Michael Cooper: Softball: Top-ranked Shawnee off to its best start since 2014

Dubie is 10-1 with a 2.03 earned run average and Hannan is 7-0 with a 3.87 ERA. Dubie leads the team with 75 strikeouts in 65.1 innings pitched.

Athlete of the Week: Byanca Dubie, Shawnee High School

“They feed off of one another,” Baugh said. “It’s a consistency of communication between them. Each one of them is their biggest cheerleader when they are in there, and if they’re not, they’re ready to go when their number is called. So that’s been a great blessing to have.”

At the plate, the Braves have one of the top offenses in the area. They’ve scored a league-best 207 runs this season. Dubie leads the team with a .559 batting average and 29 RBIs.

With 10 returners who saw varsity action last season, the Braves have fostered a family culture of playing for one another, Baugh said.

“They have a no-quit attitude,” Baugh said. “They’ve faced a lot of good teams and they’ve come out on top. They believe every game, you know, that they’re going to come out better than going in. So it’s been nice.”

That’s shown over the last two weeks. On Monday, the Braves trailed Benjamin Logan 4-1, but scored six runs in the fourth and fifth innings to grab a 7-4 victory. On April 16, they scored six runs in the bottom of the seventh inning – thanks to Dubie’s three-run walkoff home run – to beat D-III third-ranked Western Brown 13-11. The previous day, after giving up a seven-run lead, the Braves scored eight runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to beat Northwestern 21-13.

After last season’s heartbreak, the Braves did some soul searching in the offseason on how they wanted this season to go, Baugh said. The “driving force,” Baugh said, was working to get to the state final four.

“I’d be probably remiss if I didn’t say we had a little bit of a chip on our shoulder with, you know, feeling like we could have went farther, but we just didn’t make it. It’s not that we have to prove anything to anybody, but we use that as the motivation,” he said. “They’ve come together. They believe in one another. It’s such a team effort with the returners that we have elevating their game, they’ve just gotten better. The newcomers that we have that are on the team now have really stepped into the roles that they’ve accepted, and they’ve been, they’ve been doing really well in their own right.

“There’s one standard that they all have committed to and it’s a singular goal for the team. They’ve just been really, really fun to watch, and it’s just really nice to see them gelling each game, getting better and facing a little bit adversity, but still coming out on top. It’s really kind of given them that warrior mentality to go out there and fight.”

The hard work is paying off in the form of a history-making season.

“I’m very grateful that we have a great group of girls that want to play their hardest and play for not only themselves but each other,” George said. “Everybody puts out their best effort. Nobody’s really playing lackadaisical. … I think our chemistry is what really makes us the team that we are.”

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