CENTERVILLE — There was a time, not long ago, when Fredericktown couldn’t string two wins together.
The Freddies went 1-7 during the final week of April. They were able to squeak by Northmor, 9-8, but suffered losses to Cardington (twice by 11 runs apiece), Highland (twice by a combined three runs), Bloom-Carroll and Sheridan.
They struggled to hit. The Freddies scored just 21 runs over those eight games – including a shutout loss to East Knox and two one-run performances against Cardington. Their opponents, meanwhile, scored 59 runs during the stretch.
It was a slump, in every sense of the word. It derailed the Freddies’ hot start – they were 8-1 before the losses to Highland on April 23 – and it could have sunk the season for good, with tournament play right around the corner.
But Jeff Keener’s club wouldn’t let that happen.
Instead of throwing in the towel, the Freddies dug their heels in – doubling down on the fundamentals and using each loss as a learning opportunity. They swept county rival Centerburg to begin May, then won two of their final three non-conference games heading into tournament play.
Then, with momentum on their side, the girls in red and gray made history. Over, and over, and over again.
They rattled off four straight tournament wins, delivering Fredericktown’s first district final appearance, first district title, and first regional semifinal victory. They handled Liberty Union before upsetting West Jefferson, the state’s fifth-ranked Division III team, and Johnstown in back-to-back dramatic finishes.
They used a seventh-inning rally to top Arcanum and advance to the regional final. They were one of eight Division III teams remaining statewide – one win away from a trip to the state semifinals in Akron.
This is where their road ended Saturday – on a muggy, high-stakes afternoon at Centerville High School, just south of Dayton.
Fredericktown fell to Miami East, 10-0 in five innings.
Through tears, the team’s seven seniors walked off the field one final time. They were devastated – many were multi-sport athletes at Fredericktown, reflecting on years of hard work and sacrifice – but they also appeared proud.
The team that had struggled mightily just a month ago had fought, and clawed, and figured it out. And now they’ll go down in history – forever etched into the soul of the community that raised them.
“I’m just so proud of all of our girls. We came out; we put a number on our banner; we made history. The younger girls are gonna keep going,” senior catcher Emma Hatfield said afterwards.
“I’m just proud to call this place my family.”
HOW IT UNFOLDED: Miami East controlled Saturday’s game from start to finish.
The Vikings jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a line-drive home run from Kyliegh Kirby. Then, in the bottom of the second, they tacked on five more runs – scoring on a bases-loaded RBI single to center, then another, then a double to the center-field wall that made it 6-0 heading into the third.
The Vikings scored four more runs in the bottom of the third. Megan Gilliand drew a walk with the bases loaded, and Kalli Teeters did the same, giving Miami East a 8-0 advantage. Jacqueline Kadel hammered a line-drive single to left field that scored two more runners and set the final margin.
Kirby, meanwhile, was nearly un-hittable on the circle. She surrendered just two hits over five innings, using an array of pitches to keep Fredericktown off-balance. Her defense also committed zero errors, while the Freddies tallied two.
“Give these guys credit, they came to play,” Keener, Fredericktown’s first-year head coach, said of Miami East afterwards. “We had some mental letdowns – I think we had four errors – and then I think we got tense halfway through.”
Fredericktown tried three pitchers against Miami East, but none could slow down the red-hot Vikings. Sophomore Miranda Payne surrendered five runs on three hits in 1 2/3 innings, while freshman Kennedy Algire surrendered five runs on two hits over one inning.
Senior Alyssa Zolman pitched the final 1 2/3 innings, allowing no runs on three hits.
A HISTORIC RUN: Keener said he was proud of his team’s effort Saturday, despite the loss.
And he was even prouder of what they’d accomplished to get there.
“I told the kids there at the end, ‘What a season,'” Keener said. “You know, who would’ve thought we would be regional runners-up – little Fredericktown, had never done anything like that before – who would’ve thought?
“They just kept coming away (with wins).”
Fredericktown finished the season 17-10 – second to state-bound Cardington in the Knox-Morrow Athletic Conference, which produce five district finalists this spring.
The Freddies were Knox County’s last team left in the tournament, after Danville and East Knox both fell in the Division IV regional semifinals, Centerburg fell in the Division III district final and Mount Vernon fell in the Division I district semifinals.
They advanced to the round of 32, the round of 16, and the round of eight for the first time in program history.
“I’m so proud of every one of these kids,” Keener continued. “Their goal at the beginning was to put stuff up on the banners in the gym. We did that. … We can be a regional runner-up, and then obviously the district champ. So we got to put something up on there.”
The run was made sweeter, Hatfield said, by the fact that Fredericktown had to overcome that late-April slump. She said it proved to be the turning point in the season – the moment when the team had to decide, as a unit, whether to fold or fight back.
“I think it just lit a fire under our butt,” Hatfield said. “We knew we could do it, and we just really wanted it. We practiced harder, we focused more, and we just got what we wanted.”
Much like the Fredericktown community, Hatfield said she’ll never forget these last three weeks.
“I’ll take away the teamwork, the family, the leadership,” she said, pausing to exhale in-between tears. “All of it.”
LOOKING AHEAD: Fredericktown will graduate seven seniors (and four starters) from this year’s team: Emily Rook, Lainy Partington, Gabby Daniels, Hannah LaFevre, Katie Mull, Hatfield and Zolman.
Keener said their shoes will be hard to fill.
“They’ve meant everything. They’ve been leaders. They always praised (the younger players). They’re just good kids,” Keener said of the class.
“Most of them have 4.0 (GPAs). They’re good students, they’re going to colleges. They’re gonna be something someday, besides softball players.”
The Freddies will bring back a talented group, however – including Payne, the team’s starting pitcher, and five of the nine starters on the field Saturday.
Partington and Hatfield both seemed confident they could make another run next year – and perhaps make it to Akron for the first time in program history. Keener said this would be the goal.
“Hopefully the seven kids coming back that’ll be here, they can kind of gel with the freshmen and sophomores coming in and hopefully we can make another tournament run,” Keener said. “Wouldn’t that be awesome?”
