There is dominant and then there is DOMINANT!  Bishop Carroll High out of Wichita, Kan. couldn’t have been any better this year.

Ranked No. 15 in this week’s FAB 50 rankings, the Golden Eagles finished their season with a perfect 25-0 record and captured a fourth straight Class 5A state title.

Carroll outscored its opponents 408-15 this year and in the 25 games, 22 of them were run-ruled.

The closest game was an 8-6 win over Maize High, a 6A team that is typically one of the best in the state.

The Kansas powerhouse really went on a roll in the playoffs as it ran through the state tournament outscoring opponents 38-1 with the one run being unearned.

The championship game was a good example of the Golden Eagles abilities on offense and defense as Carroll beat Maize South 11-0 in a run-ruled game that ended in the sixth inning.

Sure, some will say the competition in Kansas isn’t as great in a bigger state such as California, Florida, Texas or Arizona, but the Eagles could play any team anywhere and be competitive.

Why?

First, there may not be a better pitching one-two punch in the nation with junior Brittany Finney, who is committed to Oklahoma, and senior Jessi Haffner, who is going to Big 12 rival Oklahoma State, being equally effective… as in allowing only a combined seven earn runs all year.

Finney went 12-0 with only 16 hits allowed in 45 innings while she struck out 87 and only walked one.  Yes, she only walked ONE batter (nice strikeout-to-walk ratio).  She also only hit one batter so Brittany was a tough at-bat as she only allowed three earned runs all year (0.467 ERA).

Haffner had comparable stats: her record was 13-0 and in 56.4 innings she allowed 23 hits while striking out 70 and only allowed four earned runs to give her a 0.499 ERA. In the championship game, Jessi got the shutout victory.

But pitching wasn’t the only thing the team did well: the Golden Eagles could hit; of their top 11 players, all of them hit .500 or better.

Colorado State bound catcher Lauren Buchannan led the way with a .657 average and .675 on-base percentage while Haffner was up there too with a .616 average and a team-leading 49 RBI and 1.356 slugging percentage.

Like Haffner, Finney wasn’t just an effective hitter—she led the team with 12 home runs with a pair coming in the title game. She hit .553 and was second on the team with 47 RBI

There were other hitting stars too, like infielder Morgan Balderas (Highland CC) who hit a walk-off home run in the championship win that pulled the plug on the game an inning early.  She was third on the team in both average (.577) and RBI (43).

Congratulations to a great team and its coaches and players who, though perhaps underrated and/or underpublicized on a national scale, can always say that they were part of a perfect season and, for the seniors, can lay claim to winning a state title every year of high school… and how many can say that?

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Note: it looks like we’ll get to see both pitchers in a few weeks at the So Cal Athletics Invitational (June 20-22 in Los Alamitos, Calif.) as Finney will be playing for the Explosion and Haffner for the Wichita Mustangs. More to come on this exciting tournament…