Brock Netter, Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
AKRON — Notre Dame’s Alayla Soard personally booked another night in Akron on Wednesday while her Titans continued to pen history.
What started as a quest to get over a regional title hump has turned into an all-out effort to win a state championship.
Thanks to a five-RBI day from Soard, which included a three-run blast, the Titans (27-3) locked down a 9-2 victory over Covington (21-10) in a Division VII state semifinal on Wednesday.
“I’m definitely all smiles tonight. This is such a great feeling,” Notre Dame coach Shad Ford said. “My voice is a little raspy, but it’s completely worth it. We got here early to just take in the atmosphere and understand what the crowd noise level could be. Once you get that and soak it in, it just comes down to playing the game and it was nothing but excitement for us.”
After booking their first-ever trip to the Final 4, Notre Dame will play for its first-ever state crown.
“I’m so proud of everyone for how work they’ve worked this season and how we’ve come together as a team,” Notre Dame senior Maddie Entler said. “We’ve been preparing for a game like this all year. We’ve had big games, felt the pressure and overcame it every single time. I knew it was going to be nerve-wracking in the beginning, but I knew we’d be fine like always.”
The Titans placed runners on base in the top of the second with a throwing error and a double from Bella Rush. That set up Kennedy Lyon to notch a deep sacrifice fly to make it 1-0 early.
Covington couldn’t answer in the bottom half and then had defensive issues in the third.
After a fielder’s choice and a fielding error put runners on second and third, the Buccaneers committed another error that scored both runners, pushing ND’s lead to 3-0.
However, Covington attempted to sway momentum and clawed back into the game.
After a one-out walk, Ava Hartwig ripped an RBI triple to put the Bucs on the board. She’d score off a three-foot RBI single from Elizabeth Coblentz, cutting the deficit to 3-2.
That momentum shift didn’t last long, though.
A one-out single and a walk put two runners on base in the top of the fourth, setting the stage for Soard. The SOC I Player of the Year took the first pitch she saw and drilled it over the center field fence for the three-run moonshot, extending the lead to 6-2.
“I knew it was a tight ballgame, so I felt like I had to get something going to get the runs across,” Soard said. “I just wanted to put the ball in play, and I was going for a line drive hit. I stepped into the box, the pitch was right down the middle and I hit it.”
It was over at that point, but it didn’t stop the Titans from crossing the dish three more times.
They scored on a bases-loaded walk in the fifth, and again on a two-run single in the seventh from Soard, to close the night with their state final ticket punched.
Ava Rush picked up the win in the circle, going the distance, allowing just two earned runs on four hits and striking out nine.
Soard finished 2-for-4 with a home run and five RBIs, Lyon went 2-for-2 with an RBI, and Maddie Entler was 1-for-2 with an RBI.
Notre Dame advances to the Division VII state championship. The Titans will match up against Monroeville, who defeated Sycamore Mohawk by a 4-2 final to advance.
That game will happen at 5:30 p.m., Thursday at Akron’s Firestone Stadium.
“Our team has a really close bond, and I feel like we have that drive this year and we know what to except when we go into these big games,” Soard said. “Winning a state championship would mean so much to us and the Notre Dame community. It’d be the first one in softball history and it would show that God is on our side.”
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