By SEAN BOSTON
Hutch Post
HAVEN, Kan. - Darin Ashworth had been nervous for most of Thursday’s Class 3A regional softball tournament.
Then, with Haven three outs away from returning to state, that feeling finally went away.
The Wildcats had already erased a four-run deficit against Osage City in the regional championship game. Freshman Paige O’Neal had delivered the swing that created separation, a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Haven had gone from trailing 5-1 to leading 9-5.
“I had been nervous for 13 innings,” Ashworth said. “But going to that final inning of the day, I was pretty calm and had complete confidence in her finishing the ball game.”
O’Neal did finish it, and Haven finished off another regional championship.
Now the Wildcats are headed back to the Class 3A state tournament with one of the best teams in program history.
No. 2 seed Haven (27-2) will face No. 7 Baxter Springs (17-10) at 3 p.m. Monday at Trussler Sports Complex in Emporia. The winner advances to play at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Arrocha Ballpark in Lawrence against either No. 3 Silver Lake (25-4) or No. 6 Colby (21-6).
The third-place game is scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday, and the state championship game is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday.
For Haven, the trip to state is the latest achievement in a season already filled with them. The Wildcats won the Central Kansas League for the sixth time in eight seasons, set a program record with 27 wins and helped push the program past 500 all-time victories earlier this spring.
Ashworth, in his 18th season at Haven, is 337-82 with the Wildcats. He is 456-105 overall as a head coach, including his previous baseball tenure at Elkhart.
But the numbers that matter most this week start with one more win.
“We’re the favorites,” Ashworth said of the quarterfinal matchup. “Hopefully we go prove that we’re the better team in that matchup. If you’re the two seed at state, hopefully you get a matchup that’s favorable, and you would imagine this is one of those.”
Ashworth said Baxter Springs has shown enough on film to get Haven’s attention.
“Technology, the interconnectedness of the world today, is a blessing and a curse,” Ashworth said. “Of course, last night, late, I was up trying to look at film and get a little preview of them. I think they have decent pitching, which at this point everybody probably does. They look a little bit like us, I think, in terms of they hit a little bit and are pretty good in the circle.”
Haven reached state after beating Fredonia 19-0, Halstead 11-4 and Osage City 9-6 in regional play. The Wildcats had to show different sides of themselves to get there.
In the semifinal, Haven faced Halstead for the third time this season. Ashworth said it was not a comfortable matchup.
“They have a really potent offense, and they’re kind of a team that can knock you out with their bats,” Ashworth said.
The Wildcats built a 4-0 lead behind freshman pitcher Paige O’Neal before Halstead’s offense came alive. Ashworth turned to senior Avery Brawner, who helped settle the game.
“We brought our senior veteran Avery Brawner in, and she was able to get two strikeouts in the middle of their order and calm the waters a little bit,” Ashworth said.
Haven then broke the game open with power. Caeli Hunninghake hit a two-run home run, Mayzie Warden followed with a three-run home run, and Paige O’Neal later added another two-run shot.
The championship game was more dramatic.
Osage City led 4-0 after 2 1/2 innings and 5-1 in the fifth. Peyton Pitts, a Pittsburg State commit, kept Haven quiet early.
“She really kind of had her way with us early,” Ashworth said. “We didn’t get a whole lot going.”
The one early swing that did land was a towering home run by senior shortstop Morgan O’Neal.
“I’m not sure I’ve seen a ball hit farther by a high school softball player,” Ashworth said. “She absolutely annihilated a pitch, and I wish we could have marked it. It landed on another field. I wish we could have marked it and measured it, but it was both majestic, high, deep and just an incredible blast that put us on the board, gave us a little bit of hope.”
That hope turned into a comeback.
Haven scored three runs in the fifth to pull within 5-4, then scored five times in the sixth. Brawner tied the game with an RBI single, Morgan O’Neal followed with a two-run double, and Paige O’Neal added a two-run homer.
“I told the girls after the game we scored eight runs in the fifth and sixth,” Ashworth said. “I told them they were welcome to do that earlier in the ball game and not make it so dramatic.”
The comeback came in front of a large home crowd in Haven. Ashworth said the atmosphere helped the Wildcats through the late innings.
“The crowd was fantastic,” Ashworth said. “We were fortunate to be home. I made the comment that had this been a road game, had we been at Osage City, for example, different outcome, maybe.”
Ashworth said local businesses helped pay admission and provide pizza and drinks for students, adding to the energy around the field.
“Our crowd was just incredible, loud, had some great kids in the crowd getting into it, and it was really fun to be a part of in those late innings as we came back,” Ashworth said. “Tremendous turnout, great support from our community. Couldn’t ask for a better setting for a high school softball game.”
Haven’s identity begins in the circle.
Brawner is 15-1 with two saves, 125 strikeouts and a 2.76 ERA in 94 innings. Paige O’Neal is 11-1 with three saves, 97 strikeouts and a 1.84 ERA in 68 innings. Ella Bontrager has also provided key innings.
“I would say that we are pitching driven,” Ashworth said. “Previously, we’ve kind of been Avery Brawner leading the way, pitching the bulk of the innings. This year, we’ve added both Paige O’Neal, a freshman who’s really, really good, and Ella Bontrager has thrown some important innings for us.”
The Wildcats’ pitchers have combined for a program-record 238 strikeouts.
“Our pitchers have really driven the team forward,” Ashworth said. “When the pitching has a bit of an off night, the offense makes up for it. And when the offense struggles, the pitching, you know, we win 3-2 or something. So just a nice matchup each night of each side doing enough to win ball games.”
Offensively, Haven is led by three seniors at the top of the order.
Warden, the leadoff hitter and center fielder, is batting .432 with 43 hits, 54 runs scored and 42 RBIs. Brawner is hitting .465 with 46 hits, eight doubles, four triples, four home runs, 39 RBIs and 48 runs. Morgan O’Neal is hitting .451 with 10 doubles, six home runs, 43 RBIs, 43 runs and 31 walks.
All three are four-year starters.
“Our three senior hitters up front lead the way,” Ashworth said. “Mayzie Warden in the leadoff, Avery Brawner in the two hole, and then Morgan in the three spot. I looked at some of their career stats this morning, and all three girls are just huge numbers for their career, in terms of just RBIs, runs, hits. They’re all in the 150 range for those three numbers. It’s incredible.”
Paige O’Neal has added another power bat in the cleanup spot. The freshman is hitting .366 with 10 doubles, four home runs and 37 RBIs. She went 5 for 9 with two home runs, a double, six RBIs and five runs scored in regional play.
“She’s been a key hitter for us as well and provided some of that extra-base pop,” Ashworth said.
Ashworth also pointed to freshman catcher Rylee Myers as one of the most important pieces of the season. Myers had never caught before this spring, but stepped into the position after the graduation of Sophie Faidley, who is now playing at Dodge City Community College.
“We have a freshman catcher, Rylee Myers, that has done a fantastic job for a girl who never caught in her entire life until the beginning of March,” Ashworth said. “When she went out to take the field for our alumni game at the beginning of the year, she turned to the dugout and she goes, ‘It’s the first time I’ve ever walked on the field in an actual game as a catcher,’ which made my heart skip a few beats.”
Myers has since become a steady presence behind the plate for a pitching staff that has carried Haven back to state.
“She has done a fantastic job,” Ashworth said. “At times I think she was swimming underwater, but she kept coming up for air and survived. Man, we wouldn’t be where we are without her.”
The state trip is Haven’s 11th in program history and first since 2023, when the Wildcats placed third. That year’s team included the current senior class as freshmen.
Avery Brawner pitched every inning at state that season, including a scoreless battle into extra innings against Silver Lake pitcher Karly Washington, who later went to Kansas.
“Our seniors were freshmen,” Ashworth said. “We went up and got third, and Avery pitched those ball games. She threw every inning.”
Now the senior class gets one more chance.
“Everything’s hopefully coming full circle with those seniors getting a chance to go back one more time and finish what they started,” Ashworth said.
The format is different this year. Quarterfinal games are being played at multiple sites before the semifinals and finals shift to Arrocha Ballpark in Lawrence.
Ashworth said Haven landed in Emporia because Baxter Springs was outside the 250-mile distance range that would have allowed the Wildcats to play closer to home in Salina.
“It’s different,” Ashworth said. “It’s really hard to explain to people the different format, and you have to do it a lot because everybody’s confused. I don’t know that I necessarily like playing one day, and then if you win, you go home and wait a day, and then come back the next day.”
Ashworth said he likes when all teams in a classification are at the same site, giving players and coaches the chance to watch potential opponents and share the state tournament setting.
“I like the idea of all the 3A teams being in the same place and getting to see each other’s games,” Ashworth said. “It kind of makes it special.”
Still, Haven is focused on the part it can control.
The Wildcats have already won 27 games, beat three state qualifiers, collected 11 wins against teams with at least 15 victories and gone 17-2 against teams with winning records.
They have also shown they can survive pressure.
That may matter most now.
“We hit five home runs in the two ball games yesterday, which hasn’t necessarily been a staple of our offense this year,” Ashworth said. “But those were all pretty important home runs and timely. Hopefully the offense is kind of rounding into form.”
For Haven, Monday is the next chapter in another memorable season for the Wildcats' softball team, as they look to claim a state title on Friday in Lawrence.