Beavercreek freshman Kayta Barrett pitched four scoreless innings despite allowing seven hits and walking three. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright-Daniel)
Charles Tackett’s second tour as head softball coach is gaining momentum even if Thursday’s game against Beavercreek ended abruptly after five innings.
Tipp City, OH – Charles Tackett built Tippecanoe softball into a state-level team once. He plans to do it again.
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And the way he sees it, a loss like his team absorbed Thursday – 14-1 to Beavercreek in five innings – was a speed bump, not a roadblock.
“I always say, ‘Hey, you guys are like a piece of clay,” Tackett said. “We got to mold you,’ and we’re going to mold them into something being pretty good by the end of the year.”
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Tackett believes in his metaphor because he’s traveled this road before.
He became head coach in 1998, and after a couple seasons, the Red Devils started racking up 20-plus wins. Tackett’s teams won district titles in 2008, 2009 and 2011. The 2011 team reached the final four.
Tackett walked away from coaching in 2013 to watch his daughter play softball and his son play baseball at Newton. The Red Devils had some winning seasons in his absence, but the program drifted from the legacy his teams created. Assistant coach Dan Mallott’s kids are the same age, so he stepped away from coaching, too.
“I can coach these kids anytime I want as I get older,” Tackett said. “But I wanted to be dad, and I can never get those days back. And [Dan] did the same thing.”
Those years behind them and the job open again, Mallott had an idea.
Tipp sophomore Aubrey Davis pitched three innings before being replaced by Jania Drum.
“He came up to me one day and goes, ‘Hey, you take that job back, I’ll help you,’” Tackett said. “Well, that’s a home run. You got people you trust. You got people you know that will help you get things better.”
Tackett also added a former player, Kacey Locker Moore, to his staff. She played on the state team, played at Ohio Dominican and was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 2025.
In their first season back in 2025, the Red Devils rebounded from a 10-17 season to finish 22-7 and tied for second place in the Miami Valley League’s Miami Division. This year they are 4-3 against a difficult early schedule.
“I put so much into this program, you hated to see it going down – is that weird to say?” Tackett said. “I want to bring it back. I want to do something great. My whole goal was to always win a state title. We were that close to winning a state title. We’ve always talked about that.”
Tackett wasn’t referring to only the 2011 trip to the final four. He also thinks about 2009 when his team lost the regional final to Hamilton Ross in 11 innings on a throwing error. Then Ross dominated at state.
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“We should have won state,” he said.
That’s why Tackett, Mallot and Moore take this second chance seriously. It’s why Tackett scheduled a trip to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where his team split four games, including a one-run win and a one-run loss in extra innings.
“That intensity that we had that day was nowhere near what we’ve seen today,” he said. “We take a lot of pride in this thing. We want to see it get better.”
Jocelyn Shelton started a potential first-inning rally with a one-out single. But Tipp left the bases loaded for the first of two times.
And that’s why his Division III team was playing a Division I Greater Western Ohio Conference team Tuesday with greater expectations than the result they must learn from.
“We just don’t have the experience in certain spots anymore compared to some other teams athlete to athlete,” Tackett said. “They were solid. Those outfielders could track down a ball. They’re hitting cuts. Not saying our kids didn’t do that, but they just had them all over the place. We just had a couple.”
Thursday’s final score belies the competitive early innings. The Red Devils (4-3) loaded the bases with singles in the first inning with one out but couldn’t score. Down 1-0 in the second inning, Tackett took an aggressive risk and sent a runner home from second on Aubrey Davis’ single. But right fielder Reese Groshans’ throw was on target to get a sliding Toby Ross at the plate.
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Down 10-0 in the fourth, the Red Devils loaded the bases again, this time with three walks, but didn’t score.
Tipp displayed the intensity letdown Tackett mentioned after run-ruling Xenia 16-3 on Monday and 15-0 on Wednesday. Conversely, Beavercreek (4-1) was coming off a 12-2 defeat on Tuesday at Oxford Talawanda.
Beavercreek’s Alainey Townsley tags out Tipp freshman Toby Ross to end the second inning.
“They came in a little more focused, a little bit more hungry than we were, and you could see that,” he said.
Tackett spoke with his team in the outfield grass after the game and reminded them that the season is long.
“Those 27 games are going to get us ready for our tournament run that we want to have,” he told them. “We’re going to make mistakes at the beginning of the year. We’ve got 20 more games to get better.”
Tipp avoided the shutout in the fifth. Charlize McCormick singled, moved to second on a wild pitch, stole third and scored on Jania Drum’s sacrifice fly.
On the positive side, No. 3 hitter Roo Snell had her third straight three-hit game. And eventually the Red Devils will get two injured starters back, infielder Lilly King and outfielder Lilly Strawser.
“We got some good kids,” Tackett said. “We just got to keep grinding and getting these kids better. I’m really excited about the youngers coming up in the next few years. I gotta stir up the intensity again, the excitement in this community, because we could do some good things.”
That’s the plan.
Jocelyn Shelton made the catch before Evie Dunkle’s foot hit the bag for an out in the fourth inning, she was called safe.
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