Inductees

In October 2001, in the 21^st inning of the Class 3 state championship softball game, after teammate Samantha Fleeman already had pitched every inning and struck out 44, Emily Fladten stood at second base for Pleasant Hill.

And then Devon Francy delivered a base hit.

“And I remember knowing exactly what to do, as second nature to ensure my winning run counted,” Fladten said. “Hook slide. Coach had drilled that thing into me for two years. All that base running, all that sign calling, every practice, every repetitive moment made it so the game-winning moment was just something we’d done 100 times before. That’s what I remember.”

Folks in the Kansas City area still talk about that game, and for good reasons. That team captured the program’s second consecutive state title, capping a 62-1 run. And it’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted the Pleasant Hill High School 2000 & 2001 Softball Teams with the Class of 2022.

The 2000 team (32-0) beat Webb City 2-1 in eight innings in the championship game. That team featured Fleeman and Francy as the battery, Ariel Coburn at shortstop, second baseman Amanda Younce, third baseman Kelly Newberry and Lisa Robertson at first base. Fladten, Natalie Campbell and Nicole Campbell manned the outfield. The roster also included Jenna Henderson, Tricia Stanton, Megan Suelter, Michaela Levy and Rhonda Hunt.

Younce and Newberry graduated, and all others returned for the 2001 team (30-1), which added Erica Stone, Rachel Cervantes, Kayla Irwin and Chelsea Ford. That group beat Helias Catholic 1-0 in 21 innings.

Russ Hough was the coach, with Alison Barrett as the assistant coach. They had been hired before the 2000 season.

“I can remember in 2000, one of our first practices was at the pool, and Coach asked what the expectation was for the year,” Stanton said. “And the seniors and juniors said, ‘To win state!’”

There was a reason for that. Several previous seasons had ended in district tournaments.

“We were all willing to do whatever or play wherever we needed to,” Younce said.

Hough and Barrett recognized immediately what they had on the roster in 2000.

“Mentally and physically, we had some really tough girls,” Barrett said. “I would have put them against many of the boys we had in the high school at that time. … I think they knew that they had potential and could have some special seasons.”

When the 2000 team reached Columbia for the state tournament, they hit the movie theater and watched “Remember the Titans.” The message of that film further galvanized Pleasant Hill.

Pleasant Hill had eight one-run wins that season, including 2-1 in the sectional and 1-0 in the quarterfinal. After the state title game, there was a police escort through town.

“The further we got into the season, the more apparent it was that we could really do this,” Newberry said.

In 2001, an early loss to Oak Park fueled their fire. By then, players sensed that only one run could win games. Sure enough, Pleasant Hill won districts by a run and won the quarterfinal in nine innings.

Those teams worked on everything, right down to sliding drills on a muddy hill near the home field whenever it rained.

In the 2001 championship game, Helias Catholic forced Pleasant Hill to strand 11 runners, and struck out eight batters. Pleasant Hill sent 75 batters to the plate, while Helias Catholic sent 73, with Fleeman forcing the Irish to strand 10.

At one point, Hough asked Fleeman if she was tired.

“She gave him a look that said, ‘Stick it,’ and marched out to the mound and proceeded to pitch the rest of the game,” Barrett said.

Soon, Francy and Fladten finished it off.

“The repeat was probably difficult,” Fleeman said. “I’m sure we had other teams playing their best games against us, but the team did embrace the expectations and the challenge.”

Said Stone, “Pleasant Hill is a relatively small town but man, the support we received was incredible. This community was always there for us, cheering us on every step of the way.”

They certainly inspired. Pleasant Hill’s 2002 reached the quarterfinals, and the 2003 placed third in state.

“I remember loving the tar out of those girls. Heck I still do,” Flatden said. “We were a team through and through. We practiced a lot together. We went to school together. We played after school together. We won a lot together. And we grew a lot together.”