Brock Netter, Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
AKRON — Notre Dame’s Shad Ford doesn’t cry much.
But whether he’d like to admit it or not, there may have been tears in his eyes at the end of Thursday’s Division VII State Championship.
Over the past several seasons, Ford’s Titans had been knocking at the door of a regional championship. This spring, they knocked that door in and booked a trip to the program’s first-ever state semifinal.
CREDIT: Brock Netter/SOSA
It turns out, they planned a business trip.
After a dominant win over Covington in a state semifinal, the Titans (28-3) continued to look dominant in the school’s most notable game ever.
After scoring five runs in the first inning, the Titans cruised to a 9-1 win over Monroeville in the OHSAA’s Division VII state final — forever leaving their legacy and cementing their place.
“I’m so excited for the girls, but I think I’m just in shock like they are,” Ford said. “I’m so happy for them. We talked about this from the very beginning, and nothing makes me more proud than how these girls fought and bought into what us coaches were preaching. They’ve now made their mark in school history and nothing or no one can take that away from them.”
Before Monroeville could blink on Thursday, the game was essentially already over.
And by the time the Eagles rubbed their eyes to clear them, they were watching Notre Dame celebrate school history.
Maddie Entler led the game off with a triple and that was followed by a walk to Alayla Soard. When Monroeville committed a throwing error, they both scored to make it 2-0 early.
The Eagles then suffered another fielding miscue, allowing another to score, before Audrey Bach added a two-run single, extending the lead to 5-0.
“Something like that takes a lot of discipline and focus from everyone in the lineup,” Entler said. “It was great getting that early lead, but we still had to play defense and stay sharp to keep it. We knew they could easily come back if we lost our focus, so we kept our foot on the gas.”
That was all before Notre Dame even took the field.
The Titans added another run in the second off a sacrifice fly from Kate Entler, pushing it to 6-0.
However, Entler wasn’t finished yet.
She stepped back into the box in the top of the fourth and took a 2-2 pitch deep, delivering a solo bomb for a 7-0 count.
CREDIT: Brock Netter/SOSA
“I knew we already had a lead, but I didn’t quite felt comfortable with where we were at,” Kate Entler said. “It was about creating more comfort for the team and putting up another run.”
And, in the sixth, after a leadoff double from Kennedy Lyon, Maddie Entler made it 8-0 with an RBI single. Maddie would score when Kate knocked her in with an RBI groundout, putting a cherry on top of a championship cake.
Monroeville did grace the scoreboard, putting up a run in the bottom of the sixth. But the night ultimately belonged to the Titans.
Statistically, Kate Entler was 2-for-3 with a homer and four RBIs, Maddie Entler finished 2-for-4 with a triple and three RBIs, and Bach went 1-for-3 with a pair of RBIs.
In the circle, Ava Rush went the distance, striking out nine.
“This game is so mental, and you can get caught up in the how loud the crowd is, among a number of other things,” Rush said. “For me, it was around the second inning where I finally took a deep breath and told myself that we’re going to compete. My changeup was working pretty well, I was working the count and keep them off-balance.
“I would do this all over again, from the bus rides to Symmes Valley and Hillsboro, do the repetitive tee work, go through an hour and a half of bullpen all over again, because it was completely worth it. This was such a crazy feeling and I’m just hoping we made the Notre Dame community proud.”
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