were down 3-1 until a breakout 5th inning when they scored 5 runs to take the lead 6-3. 
The Cats were able to shut down the Crusaders the last two innings to seal the victory. Even though Wellington outhit Mulvane (7-5), the Wildcats were able to take advantage of some timely hits and some Crusader errors in the 5th inning.
Mulvane faced the Winfield Vikings in the regional championship game last Wednesday. 
Winfield had defeated Ulysses the previous day before the rain delays. After Winfield scored 2 runs in the first inning, the Wildcat defense and Haley Hayes were able to shut down the Crusaders the rest of the game. The Cats scored 1 run in the first inning and 2 more crossed the plate in the 3rd inning. The score remained 3-2 the rest of the game. The Cats were able to hold on to the 1 run lead and ended the game with a strikeout by Hayes.
Haley Hayes pitched two great games and logged 15 Strikeouts between both games (5 and 10 respectively). Emma Chambers and Marie (Ashley) Wilson were the big hitters as both ladies logged 3 hits between the two games. 
Emma had a single, double, and a triple. The other ladies who had base hits were Ashley Wilson, Hannah Humphrey, Sylar Darnell, and Haley Hayes.
Mulvane will head to Salina on Thursday, May 28th to face KC Piper for the first game of the 4A-D1 State Tournament. The game will be at 5:00 PM on Field B at the Bill Burke Complex in Salina. KC Piper is the 2nd seed in the tournament with a 19-3 record and the Wildcats enter as the 7th seed with a 12-8 record. Good Luck to the softball team at State!!
