Free State sophomore Maggie Hull celebrates after scoring the game's only run with coach Pam Pine, left. Hull's run gave FSHS a 1-0 victory over Olathe East on Wednesday at FSHS. O-East rallied for a 5-3 victory in Game Two.

Free State sophomore Maggie Hull turns on a pitch in the fourth inning of the first of two games Wednesday against Olathe East. Hull grabbed a double on the hit and the game's only run.

Free State senior Livi Abney beats the tag at first base on a bunt that scored sophomore Maggie Hull in the fourth inning of the first of two games against Olathe East Wednesday at Free State High School.

Sunflower League champions. Or maybe co-champions.

However it turns out for Free State High’s softball team, coach Pam Pine will take it.

“Co-champions or champions, it means a lot,” Pine said. “It’s a great accomplishment to be up there with Olathe East.”

The Firebirds, who had never finished higher than third place in league standings, ascended to the league throne room with a nail-biting 1-0 victory over the dynastic Hawks on Wednesday afternoon at the Free State field.

Olathe East rallied to capture the second game of the doubleheader, 5-3, but the first game was the one that counted in the league standings.

So dominant has Olathe East been in the Sunflower League that the Firebirds’ 1-0 victory was the Hawks’ first league loss since the 2003 season. O-East had won at least 40 league contests in a row.

Curiously, the three-time defending Class 6A champs have dropped only three games overall since 2003, and all three have been to Free State. The Firebirds’ wins in 2004 and 2006 were in the second games of doubleheaders, however and didn’t count in the Sunflower standings.

Free State concluded its league season Wednesday with a 10-1 record. Meanwhile, the Hawks are 7-1 and have had three league contests – against Shawnee Mission East, SM South and SM Northwest – rained out that they won’t be able to make up.

“We can’t match 10-1,” Olathe East coach Jeff Hulse said, “so how do you decide the league champion? I don’t know. This has never happened before.”

Whatever the resolution, Free State is assured of at least a piece of the pie.

“It’s real exciting to be champion,” said second baseman Livi Abney, one of four seniors on the roster.

Abney was also one of the protagonists in the production of what proved to be the winning run in the opener. After Maggie Hull began the fourth inning with a double over the left-fielder’s head, Abney dropped a chalk-hugging bunt down the first-base line.

“I don’t bunt very often,” Abney said, “but that one came off the bat so well.”

So well that Abney was able to beat the hurried throw to first base and then, when the ball skittered away, the fleet Hull was able to round third and score.

Catherine Smith made that run stand up. Relieving younger sister Megan with one out in the third inning, Smith hurled 4 2/3 innings of two-hit shutout ball the rest of the way.

“I wanted to do it for the seniors,” said Smith, a junior. “I couldn’t let them leave without a championship. It’s all them. They have a lot of heart.”

Smith displayed plenty of gumption, too, by constantly pitching out of jams caused mostly by four Free State errors. Olathe East managed only two singles, yet left 11 runners stranded.

“That’s not characteristic of us,” Hulse said of his team’s inability to hit with runners in scoring position.

The Hawks were more characteristic in the nightcap by jumping to a 3-1 lead. Then after Free State tied it at 3 in the bottom of the sixth, primarily because of three O-East errors, the Hawks used an error, a walk and three singles to produce the two decisive runs in the top of the seventh.

Free State, now 16-3 overall, will play host to a 6A sub-state on Tuesday.