Blue Valley West advances, Aquinas falls on opening day of Kansas 5A state softball tournament

Blue Valley West senior pitcher Perri Downey allowed two hits and struck out 14 in BV West’s 3-0 victory over Great Bend in the Kansas Class 5A state softball tournament on Thursday.

Downey had a no-hitter going but lost it in the sixth inning.

“Most of the games this season I’ve had no-hitters up until the fifth inning or so,” Downey said with a giant smile on her face after the game.

The Jaguars now get two more games, regardless of whether they win or lose the first one against Topeka Seaman.

“We had a goal at the beginning of the year: We wanted to get here,” BV West head coach Tiffany Warnes said.

“Last year, we went to 6A state and lost in the first game. We know what that felt like: you’re done. We didn’t want that to happen this year.”

Wichita Bishop Carroll 7, Aquinas 0

The first inning seemed to set the tone for eight-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas its 7-0 loss to top-seeded Wichita Bishop Carroll in the 5A tournament.

The Saints loaded the bases with one out in the top of the first, before Carroll recording two straight outs to end the inning.

Carroll pitcher Brittany Finney didn’t allow another runner to reach base for the remaining six innings.

“Had we taken advantage of the opportunities in the first inning that we had, I think we might have had a bit more confidence for the rest of the game,” St. Thomas Aquinas coach Chris Orel said. “To have that chance again, I didn’t know if that was going to happen again.”

The lack of offense, paired with six errors in the middle innings, doomed the Saints.

This story was originally published May 28, 2015 at 10:32 PM with the headline "Blue Valley West advances, Aquinas falls on opening day of Kansas 5A state softball tournament."