Sue Teets led Chautauqua Lake to a NYSPHSAA Class C championship this spring. P-J file photo

Chautauqua Lake’s softball team was obviously very talented this spring.

As a team, the Thunderbirds hit .339 with 50 doubles, 14 triples and 14 home runs. They put together a .396 on-base percentage and a .545 slugging percentage while going 17-2 overall, including 10-2 en route to a league championship in Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 West play.

Chautauqua Lake allowed just under 2.7 runs per game and held opponents to a .198 batting average against.

Defensively, the Thunderbirds committed just 23 errors — just a little more than one per game.

Post-Journal Player of the Year Olivia Anderson was the top pitcher in the area, going 17-2 with 189 strikeouts and a 1.44 earned run average while being named a New York State Sportswriters Association’s Class C co-Player of the Year and the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 West Pitcher of the Year.

Third baseman Cianna Braymiller hit .532 with seven home runs, five triples and five doubles. She drove in 36 runs and scored 24. Her .608 on-base percentage and 1.113 slugging percentage totaled a 1.721 OPS. For her outstanding spring, Braymiller was named a NYSSWA Class C Third-Team All-Star and a CCAA Division 1 West co-Player of the Year.

“Cianna has always had that capability,” Chautauqua Lake head coach Sue Teets said earlier this week. “With Cianna … if she didn’t get a hit or two, she would just kind of fall apart. … This year, even if she didn’t drive in two runs every at-bat it was OK. … From her sophomore season to her junior season, I was excited from the get-go.”

Catcher Chadelynn Johnson hit .352 with a home run, three triples and eight doubles while driving in 13 runs and scoring 22. Her .403 on-base percentage and .592 slugging percentage totaled a .994 OPS. She was also behind the plate for every pitch Anderson threw this year and was named a NYSSWA Class C Fourth-Team All-Star as well as a CCAA Division 1 West First-Team All-Star.

“Chay can be a deceiving person,” Teets said. “If you look at her, you might wonder what kind of catcher she is. … What I did with Chay was put her in the leadoff spot and that worked.”

Shortstop Cameryn Hawkins, the only senior starter on the team, hit .349 with three home runs, a triple and seven doubles while driving in 17 runs and scoring 15. She reached base at a .453 clip and had a slugging percentage of .635 for a 1.088 OPS — all while being one of the finest defensive shortstops in the area. Hawkins was named a NYSSWA Fifth-Team All-Star and CCAA Division 1 West Second-Team All-Star.

“Whenever she is on the field, she never quits,” Teets said. “She is a leader, she is a motivator and she is a person everyone on the team can go to.”

The state title team began coming together five years ago when Johnson and Anderson were called up to the varsity team as seventh-graders.

“To have a battery together since seventh grade is a positive. Knowing each other like they do, Chay can get away with saying things to Olivia that another catcher might not be able to get away with,” Teets said. “Both of them feed off each other. Sometimes it can be snappy, but it doesn’t last because they know each other so well.”

Hawkins joined them a year later when she was a freshman while Braymiller, Katelyn Fardink and Kendra Keyser entered the picture a year after that when they were freshmen.

“I’m happy for all the girls because they all have worked really, really hard for this,” Teets said.

Teets was tasked with turning all that talent into a winning team.

She’s done a pretty good job.

The Thunderbirds lost the 2014 sectional final to Franklinville, won the sectional title and lost to Addison in the Far West Regional in 2015, lost a 2016 sectional semifinal to Barker and won the Section VI Class C-1 title last spring before losing to Portville in the Class C crossover game.

This year, they couldn’t be stopped, beating Falconer, Randolph, Cassadaga Valley and Portville en route to the Section VI Class C crown. Then they topped Caledonia-Mumford for the Far West Regional title before beating Greenville and Pine Plains in South Glens Falls for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class C state title.

For leading the Thunderbirds all the way to the top, Teets is The Post-Journal Softball Coach of the Year.