photo by: Carter Gaskins

Free State player Jake Rittman (7) winds up for a hit early in the 4th inning on Thursday, April 12, 2018. Free State beat Gardner Edgerton, 3-1.

With just a few weeks remaining in his Free State High baseball team’s season, coach Mike Hill knew the Firebirds didn’t have a bad lineup. But he also recognized the offense required some type of modification in order to peak.

The refinement presented itself when Hill told senior Jake Rittman he was moving to the top of the order.

“I was looking forward to it. I hadn’t hit leadoff since I was in elementary school,” recalled Rittman, who was batting third or cleanup earlier in the spring. “I like the position. You just have to find a way to get on and get things going.”

The offense started to sync with the reordered lineup, helping FSHS win 11 of its past 12 games en route to today’s Class 6A state tournament at Hoglund Ballpark, where the Firebirds (16-6) will face Haysville-Campus (15-7).

Now that Rittman bats first, followed by senior Parker Gay, senior Kyle Abrahamson and junior Jake Baker, Hill said the Firebirds have experienced a bit of an offensive renaissance. The coach saw attributes in Rittman he figured would translate to the leadoff spot.

“First, he’s a quality hitter. Second, his patience at the plate,” Hill added, “had been really good. We don’t necessarily have that prototypical leadoff guy who’s going to take five, six pitches, runs like a deer. That’s not who we are.”

Still, Rittman enters the state tournament with a .472 on-base percentage, .370 batting average and a plate approach that works for him while setting up the hitters behind him.

“I think just having quality at-bats, making the defense work, putting pressure on the defense,” the senior shortstop shared of his best qualities. “And I think you can make up for not having great speed by just being a good base-runner.”

When their season began in mid-March, the Firebirds had so few experienced upperclassmen that they felt uncertain about the team’s potential. But Abrahamson (.450 batting average, 27 hits, 19 RBI) said the group’s confidence reached a new level over the course of the past couple of weeks.

“I think everyone feels now as we beat Lawrence High and Shawnee Mission East — those were two tough games — we knew we needed both of those two,” the senior left fielder said of the last matchups of the regular season. “And after we won both, we realized that we can do this.”

Free State doesn’t slug its way to victories, Baker attested. The cleanup hitter (.385 average, seven doubles, one home run, 19 RBI) said the lineup’s success has more to do with timely hitting.

“We do the little things right,” Baker said. “Dirt-ball reads or taking advantage of another team’s error or mistake or anything like that. Our base-running has been a lot better from earlier in the year to now.”

Of course, the Firebirds’ season might have ended already if it weren’t for their pitchers making strides, as well.

David Stuart (4-1, 2.07 ERA, 42 strikeouts in 47.1 innings) will start versus Haysville-Campus (first pitch at approximately 5:45 p.m.) and Ethan Bradford (8-2, 2.41, 38 K’s, 43.2 IP) has proven effective, too.

“They’re not at the dominant level with some guys that we’ve had the past, but they’re not at that stage of their careers,” Hill said of Stuart, a sophomore, and Bradford, a junior, while adding they could both become hurlers who control the game in the future.

The Firebirds have enjoyed steady upward momentum since winning all three of their games at the River City Baseball Festival and now find themselves in contention for the 6A state title.

“Everybody’s building confidence for themselves and everybody knows that we can do it,” Baker said. “Coach is always preaching that ‘we can do this’ and we’ve just got to keep our mind to it.”