Olathe ? Softball isn’t that much different than baseball. Ninety percent of the game is still half mental, or so Yogi Berra is purported to have uttered.

Case in point: Free State High’s high-flying softball team.

Hustled into an 11th-hour make-up game with Olathe South on Tuesday afternoon, the Firebirds faltered, succumbing to the Falcons, 5-4, at the Olathe District Activities Center.

“When we came to school, we didn’t think we would play,” senior first baseman Brooke Abney said. “It caught us off guard, but that’s no excuse.”

Here’s the scenario:

A scheduled Tuesday doubleheader with O-South at the Free State field was called off Monday because of soggy conditions. However, Free State athletic director Steve Grant was attending a Tuesday morning meeting of Sunflower League ADs and learned that one of ODAC’s two softball fields was available that afternoon.

So Grant called coach Pam Pine about 11 a.m., and she set the machinery in motion, requesting dismissal slips for her players, e-mailing parents, lining up vans, securing officials, etc.

There was just one snag. Four Firebirds were scheduled to participate in a choir concert that evening, so the twinbill was shortened to a single game.

As it turned out, however, there were two snags. The Firebirds showed up at ODAC, but that was about it.

“We made a lot of mental errors early,” Abney said. “I think it was more mental than anything.”

Abney pulled one of the rocks by being picked off first base in the fourth inning. But there were other brain freezes, too, like failing to cover bases.

Add the mental mistakes to four physical errors, all on the infield, and Pine was baffled.

“Our defense fell through,” the Firebirds’ coach said, “and that hasn’t happened all year.”

At the plate, Free State collected 10 hits and drew three bases on balls but left nine runners on base against an Olathe South team in the middle of league standings. The Falcons improved to 9-5, 4-4 in the Sunflower League.

Now the Firebirds (15-2 overall, 9-1 Sunflower League) will have to turn it around in a hurry because they’re scheduled to play host to perennial Class 6A powerhouse Olathe East in a 4 p.m. twinbill today.

“The girls will have to bounce back,” Pine said. “We’ll have to bring our A-game, or we’ll get beat.”

Olathe East (12-0 overall, 6-0 Sunflower League) has lost only two games during the last three years, and both were to Free State during the regular season. The Hawks edged the Firebirds, 2-1, in the first round of last year’s 6A state tourney in Wichita.

“We always try to play hard against Olathe East,” Abney said. “We need to bounce back and play better. We need to get our defense back.”

Today’s games, rained out twice earlier, will conclude Free State’s regular season. Sub-state seedings will be made Saturday.