Shortstop Jaila Thurman is greeted by her Miami East teammates as she crosses home plate for her 2nd home run in the district semifinal win over Anna. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Jeff Gilbert)
The Vikings hit three home runs and rode a seven-run inning to a Division V district semifinal victory over Anna. Next, they play for a fourth straight district title.
Casstown, OH – The Miami East softball team enjoys playing and winning as much as any other team. And they’ve been doing a lot of winning the past four years.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
They don’t take wins for granted, but they are almost as businesslike as a tax accountant in April. That’s not to say they are completely quiet as they make winning plays.
When the Vikings hit home runs, which they did three times Monday, the dugout empties and they celebrate at home plate.
Every team does that. It would be weird if the Vikings didn’t.
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When senior pitcher Jacqueline Kadel finishes an inning with a strikeout, she leaves the mound with a focused face and matter-of-factly high fives her position players on the way to the dugout.
The Vikings’ dugout is never alive with the constant chatter that dominates many softball games. They shout encouragement, cheer after big hits and pick up the ones who return after a strikeout.
Most teams do those things. Again, it would be weird if the Vikings didn’t.
It’s tournament time, so there’s more excitement in the air. But no trophies were handed out after the Vikings defeated Anna 12-4 in a Division V district semifinal. That’s why, when shortstop Jaila Thurman caught a soft liner running toward second base and stepped on the bag to double off a runner for a game-ending double play, the Vikings didn’t jump up down and share long hugs.
Anna’s Liz Staudter is caught trying to steal third and is about to be tagged out by Jaylen Carter on the heels of the Rockets’ first run that came on a throwing error.
They dutifully assembled a handshake line, said “good game” to the Rockets, and that was it. But their in-game personality belies how loosely they play and the fun they have that only they see.
“They are goofballs and goofballs and goofballs at practice when we’re not in a drill,” coach Brian Kadel said. “Before the game, before we get into our routine after the game, they’re a little nuts. But when we start the game, they expect we’re giving 100%, we’re doing everything right, and we expect to win the ballgame.”
The Vikings have won 23 games, lost only three, and at the moment of Thurman’s double play their minds moved onto the next game. The second-seeded Vikings’ next opportunity to play softball and have fun doing it their way could result in a fourth straight district title when they face No. 1 seed Williamsburg at Miamisburg High School on Thursday. The Vikings have played in the past three Division III regional finals and went to state in 2022.
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The goals are right there for the Vikings. They are experienced with senior leadership and juniors who are three-year starters.
“They know what to do every day at practice and the games, and that makes our job easy as coaches,” Kadel said. “We just kind of get out of the way and let them play.”
Like the players, Kadel’s voice was not heard outside the playing field. He gave his signals and made his calls from the third-base coaching box and the dugout. And, as he said, he let his team make winning plays.
None of the Vikings panicked when Anna sophomore Brooklyn Cruse struck out five in the first two innings. In the middle of the swings and misses, Thurman launched a solo home run to center with two out in the first inning. And she was far from finished.
The Vikings kept Anna from having a big inning with good infield defense and strikeouts.
“It’s just about making adjustments in the box,” Kadel said. “They’ve got a good pitcher. We knew early it might be just trying to figure out what we need to attack, what he’s going to call for strikes. And the girls did a good job making adjustments and putting the ball in play.”
The adjustments began to matter in the third inning when leadoff hitter Whitni Enis, who struck out to start the game, doubled home the Vikings’ second run and scored for a 3-0 lead on Thurman’s single up the middle.
The Vikings broke open a 3-1 game with a seven-run fifth. Enis homered to begin the put-away inning. Thurman hit a two-run homer for her second of the game and her fourth RBI. Jorgia Roeth doubled in two runs, Tenley Potter singled in another and Enis finished the inning with an RBI double for a 10-1 lead.
“I was a little fearful of the big inning,” Anna first-year coach Olivia Place said. “Miami East is a very, very, very good hitting team, but Brooklyn did a great job fending them off for the first couple innings. It was just one of those innings where they finally timed her up.”
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Thurman hadn’t hit two homers in a game since travel ball season last summer. She was excited to spark her team, but she was all business at the plate.
“I just stepped in the box, reset myself, just see the ball come to me, just find my pitch,” Thurman said of her three big hits. “I felt it definitely helped a lot, but everybody else contributed.”
The Vikings also got the pitching they are accustomed to from Kadel, the coach’s daughter. She struck out 11 and allowed only three hits. The Rockets scored an unearned run on a throwing error in the fourth to trail 3-1. The other runs came after the Vikings’ big inning on Liz Staudter’s two-run homer and Tori Osborn’s double.
Whitni Enis hit one of Miami East’s three home runs.
“She’s just competitive,” Kadel said of his daughter. “She was a little tired tonight. They had one last senior thing this morning, they’ve got their senior awards tonight, we graduate Friday, there’s scholarship stuff she’s working on for Ohio State. So she’s a little stressed out, but she comes out and she battles and battles and battles. I think just that grit makes her good on the mound.”
Place is a 2019 Anna graduate and hopes to enjoy the kind of success the next few years that the Vikings have had. Place’s team is young and led by Cruse. They finished 15-11, won the Shelby County Athletic League and took team pictures after the game.
“This year was really about showing them the potential that they have,” Place said. “And I think they did just that. They really rose up to the occasion, and they battled.”
Anna will take lessons from the season and Monday’s loss into the offseason, work on their skills this summer and come back next spring ready to be the team playing for a district title.
Miami East will be back at practice Tuesday, being goofballs when the time calls for it and playing with purpose and togetherness when it’s time to be serious.
“I think our biggest thing that we have on other teams is our bond,” Enis said. “Because a lot of teams, they’re kind of all separate, and we’re all together. People know why someone’s playing over them, and there’s no conflict.”
It’s just business. And good softball.
Runs came fast, including this one by pinch runner Madi Grube, in the Vikings’ seven-run fifth-inning.
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