Lady Vikings incredible season comes to end in regional finals

Members of the 2025 Symmes Valley Lady Vikings softball team pose with their medals and regional championship runner-up trophy. (Photo by Kayla Niece)

GROVEPORT — Cinderella was a folk tale with no known original author.

Evidently, Saturday’s author didn’t want to write a happy ending of this chapter for the Symmes Valley Lady Vikings’ Cinderella softball season.

One win away from a berth in the state Final Four in what was a Cinderella story, the Lady Vikings fell 7-0 to the Portsmouth Notre Dame Lady Titans in the Division 7 regional championship.

The Lady Vikings had used good pitching with good defense and clutch hitting up and down the lineup to reach the regional title game.

But this time those factors failed to be written into the script as they fell to the Titans.

“I’m proud of them. We don’t have anything to hang our heads about. You don’t look down at your shoelaces against anyone. We knew coming in here it was going to be a tough ball game,” said Lady Vikings’ coach Jeff “Odie” Estep.

“We came in here as SOC champs, district champs and now we’re regional runners-up and 27-3. We’re a young team. We’ve got everyone coming back except our second baseman Emma Ridenour.”

Notre Dame (25-3) will now play Covington in the state tournament at Firestone Stadium in Akron at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Despite the tough loss, Estep had nothing but praise for his young team and their effort throughout the season as they finished with. 27-3 record that included a 22-game winning streak.

“We don’t have anything to hang our heads about. We knew coming in here it was going to be a tough ball game. We came in here SOC champs, district champs and regional runners-up and 27-3. We’re a young team. We’ve got everyone coming back except our second baseman Emma Ridenour. I’m proud of them.”

The Lady Tigers got on the board quickly with two runs in the first inning.

The Lady Titans’ Maddie Entler singled, Alayla Soard walked, Kate Entler  and Maycee Ford singled, and Lyndsey Shaffer had a 2-run single.

Bella Rush was safe on an error, took second on a fielder’s choice and scored on Maddie Entler’s base hit.

Kate Entler hit a solo home run in the third and it was 4-0.

In the fifth, Schaefer walked, Ava Rush singled, Schaefer moved up on a ground out, a wild pitch moved Rush to second, and Kennedy Lyon singled home both runners.

The final run scored in the sixth when Soard singled, Kate Entler hit into a fielder’s choice, a passed ball moved Soard to third base and Ford hit a sacrifice fly.

Brenna Tibbs went the distance for the Lady Vikings as she gave up 8 hits, 3 earned runs with 2 strikeouts and 5 walks.

Ridenour was 2-4 while Marley Ferguson, Alyssa Waugh and Brenna Tibbs all went 1-3.

Ava Rush got the complete game win as she gave up 5 hits with11 strikeouts and 2 walks.

Ava Rush was 2-2, Kate Entler 1-3 with a home run, and Bella Rush, Lyon, and Schaefer  all 1-3 while Alayna Soard 1-2 and Maddie Entler 1-4.

Sym. Valley 000 000 0 = 0 5 2

Notre Dame 211 021 x = 7 8 2

Brenna Tibbs and Alyssa Waugh. Ava Rush and Kate Ettler. W–Rush (IP-7.0, H-5, R-0, K-11, BB-2). L–Tibbs (IP-6.0, H-8, R-7, ER-3, K-2, BB-5). Hitting–Symmes Valley: Emma Ridenour 2-4, Marley Ferguson 1-3, Alyssa Waugh 1-3, Brenna Tibbs 1-3; Notre Dame: Ava Rush 2-2, Bella Rush 1-3, Kennedy Lyon 1-3, Lyndsey Schaefer 1-3, Kate Entler 1-3 RBI HR, Alayla Soard 1-2, Maddie Entler 1-4.

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