'Make the basic plays': Fairfield, Centerville advance to Division I regional championship

There is now just one Cincinnati-area softball team left as schools in all Divisions I, III and IV played in regional semifinal games across the state on Wednesday.

Locally, the Greater Miami Conference had three teams in action at Indian Hill High School while Bethel-Tate and Fayetteville-Perry took to the field in Dayton.

Here's how each of the teams fared.

Fairfield scores 6 unanswered to defeat Lakota East

For the second time in nine days, the Indians' bats woke up in the fifth inning. They trailed, 5-0, to Ross in the district semifinal before winning 11-5. In Wednesday's regional semifinal, they dug themselves a 3-0 hole before erupting for five runs in the fifth and one in the sixth.

"They believe in themselves. They don't want this to end. We have a lot of senior leadership. We have kids that push each other," Fairfield coach Brendan Stieger said.

Fairfield started to build momentum in the second inning, putting a runner on base in three straight innings. But it was the Thunderhawk defense that stood strong. Jaedyn Armbruster robbed Ava Hensley of a two-run homer in the third inning. Abrie Schulte and Amber Munoz wiped a runner with a double play in the fourth inning.

Meanwhile, Munoz kickstarted Lakota East in the bottom of the third, drawing a two-out walk and scoring on Hailey Hensley's double to center field. The Thunderhawks added two more in the fourth on three hits, two stolen bases and an error.

"We don't have to make a flashy play. We just need to make the basic plays. There's only going to be a few flashy plays in the game, but there's going to be mostly basic plays. If we can get those in, we're ahead of the game," Stieger said.

The Indians began to show their offensive colors once they adjusted to Lakota East pitcher Kaleigh Crawford's rhythm. Jillian Huey led off the fifth with a single, crossed the plate and scored on a Karley Clark groundout. Two batters later, Megan Spence, who earned her 13th win of the season in the circle, dropped a two-run single into center field. After an Abby Leugers walk to load the bases, sophomore Adelyn Huey blooped a double into right field to score two more runs and give Fairfield the lead for good.

"I thought (Lakota East right fielder Karli Damin) was going to catch it and I was just trying to run as fast as I could because I wanted to get to second on that," Adelyn Huey said.

Huey bats ninth despite a .431 average. Stieger likes to order her lineup based on the top averages to get her best hitters the most looks. The truth is, the results can come from anywhere.

After taking a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the sixth, it was Fairfield's turn to log some stellar defensive plays. Spence induced a ground out to first to strand two runners in the sixth. Jillian Huey made the final two stops of the game, knocked down a line drive before ranging to her left to field a ground ball and fire to first, sending Fairfield to its second straight regional championship game.

"Make the easy plays, make them have to get those hits. Don't get in our own heads and don't make those errors," Adelyn Huey said.

The Indians now own a seven-game winning streak over the Thunderhawks dating back to April 7, 2022.

It was a heartbreaking loss for the Thunderhawks, but also a sign of things to come. They hadn't advanced this far in the playoffs since 2019 and had just one postseason win in the last three years.

"We'll be there again. I think that with the youth we got, we'll be right back in this," Lakota East coach Kelley Haiber said.

Hayley Arnold powers Centerville past Mason

Arnold was named this year's Greater Western Ohio Conference Player of the Year for a reason. She entered Wednesday's regional semifinal with a .448 average, 32 RBIs and six homers at the plate, and a 17-2 record with a 0.91 ERA and 22 strikeouts in the circle.

She put together one of her best performances of the season as the Elks beat Mason, 10-1, to reach their first regional final in school history.

"It just makes me really emotional because I'm really proud of everyone on my team, and I'm really proud of myself for carrying it through and working for my team and supporting them," Arnold said.

She compiled 13 strikeouts and hit three doubles, accounting for seven total runs.

The Elks came out swinging as Arnold led off the game with a double and scored on an Ardyn Hopf single. They displayed a little more patience in the fourth inning, drawing two walks and using a hit-by-pitch to load the bases before Natalie LaDue's run-scoring single opened the floodgates for a six-run inning.

"We're getting contributions from everybody, but my God, what they're doing is just unbelievable," Centerville head coach Wendell Hutchinson said.

Mason tied the game in the top of the second. Alisha Fox, who pitched all seven innings, went deep to tie the game at 1-1. It was the only hit the Comets would get until the sixth inning. They finished with three hits and were mostly neutralized by an Elks defense that moved Hopf from center field to the third base line to neutralize their tendency to slap the ball into left field.

Centerville, the seventh-ranked team in the DI state softball poll, has been building to this season since Hutchinson took over as head coach in 2019. He remembers telling his team that reaching these heights would become the expectation year in and year out.

"This is the program that we wanted to become. We're not one-year wonders to this. We'll be back, and every year we're going to compete and we're going to be a tough out," Hutchinson said.

The near run-rule result even after the regional tournament got moved from Mason to Indian Hill speaks to the Elks' ability to play anyone, anywhere, anytime.

"We'll play anywhere and we're just going to keep doing us. We're going to keep hitting the ball. I know as a pitcher, if I give up a few runs, my offense if going to hit it right away and they're going to keep killing it," Arnold said.

The Comets end their season at 22-8 after winning their fourth district title in the last five seasons.

Bethel-Tate, Fayetteville-Perry end seasons in regional semifinals

Appearing in its first regional tournament in 10 years, the Bethel-Tate Tigers fell to a powerhouse Miami East team that is seeking its second state tournament appearance in three years. The Vikings jumped out to a 4-0 lead through two innings, then added four more in the fourth before "walking off" in the fifth inning for a 10-0 run-rule victory.

The Tigers end their season at 19-9 and finished in second place in the SBAAC-National Division.

The Fayetteville-Perry Rockets ended their season with a 5-2 loss to Minster, which is seeking its first state tournament appearance since 2014. With an 18-6 record and a regional title appearance after district championship losses in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022, the Rockets experienced one of the most successful seasons in school history.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: OHSAA softball: Fairfield, Centerville claim regional semifinal wins