photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Free State senior Cole Wright celebrates with senior Charlie Peters after scoring a run against St. James Academy at Hoglund Ballpark Thursday, April 24, 2025.

Free State baseball had what some players called a statement win over Olathe West on Thursday, beating the top team in the 6A East 3-2.

It was a big win, and the team celebrated it for a short time. Pitcher Ben Graves said the win was important after the team had fallen short and lost 11-1 against Olathe East, the other top team in the region.

But the Firebirds didn’t let the win overshadow their next game. Pitchers Cayman Cooks and Graves threw seven innings against Shawnee Mission South and allowed no runs and no walks against four hits. The Firebirds won 1-0.

“We were really looking for that statement win (against Olathe West), and that was a fun way to win it too, with a walk-off (run),” Graves said. “We celebrated that day, and then we knew we had to get back to focus the next day. I think this team has the toughness to stay level and win those big games and come back the next day.”

This season, the Firebirds are focused on their one goal: to win a state championship. Whether the team wins or loses, they’re ready to get any win they can the next time on the field, if that means a run-rule blowout like the Firebirds had against Olathe North on April 10, a comeback victory like their 16-6 win over Olathe South on April 1, or a tight, 1-0 win like the Firebirds had two days after their biggest win of the season. The team has shown an ability to stay comfortable in uncomfortable situations.

Andrew Zimmerschied, the team’s senior catcher, said the Firebirds have been building for a few years. The team is coming off back-to-back seasons in which the Firebirds finished third in the state tournament. In Zimmerschied’s first year, the team lost in the first round.

Those playoff experiences will help the team when the regular season ends, but they also help them in their regular-season games. They understand what their goal is and how close they’ve been to reaching it.

“I like how we’re responding in tight ball games — the way we’re responding is a positive as we get close to postseason,” Hill said. “This league is a gauntlet — it’s tough. We won 1-0 on (April 29), won 3-2 on Thursday, then 1-0 (on Saturday). It’s tough, but that’s just the Sunflower League. You have to be good every day, or you’ll get beat.”

Graves said the Firebirds have good leadership, which has helped ensure that everyone is focused on their bigger purpose this year. It starts with the dugout, where the team builds the energy and connection needed to win close games.

“A lot of the guys understand that in order to do what we want to do, we need to lock in every single day,” Graves said. “I think that a lot of the guys vocalize it, even though we all know it, to kind of remind ourselves that, yeah, we won a game, but we have a bigger goal in mind.”

Accountability is important with the team. The Firebirds have a lot of experience and drive, but the team ensures that nobody slips up. Nobody can get too high or too low emotionally, and nobody can be comfortable with where they’re at. The team constantly pushes itself to improve while having the confidence that it can reach its goals.

“I think it’s exciting,” Graves said. “We still are not where we want to be offensively, but we’re still in the lead of the Sunflower League. Once we get things figured out on offense, we’re going to be really good with a shot at the league and state championship.”

The team hasn’t demonstrated the batting that it knows it can have, and that’s something it is focused on fixing, even if Free State is succeeding and winning while the offense isn’t playing up to its potential.

Graves said the team can do more on the base paths and steal some bases to get the offense moving. Zimmerschied said if the team fixes its approach at the plate a bit, it’ll be a matter of time before the offense gets hot, which the team can hopefully ride through the postseason.

“We’ve got guys who can swing it, so we’re not too worried about it,” Graves said. “We have to keep going in the right direction, and eventually, we’ll have a breakout.”

Free State has five games left in its regular season, two of which are rivalry games against Lawrence. Three of the final five games will be on the road against Sunflower League opponents. The Firebirds aren’t letting themselves look too far ahead with the playoffs rapidly approaching. Their focus is on making sure they enter the playoffs with the best record possible, and that means focusing on the little things and taking it one game at a time.

For Zimmerschied and his fellow seniors, it all comes down to this final month. They’ve come close to a state championship and felt they could have accomplished that the past two seasons. This time, the team is ready to make it happen.

“We have a team full of guys who hate losing more than they like winning, so that’s really good,” Zimmerschied said. “Going out on a high note is crucial. We owe it to our coaches and teammates who have been working hard nonstop. We have to put that hard work to use and make it worth it with a state championship.”