Junior Maura Simpson, sophomore Rae Botkin and freshman Nicole Greene each had two hits and junior pitcher Aleeseah Trimmer struck out 11 batters as Shawnee improved to 18-8. The Braves last advanced to a district final game in 2022, beating Eaton 16-6.
“These kids have worked their tails off and they really love softball,” Spitzer said. “We’re using a lot of kids. They had a fantastic year and blew away any expectations that were on them.”
Northeastern, which advanced to a district semifinal game for the first time since 2016, finished its season 13-13. Senior Grace Harris and junior Renna Kelly each had an RBI for Northeastern, which beat Anna 3-2 in a first round game to earn their first postseason victory since 2018. Northeastern upset fourth-seeded Arcanum 3-2 in a second-round game.
“It’s the longest run Northeastern has made in awhile,” said Jets first-year coach Mike Glassburn. “I’m really pleased with our performance this year. Obviously, it wasn’t the outcome we wanted. … That was our talk at the beginning of the season. If we couldn’t make a run at the (Ohio Heritage Conference) title, we wanted to make a run at districts.”
Northeastern took an early 1-0 lead after back-to-back singles by Houser and Harris.
The Braves countered in the bottom of the inning with five runs in an inning that included two singles, two Northeastern errors and a sacrifice fly.
“They made a couple mistakes and we capitalized on it,” Spitzer said. “We’re pretty aggressive on the bases and then we started hitting the ball. It felt good. The kids were really having fun.”
Shawnee added one run in the third and four more in the fourth to take a commanding 10-1 lead.
“Getting that first run was almost like getting the monkey off our back, but we just had some mental errors and put some runners on with walks and a couple shallow hits, that’s what hurt us,” Glassburn said.
Trimmer was strong in the circle for the Braves, allowing six hits and two runs over seven innings with 11 strikeouts and one walk.
“She’s been great for us all year,” Spitzer said. “We’ve talked about it all year — when we win, we get a great outing from her, we play good defense and we get timely hits. Our team batting average is nothing special, but earlier in the year, we were getting really timely hits. The good pitching and defense and timely hitting has been the key to our success.”
The Jets scored another run in the sixth inning on a single by Kelly, but couldn’t get any closer.
“That’s one thing we preach whether we’re up or down is that we’re still going to fight,” Glassburn said. “We’re not going to give up or quit.”
The Jets will graduate four seniors. After getting hired last winter, Glassburn is excited to have a full offseason with his players, he said.
“I tried to do what I could with the offseason I had, but obviously a lot of these girls are multi-sport,” Glassburn said. “Now that I kind of got my feet wet, we’ll be able to have a strength program with speed and agility and lifting and obviously work on hitting and fielding. It’s going to be a nonstop kind of thing.”
The Braves entered the season with no seniors and three juniors on their roster. Despite having a young team, Shawnee has exceeded expectations, Spitzer said, especially in a league as tough as the Central Buckeye Conference. The league includes three state-ranked teams in Kenton Ridge, Indian Lake and Jonathan Alder.
The Braves advanced to play Carlisle (25-3) at 5 p.m. Thursday at Lebanon High School. The Indians, ranked No. 7 in the final D-III state poll, beat Cincinnati Country Day 17-1 in a district semifinal game.
“The CBC has prepared us,” Spitzer said. “Carlisle is a great team. It’s going to take everything we have to win, but that’s who we’ve been playing, teams like Carlisle. That’s who we play every week.”
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