photo by: Nathan Friedman/Special to the Journal-World

Free State senior first baseman Boston Baker swings at a pitch during the game against Mill Valley Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Lawrence.

The Free State baseball team has put together one of its most successful seasons ever to this point, holding a 26-2 record while adding another state tournament appearance to an already storied history.

Among many accolades, the Firebirds also clinched their first Sunflower League championship since 2019, and at the core of each title-winning team was a Baker brother: Jake, a 2019 graduate of Free State, and Boston, a 2025 graduate.

Both Jake and Boston contributed to the success of their league and regional champion teams in their own right, as Jake was an all-state selection during his time at Free State and played five seasons at the University of Kansas, while Boston, in his first year of varsity action, has filled a multitude of roles, primarily as the team’s designated hitter and also pitching when called upon.

“They’re both really good young men,” veteran Free State head coach Mike Hill said. “Hardworking, want to be pushed, OK with getting uncomfortable, and those are ingredients for successful players and successful people. They’ve both been an example of what good kids can accomplish if they work hard.”

The latest achievement added to the Free State program has created another opportunity for the Baker brothers to strengthen their already unshakable bond.

“It’s pretty cool seeing that full circle moment, for me to do it in 2019 and then for (Boston) to do it now,” Jake Baker said. “He was out on the field with me after the game when we did win it, and then I was out on the field with him when he did it. I think it’s really cool, and definitely will be something to talk about later down the road.”

photo by: Courtesy of Lisa Baker

Boston Baker, left, is pictured with older brother Jake Baker after Jake’s 2019 Free State baseball team won a regional title.

photo by: Courtesy of Lisa Baker

Boston Baker, left, is pictured with older brother Jake Baker after Boston’s 2025 Free State baseball team won a regional title.

The 2019 Free State team lost its first two games of the season before finishing with a 21-4 record, losing in the state championship game to Wichita-Haysville Campus by a 3-2 decision in nine innings. Jake was the game’s hero up until the final inning, hitting a two-RBI single to tie the score and send it to extra innings.

While Boston was just in middle school at the time, he says he can recall being in attendance and witnessing the moment for himself.

“I remember going to some of the home games, and I remember their state run, and the state championship game,” he said. “I remember Jake getting the hit and just how loud everyone was.”

According to Jake, the 2019 team was able to overcome its slow start by buying into the program’s culture, and says that everyone on the team was close with each other. Six years later, he can see the same connections with his younger brother’s senior year group.

“This team kind of reminds me of what my senior year team was,” Jake Baker said. “It seems like they’re a very close-knit group, seems like they like to be around each other … They’re a team-first group, everybody has a role, and it seems like they’re trying to execute to the best of their abilities.”

This year’s team indeed has a close bond, which started way back in their freshman year when Hill had to create an extra team to accommodate the large number of players. Their relationships have only strengthened now that they are seniors.

“We’re a very close class, I feel like we’ve always been a very close class, and we’ve matured along the way,” Boston Baker said. “When we have practices that are three to four hours long, it just helps build connections that much easier. And now, since we’ve played 28 games (this season), it’s just more time together, so that bond just increases every day.”

The 11 members of the 2025 senior class have also become capable leaders, and each has his own different way of leading, but Hill says the biggest thing they have in common is their ability to lead by their actions.

“Some of them aren’t necessarily vocal about how they lead, but that’s just one way to do it, and they have the vocal leadership, but they (also) have the leadership by example, which certainly is a credit to each of them individually,” Hill said.

Those close-knit bonds and proven leadership skills will be tested throughout the final weekend, as although the Firebirds have played in big games all spring, including a 3-2 seventh-inning comeback win over regional champion Olathe West on May 2, the state tournament is unlike any environment seen throughout the season.

“I think it’ll be good to learn who you are a little bit,” Boston Baker said. “It’s obviously going to be high tension, high stakes, and we don’t want to be the team that rolls over and crumbles under pressure. We want to go get (a state championship), so I think we will kind of find out who we are a little bit when pressure is super high like this.”

In Boston’s case, he has done his own learning throughout his high school career, and it hasn’t always been easy, particularly on the diamond. Two torn ACLs forced him to miss the entirety of his sophomore year and spend his junior season on the junior varsity roster.

Despite the numerous setbacks, his oldest brother says his determination to come back stronger and better than ever stems from having “a lot of heart and a lot of grit.”

“I get a little emotional thinking about it just because I wouldn’t wish that on anybody,” Jake Baker said. “He definitely has had it the hardest, but I think that is making him the person he is today, being able to deal with the failure, deal with the hardship, deal with anything that comes at him in life.”

He added: “Seeing that smile he had back when he was in eighth grade, freshman year, it’s great to see again. I do have that older-brother side where it’s like, you know, I want to push him still and motivate him to still be great, or the best that he can, but I mean, watching him (play baseball) and being injury-free, knock on wood, it’s been great.”

Making the roster at Free State is a challenge in itself due to the program’s consistent success, but thanks to Jake’s experience and wise words of wisdom, Boston felt prepared for his first tryout and has felt the same level of preparedness ever since.

“He helped me a lot to kind of just tell me how the program was run,” Boston Baker said. “I remember, before freshman-year tryouts, he sent me this long paragraph of how to hold myself and how to deal with certain things, like if something went wrong, not to hang my head because (the coaches) evaluate everything.”

In his final season of baseball, Boston has certainly felt a roller coaster of emotions, as he played in 22 games but did not appear in either game during the regional tournament. Despite this, his willingness to sacrifice for his team has never wavered.

“What’s so impressive to me is that he hasn’t played every game, he’s had times where he’s had to sit,” Hill said. “Sometimes when kids are faced with that situation, it’s the first time in their life they’ve had to deal with that, and there are some who have a hard time handling that. And while the competitor in him certainly wants to be on the field, he has also understood kind of a team-first mentality and (has) been willing to do what’s necessary for the team to be successful.”

While Boston will not be continuing his athletic career in college — attending KU in the fall and majoring in exercise science before going to graduate school to become a physical therapist — sports have left a lasting impact on his life as a whole.

“Sports teach you great life lessons, they help you find out who you are,” Boston Baker said. “I’ve had coaches that have preached that to me in football, and coach Hill does a great job preaching that in baseball, how life-sucking baseball can be; you work your butt off day in and day out, and then you don’t get the results. Sometimes, that’s how life is, and that’s what’s so cool about sports is that you’re playing a children’s game, but you get life lessons out of it.”

Boston and the rest of the Firebird squad earned the top seed in the 6A state tournament and will begin their quest for a state championship on Thursday at 11 a.m., taking on eighth-seeded Washburn Rural at Hoglund Ballpark.

Ahead of a potential state title run, Jake Baker had one last piece of advice from one league and regional champion to another.

“Enjoy it, but don’t take any plays off because you don’t know which one’s going to be your last,” he said. “Play everything at 110%, leave it out on the field and walk away from it where you’re like, ‘I gave everything I had.’ Hopefully, everybody should be completely exhausted by the end of the tournament.”

Free State junior Jake Baker checks his swing in a game against Sioux Falls Washington, March 22, 2019, at Free State High School.