High winds and powerful storms moved through Crawford County on Monday night, leaving a trail of uprooted and broken trees, downed power lines and damage in its wake.
The Frontenac Raiders had both of the preseason favorites — baseball, softball — in the Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League.
Both teams held up their end of the bargain by claiming league titles — back-to-back for both — and the baseball and softball teams returned 17 of a possible 18 starters, led by a strong, veteran senior group on both sides.
Headed into the Class 4A state tournament in Salina, seniors Lindsey Gorham, Jennifer Long, Nayna Fields, Libby Warrick, Sam Bonner and Ashton Alex have played on Raider teams with a combined record of 75-15 (.833 winning percentage) and 48-10 CNC (.828).
Kelsey Trotnic traveled to Australia on a spark plug.
Well, at least money from the sale of lots of spark plugs financed the 2013 Pittsburg State University graduate’s student-teaching experience in the land of kangaroos and koalas.
MOORE, Okla. — Emergency crews searched the broken remnants of an Oklahoma City suburb Tuesday for survivors of a massive tornado that flattened homes and demolished an elementary school. At least 24 people were killed, including at least seven children, and those numbers were expected to climb.
MOORE, Okla. — Emergency crews searched the broken remnants of an Oklahoma City suburb Tuesday for survivors of a massive tornado that flattened homes and demolished an elementary school. At least 24 people were killed, including at least seven children, and those numbers were expected to climb.
It was only a year ago Monday that former Central Missouri assistant coach Matt Murray started three consecutive days of finalist interviews for the Pittsburg State head baseball coach position left vacant by the retirement of longtime head man Steve Bever.
Murray beat out former Pitt State player and former assistant Daniel Esposito and University of Indianapolis assistant coach Alan Ready for the job and the Gorillas made their first MIAA Tournament appearance in nearly a decade, recording their most wins (29) since 2005 during Murray’s first season.
“The first year’s been incredible,” Murray said during an interview Monday in the parking lot of JayCee Ballpark a couple hours before the storm came through. “No. 1, when I think about family and getting my wife and family here and settled in, that was a big part of the transition from leaving Warrensburg. Once that piece was taken care of, that was a great feeling. Professionally, just a wonderful coaching staff we were able to bring in late and the fact that our players responded fairly well. I just felt like for the first year and what we’re going to do, it was a solid first step.”
Over the past three seasons, the Frontenac Raider baseball program enjoyed a 59-14 overall record (.808 winning percentage), 44-3 the past two seasons (.936), one state championship (2012), one state third place (2011), two regional titles, two league titles (first and second in school history) and one undefeated regular season (18-0).
This success was highly dependent on the contributions of seniors Matt Standlee, Blake Vail, Bryan Wade, Bryce Burdette, Blake Barto, Gus Brunetti, Ross Edge, Avery Coronado, Nick Zafuta, Jacob Teats and Dylan Plouvier — kids who played with or against each other in the backyard, the sandlot, the youth leagues, the traveling teams, the All-Star teams, et cetera, until they formed the core of the Frontenac baseball team and developed a bond of brotherhood.
Their run ended with a regional final loss to Coffeyville on Wednesday and the senior class graduated on Saturday.
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