Pictured- Southeast of Saline’s Kyiah Samuelson at the plate.

GYPSUM — Karlee Zurfluh had just seen her Southeast of Saline softball team overpower Sacred Heart on Tuesday in a doubleheader sweep, but she knew the Trojans had more obstacles ahead.

Little did she know the game would test her own limits as a pitcher.

“It’s definitely going to be a good test to see what we can work on,” Zurfluh, a junior, said of Thursday’s home games against Chapman, a Class 4A state qualifier last year and off to a 9-1 start this season. “I feel like Chapman is going to be definitely more of a state team and it’s going to be a good team to see where we are.”

Sophomore Karlee Zurfluh

Sure enough, it was, and the Trojans rose to the occasion, knocking off Chapman twice, 1-0 and 2-1, to push their own record to 9-1. And Zurfluh was right in the middle of it, pitching a pair of complete games that included her third straight no-hitter in the opener.

“You have a chance to beat anybody when you have Karlee Zurfluh in the circle,” Southeast coach Tyler Smith said.

Indeed, Zurfluh has been a driving force for Southeast, which despite losing seven seniors from last year’s 22-5 team that fell one run short of the 3A state tournament, falling 4-3 in the regional final to eventual runner-up Silver Lake.

Last week at Republic County, she threw perfect game in the Trojans’ first of two three-inning run rule victories. She followed it up with another three-inning no-hitter Tuesday against Sacred Heart in which she struck out nine batters and walked just one.

“She’s really solid,” sophomore center fielder Kyiah Samuelson said of Zurfluh, who with her performance against Chapman improved to 6-0 without yet allowing an earned run. “She does a great job, and she’s got a great defense backing her up, but she has proved that she’s just legit.”

The Trojans flexed their collective muscles Tuesday by beating Sacred Heart by identical 15-0 scores with the first game lasting three innings and the second just four. Sophomore Hannah Thiel was the winning pitcher in the nightcap, allowing just two hits while striking out eight.

Offensively, the Southeast totaled 26 hits in the sweep, including a pair of inside-the-park home runs from Samuelson. Junior Annebelle Soell had five hits and drove in six runs, while Samuelson, sophomore shortstop Reese Heinrich, junior third baseman Ashley Whelchel and senior Riley Donnelly each had four hits.

Sophomore Reese Heinrich

“It was a good (doubleheader) for us to really click together as a team,” Heinrich said of the Sacred Heart sweep in which she scored six runs and stole four bases. “I feel like we have very good team chemistry, but this is one of our games where we finally just started piecing those hits together, and it obviously worked out very well for us.”

While the Trojans had to replace a large senior class — Donnelly is the only one on this year’s roster — they had a strong foundation returning with North Central Activities Association all-conference picks Heinrich, Samuelson and Zurfluh. Heinrich and Samuelson also received second team all-state honors as freshmen.

Head coach Tyler Smith

“We had a lot of holes to fill,” said Smith, now in his second year as head coach but his first also teaching at Southeast after moving over from Salina South. “I think one thing I underestimated was how much losing seven seniors would affect us, not only with the numbers, but just having seven seniors.”

“We’re extremely young with a lot of sophomores that just don’t have the experience yet, but they’re learning every single day.”

In addition to Zurfluh in the pitching circle and the speedy Heinrich and Samuelson at the top of the batting order, Whelchel is back at third base, while Donnelly and Soell were part-time starters and now alternate at catcher and right field with Donnelly typically starting behind the plate in the first game and Soell in the second.

Freshman Vada Durfee has stepped in at second base, while Zurfluh and Thiel alternate between the circle and first base. Sophomores Madelyn McFadden and Mackenzie Retter sharing left field with junior Paedyn Merrill the designated player.

With the senior departures and some others choosing not to go out this year, the Trojans have gone from 23 players to 14 on the roster.

“There’s positives and negatives to that,” Smith said. “We’re light in numbers, but they all get along really well, and they do a lot of fun things together.”

The blowouts against Republic County and Sacred Heart notwithstanding, the Trojans have built their success this season largely on small ball, manufacturing runs with speed and attention to detail while Zurfluh and Thiel hold opposing offenses in check. In the Sacred Heart doubleheader, they stole 16 bases in just seven innings, and Thursday against Chapman they had seven steals while only producing five hits.

Junior Kyiah Samuelson

“(Smith) has a lot of trust in us,” Samuelson said. “I think we’re pretty athletic and very fast on the base paths. We’re looking to create chaos all the time.”

In the Chapman opener, the game’s lone run came when Merrill led off with a single and pinch runner Retter stole second, took third on a Heinrich sacrifice bunt and scored on Samuelson’s base hit. A Heinrich walk, stolen base and error on Samuelson’s bunt produced the first run of the nightcap.

Retter again scored the game winner in the sixth inning while running for McFadden, who had walked. She took second on Heinrich’s bunt, stole third and scored on a Samuelson sacrifice fly.

Meanwhile, Zurfluh pitched back-to-back complete games in a doubleheader for the first time in her career, allowing three hits and one unearned run with 16 strikeouts and four walks. Starting her the second game was a last-minute call, according to Smith.

“We knew Chapman couldn’t hit her in the first game, but can she go back-to-back? I think that’s a question we definitely got the answer to today,” Smith said. “We just wanted to see what that looked like.”

“There were some pressure-packed moments for sure, and Karlee ran out of gas a little bit physically, but not emotionally. She stayed strong mentally.”

The ability to grind out a pair of hard-fought victories no doubt can serve Southeast well down the line, especially in the postseason. The lost in last year’s regional final still gnaws at the Trojans.

“It’s definitely a lot of motivation,” Zurfluh said. “We’ve all got that grit and feel like we need to get that regional championship for us to feel satisfied and good.”

Heinrich concurred.

“There’s not a person in the state that wants that win more than the girls in our dugout,” she said. “We are so motivated and losing that close to Silver Lake definitely has helped us build on what we have now.”