Rossville Girls Hope To Go To State

From the Capital Journal

By Brent Maycock

Graduation didn’t claim a ton of players off last year’s Rossville softball team that finished the season 16-4 and as Class 3A regional runner-up.

But what it didn’t take in quantity, it definitely took in quality. Two of the four departed seniors — pitcher Taylor Kirk and infielder-outfielder Taylor Brecheisen — were All-State selections.

“With our seniors last year, we lost over half of our runs,” Rossville coach Curt Brecheisen said. “These girls had a lot to pick up and put in a lot of extra work to make up for what we lost.”

Not only did Rossville’s 2016 team do that, but made history in the process. The Bulldawgs claimed the first Mid-East League title in program history, going 10-0 through what has traditionally been one of the toughest leagues in the state at any level.

Just how tough? Rossville now has as many league titles as state titles, winning the program’s only state crown in 2000 in Class 2-1A while fellow MEL member St. Marys took the 3A crown.

“It’s about time is what it is,” Brecheisen said. “We’ve had some really good groups come through here and we just haven’t been able to get over that hump. Last year, we had a state champion and state champion (Silver Lake) and a 4A (Division II) runner-up (Rock Creek) and we beat the snot out of the 4A team. The league’s like that just about every year, though, so winning it is really special.”

Rossville would like to continue to add titles to its resume this year and takes a 17-3 record into this week’s Class 3A regional at Silver Lake, the only losses coming to 6A Manhattan (twice) and fellow 3A Oskaloosa. The Bulldawgs are the No. 1 seed in the regional and are looking for their first state berth since 2013.

That year, Rossville had to face league rival Silver Lake in the first round of the state tourney, falling 6-3 as the Eagles went on to capture the first of three straight state championships. To get back to state, the Bulldawgs likely will have to down their arch rivals again, this time in the regional semifinals.

Silver Lake (11-9) is the regional’s No. 4 seed and if it beats St. Marys (9-10) in Monday’s quarterfinal game, the War on 24 rivals will square off in the 2 p.m. Tuesday semifinal. Even though Rossville swept the regular-season showdown, the postseason is a different situation altogether.

Other top seeds in the regional are No. 2 seed Council Grove (14-5) and No. 3 Marysville (13-5).

“We’re trying not to look at it any differently than we normally would,” Brecheisen said. “We’ve got to play our best ball to win, period. We’ve had some close games this year, some that maybe shouldn’t have been, but that’s good because we didn’t have a lot of those last year. That’s helped us because we’ve battled through games where we didn’t hit so well but eventually found a way.”