ShawneeDispatch.com

Pittsburg — The losing record seems laughable now.

The 0-4 start to the season is nothing more than ancient history.

All season long the Mill Valley softball team knew it was better than that, and Monday night the Lady Jaguars proved it at the Class 5A regional tournament.

Mill Valley entered regionals as the No. 6 seed, but it sent No. 3 Bishop Miege packing in the semifinals, 4-0, and then pummeled No. 2 Pittsburg for the championship, 13-0, at Cheryl Stice Field.

The Lady Jags improved to 9-11, and they're headed to state with a pair of statement victories that left their coach nearly speechless.

"They : did awesome. I can't even explain it," first-year Mill Valley coach Heather Whitcomb said. "I think they were in it to win it from the very beginning. They came out here with intensity. They knew that they could do it. I don't even know what to say. They just came out and played very well."

The day couldn't have started much better for Mill Valley. It pounced on Miege in the first inning when Ariel Mull smacked a leadoff single to left. Moments later she scored on Madison Hargrove's single. Hargrove then scored on a base hit by Jessica Kelsey.

Tara Heinrich accounted for the other two runs. She walked and scored in the third, and she singled and scored in the seventh.

Ashley Jones tossed a four-hitter with eight strikeouts.

That set the tone for the finals.

Jones went from dominant against Miege to downright dazzling against Pittsburg, and her teammates did the same.

In the first inning, Heinrich laced a base hit down the third-base line and sprinted to second after the ball squirted past the Pittsburg left fielder. Heinrich scored on a base hit to left by Amanda Truax. At that moment, the Lady Jags relaxed and never looked back.

The early lead made an already-focused Jones even more effective.

"For me, it's easier to play with the lead," she said. "It's easier to pitch."

It was even tougher for the Purple Dragons to touch her. Jones allowed just two hits the entire game - a first-inning double and a sixth-inning single. She struck out nine and walked just one.

Mill Valley extended its lead to 2-0 in the fourth inning when Truax ripped a leadoff double and scored on Emily Crady's base hit.

Sydnee Gerber's two-run double capped a three-run fifth inning that essentially put the lead out of reach. The Lady Jags weren't done, however.

Always an aggressive team, Whitcomb and assistant coach Jennifer Snapp continued to have their runners work the base paths. With one out in the sixth, Miranda Fields walked. Mull then reached on a grounder. Heinrich laid down a bunt, reached safely on an error and scored Fields. Hargrove followed with an infield single that plated Mull. Then it was Kelsey's turn as she hit a run-scoring single. A base hit by Truax brought in another run. Gerber reached on an error, and the runs kept coming. Back-to-back two-run doubles by Ashton Sparks and Crady capped an eight-run sixth that extended the lead to 13-0 and left players on both teams looking shocked for vastly different reasons.

Minutes later the game ended in run-rule fashion and the Lady Jags accepted their regional championship plaque amid a flurry of hugs and high-fives.

"It's overwhelming and awesome," said Heinrich, who scored three runs in the championship game. "We couldn't do it without our coaches. It's amazing."

Mill Valley will play in the state tournament beginning Friday, May 23, at Two Rivers Youth Complex in Wichita. It's an accomplishment most people wouldn't have expected from a team that picked up its first doubleheader sweep just last week.

The Lady Jags never had any doubts, though.

"They've come a long way," Whitcomb said. "But from day one we said we were going to state, and we had it in our hearts and we believed it. I think they believed it wholeheartedly from day one, and they came out and proved it to everybody that they wanted it, and they got it."