PERFECTION
Shawnee caps undefeated season with third straight title
In late April, Shawnee coach Todd Boyer sensed his team becoming a little too comfortable.
They started assuming that the wins would keep coming even if they didn’t keep the edge about them that had made the Wolves rise to No. 1 in national polls.
Boyer shook some life into his team then and the final payoff came Saturday as Shawnee beat Claremore 12-7 to win the Class 5A state championship and finish an undefeated season.
Boyer had avoided addressing the possibility of the undefeated season as the wins kept racking up but felt like he had to when he sensed his team’s focus slipping.
“The mantra kind of was: Show up with a purpose every day,” Boyer
said. “That just kept them motivated every day. About three weeks ago I saw a little complacency set in and that was the only time we’ve talked about it all year. We just reiterated—show up with a purpose every day and try to get better every day. That was the last time we mentioned it.”
Shawnee won its third consecutive championship and finished 40-0 — extending its winning streak to 52 — despite losing two of its best pitchers for large chunks of the season.
Eli Davis and Tanner Sparks struggled with injuries that kept them off the mound at times this season, forcing players like Oklahoma State signee Jake Taylor to play a much bigger role on the mound.
Saturday, there was Taylor mowing down Claremore batter after Claremore batter before running into big-time trouble in the seventh when he allowed five runs but finally struck out Jackson Martin to end the game.
Taylor also was 4-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs, and every Wolves starter had at least one hit.
Taylor threw his glove in the air and spiked his hat into the ground as catcher Kade Self came out for an embrace as their teammates piled around them after Taylor finished off the complete game.
“To be honest, at the beginning of the season, I expected this would be a grind season where we would have a 50-50 record and lose some games,” Taylor said. “We never talked about the record— never talked about any of that stuff. It wasn’t on any of our minds.”
The Wolves did it Saturday by pounding out 17 hits, including seven in a five-run fourth when Shawnee jumped out to a 9-0 lead.
“Our question was: How are we going to get those guys out? And we still haven’t answered that question,” Claremore coach Jim Sherl said. “I’ve been doing this 17 years, and that’s one of the best swinging ball clubs I’ve ever seen.”
All but one of Shawnee’s hits in that fourth were singles.
That inning, Self said, showed what made the Wolves so good all year.
“We do the little things,” he said. “Not every at-bat needs to be a home run — just get to the next guy and keep moving down the line and good things happen.”