Chieftains 'locked In'

PREP SOFTBALL The back of the Bellevue East softball shirts say it all. "Locked In" is all the Class A No. 7 Chieftains have needed.

After a heartbreaking loss to Millard North in a 2023 district championship, the Class A No. 7 Chieftains are making noise behind the arm of Alisha McMurtry and a team game. A 10-0 win over Lincoln Northeast Thursday at Doris Bair gave Bellevue East its 20th win of the season.

The mark is one shy of the Chieftains' single-season win record, where Bellevue East made its only state tournament appearance in 2020 with a 21-15 overall record. "It's huge," Bellevue East head coach Casie Onken said. "Last year, we ended on a good note.

We ended district runner-up. You could kind of see us believing in ourselves towards the end of last season and starting to roll. They honestly work together and talked together and said we are going to pick up right where we left off and take it as far as we can next year.

They've done that and I've been really proud of them." McMurtry, who did not even know she broke the record until her coaches told her, set the single-season strikeout record last weekend at the Lincoln Southeast Invitational. And after a 14-strikeout performance Thursday, McMurtry stands alone with 236 strikeouts this fall.

But the biggest mark won't sit on a record board or in history books, the Bellevue East junior said. The Chieftains defeated 17-time state champion Papillion-La Vista for the first time in school history earlier this season in wal.