The Montgomery County softball team made more history on Halloween night of 2025.

The Wildcats left Springfield on Oct. 31 with their first state trophy in program history after finishing fourth with a 0-2 record in the Class 2 Final Four at Meador Park. They lost 16-0 to the South Harrison Bulldogs 16-0 in five innings in the semifinals and the Mid-Buchanan Dragons 6-0 in the third-place game. They played both games on the same day.

The fourth-place trophy became the final piece of a MCHS successful season that included a school-record 28 victories, its first Eastern Missouri Conference championship, its second district title and its first trip to the Final Four.

Freshman Addison Cannon was amazed at what her team accomplished. 

“I don’t even know what to think,” Cannon said. “I’m just happy to be a part of this.”

The softball team joined the 2019 baseball team, 2005 football team, 1991 volleyball team and four boys basketball teams in a group of MCHS squads that placed in state tournament action. All of the players and coaches received medals during the awards ceremony.

Audra Heimer, who wrapped up her 11th season as MCHS coach, said she was thrilled to see her team add some more hardware to the high school trophy case.

“I have never been (to the Final Four) as a player and this is the first time I’ve been as a coach,” Heimer said. “So just seeing the trophy and getting the medals, it was a great experience for the girls.”

Mid-Buchanan, located outside of Saint Joseph, finished its season at 32-8 and captured its fifth top-four trophy in program history. The Dragons bounced back from a 3-2 loss to Holden in the semifinals.

“Mid-Buchanan is one of the better ones in the state,” MCHS sophomore Sullee Falloon said. “We came out hot, but we got down after a few errors and a few hits. They played good. We played the best that we could.”

The Dragons scored a run in the fourth, three in the sixth and two in the seventh. They collected nine base hits off of MCHS pitcher Reese Hill, who struck out nine batters.

“She’s a fantastic pitcher,” Mid-Buchanan coach Regan Nash-Archedkin said. “She threw a great game. It just came down to us making adjustments in the box. The first time through the order, we really struggled. The second time through we started making some adjustments. That’s what really defined it for us.”

Hill had two hits, a triple in the third and a single in the sixth. She finished as the team’s top hitter with a .519 batting average. 

Anna Klekamp singled in the fourth against Mid-Buchanan. She attempted to score on Skylar Bethmann’s single, but was thrown out at home.

Heimer gave a pep talk to her team after the game. Some of the players were in tears.

“I told my team that you can be sad that it’s over, but you can’t be sad about the season because we had a great season,” Heimer said. “I know everyone wants to place first at state, but not everybody can. We still had a great year despite the outcome.”

MCHS was shut out for the third and fourth time this season with the defeats to South Harrison and Mid-Buchanan. Cannon had a chance to give her team its first run in Final Four play with a runner on second base and two outs in the bottom of the seventh of the third-place game, but she popped up to Mid-Buchanan shortstop Sophie Smith for the final out of the game.

“I was trying to aim for the outfield, but the shortstop stopped it,” Cannon said.

MCHS finished its season at 28-7. The Wildcats advanced to the Final Four for the first time by beating Chaffee 7-5 in a quarterfinal game on Oct. 25 at Chaffee.

“My mind went crazy when we won at Chaffee because I heard they were a really good team,” Cannon said. “We just got together and said that we were going to win.”

Falloon said her team had hoped to extend its season to November as the championship game was scheduled to be played on Nov. 1. But the Wildcats came up one day short of that goal.

“We were all on the bus ride here talking about how we want to all stay another night with each other and come back and play for first and second,” Falloon said. “But (South Harrison and Mid-Buchanan) had other plans. We didn’t play our best, but we played as a team. That’s all we can do.”

The third-place game was played at Thompson Field, where the Drury University softball team plays its home games.