Raymond S. Kellis’ softball coach Shawn Sullivan isn’t afraid of heights. But what’s got him feeling a bit queasy nowadays is seeing his team ranked so high.

“It’s just uncomfortable,” said Sullivan about his team’s No. 2 ranking on aia365.com. “I don’t feel like I want to be there.”

Sullivan prefers the underdog role.

It’s still too early to know just exactly where Raymond S. Kellis stands in the state’s softball line, but we’ll get a better picture Thursday when the team travels to play the favorite in D-II this year, Sunrise Mountain.

Sullivan’s team will head into that game as the underdog but with a lot of momentum. Raymond S. Kellis reached the semifinals of Sandra Day O’Connor’s tournament Saturday and used a Rose Jaramillo walk off grand slam to beat No. 14 Peoria 14-1 in five innings Tuesday.

With the exposure Raymond S. Kellis is receiving, Sullivan had no choice but to sit his team down and address it. He also reminded his team that his program hasn’t really accomplished much yet.

Raymond S. Kellis (8-0 in power rankings) still is in search of its first postseason win, but with the talented young players in its lineup this season, the program is capable of winning a couple of playoffs games in the next couple of seasons. Besides the talent and success, Sullivan also raved about his players' unselfishness and camaraderie.

Two sets of talented sisters, Taylor and Madison Uden and Alex and Cherish Paolinelli, who are starters in the infield, have also helped form Raymond S. Kellis’ strong family-like bond. Sullivan also praised his ace, Jessica Rojo (2.89 ERA in 87 innings), for giving up her spot in the lineup this year to allow Jaramillo, a freshman, to step in and help Raymond S. Kellis at the plate while Rojo focused on just pitching. The coach didn’t want certain team stats posted just in case his opponents were reading this story, but Sullivan did say that he has never seen anybody with the bad speed Jaramillo, the team’s cleanup hitter, possesses.

Sullivan has coached for 18 years, and sixteen of those years were spent coaching baseball. Jaramillo is one of four freshmen who play every day for a Raymond S. Kellis team that carries only one senior.

Despite the lack of high school experience, the lowest batting average in Raymond S. Kellis’ starting lineup is .286. Sullivan was in the inaugural class of coaches who joined Raymond S. Kellis when the school opened.

He took four seasons off to watch his son play but returned to coaching when he was asked to take over the school’s softball program last season. Sullivan had played softball but had never coached it.

But that didn’t keep him from guiding his team to the postseason last year. This year, the proudest moment for Sullivan so far has been watching the reaction from his team after a junior varsity player, sophomore Caisha Scott, collected a hit on Saturday.

Sullivan only uses Scott as a courtesy runner, because she, strangely, isn’t interested in batting, he said. But on Saturday, Sullivan forced Scott to go up and bat with Raymond S. Kellis winning handily late in a game.

Scott attempted to bunt on the first pitch to get the at bat over with quickly but failed to do so. She swung and missed on the second pitch.

But on the third pitch, she smacked a line drive to center field for a hit. Raymond S. Kellis’ players immediately started jumping up and down to celebrate the moment.

That reaction showed Sullivan that his girls genuinely care for each other. Sullivan asked Scott if she would like to remain with the varsity team.

It took her a while to agree. As somebody who isn’t comfortable in the limelight, Sullivan can relate to Scott.

You can say that Raymond S. Kellis is the reluctant softball star of this year’s softball class.