LAWRENCE — Through the tears that accompanied their Class 3A state championship softball loss Saturday, the Southeast of Saline Trojans still took time to reflect on all they had accomplished.

Perhaps senior catcher Riley Donnelly summed it up best.

Senior Riley Donnelly

“I think it was amazing, especially being the only senior and having this be my last season after a rough year last year, I think it’s just absolutely amazing how we just fought through all the difficulties,” Donnelly said after the Trojans dropped the final, 4-0, to perennial powerhouse Silver Lake at Arrocha Ballpark. “I felt so comfortable with my team, and they are my second family, and we just play for each other and not for ourselves.”

Indeed, after falling one victory short of qualifying for state a year ago — ironically with a 4-3 loss to Silver Lake in the regional finals — Southeast regrouped with a young team to blow through their regular season schedule and advance to state as the No. 1 seed. The Trojans not only finished with a 26-2 record but matched the 2003 team as the only one in school history to reach the state finals.

And the Trojans did it with Donnelly as the only senior on a roster.

Sophomore Kyiah Samuelson

“This just makes me more excited for the team next year,” said sophomore center fielder Kyiah Samuelson. “We’re only losing one senior, and we have such great team chemistry.”

For all their success leading up to the championship game, the Trojans simply couldn’t take advantage of their limited opportunities against a Silver Lake team that finished second at state each of the past two years before breaking through. And the Eagles (28-4) made the most of their chances with a single run in the third inning and a back-breaking three in the sixth.

Head coach Tyler Smith

“With Silver Lake, you’ve got to take care of opportunities, and we didn’t, and they did a great job,” second-year Southeast coach Tyler Smith said. “When you make every play like they did, some great plays in the outfield on all the balls hit to them, you’ve got to be able to attack, and they shut us out. They were just fantastic today and they were just the better team.

“I told the girls as I was giving out the medals that you can’t take trips like this for granted. It was a great season and it’s easy to hang your heads right now, but I told him you can hang your head for about an hour, and then then get your chin up, because you did great.”

For Silver Lake, junior pitcher Riley Mohler threw a four-hit shutout with four strikeouts and one walk. Southeast junior Karlee Zurfluh allowed just six hits, striking out six and walking five in suffering her first loss.

“Karlee was what we expect from Karlee,” Smith said. “People are going to look at the score, but Zurf has fought so gosh darned hard all year and she was fantastic again.”

“She was good enough for us to win, we just didn’t do anything offensively.”

Silver Lake took advantage of four walks to get on the board without a hit in the third inning and then broke it open with three runs on four hits in the sixth. That came after Southeast had runners on second and third with one out in the fifth but could not score.

The Trojans also had runners in scoring position in each of the first two innings and again in the fourth to no avail.

For Southeast, freshman Vada Durfee led the offense with two hits, including a double, while Donnelly and sophomore Madelyn McFadden each had one hit. Saylor Liggatt had two of Silver Lake’s six hits.

As Southeast’s players watched Silver Lake celebrate its first state title since 2018, they were reminded that the Eagles felt the same way the past two years after falling to Frontenac in the finals.

“I think this team has so much drive and so much perseverance that we will be able to make it back,” said Donnelly, who will be the Trojans’ biggest fan next season while the rest of the team tries to get back to state. “I know all the underclassmen have such great personalities, and they will carry on and make this team legendary.”

Samuelson agreed.

“I believe we’ll be right back here next year, and I’m ready to get back in it,” Samuelson said. “It hurts to know that one inning was really what hurt you, but in the reality of it that you got here, and you deserve to be here, and you gave it your all.”