PORTSMOUTH — Notre Dame, specifically third-year softball head coach Shad Ford, didn’t deny his non-league schedule aspirations for this season.
“It was a goal to play the best, we’ll get our (Division IV postseason tournament) seed where we get it, we should be ready for the tournament. That’s the goal. And the ultimate goal is to go to the state tournament and be the first team in Notre Dame history to do that. The expectations haven’t changed. We can’t say we’re in that tournament and we’re not ready or we haven’t seen that level of pitching. That was the goal of the schedule,” said Ford, in a preseason media interview. “We’ll be in some pressure ballgames and close ballgames, and we may lose some, but it will prepare us to be better. That’s for sure.”
That’s because the Titans, the two-time defending Division IV Region 15 runners-up and hopefuls for finally that championship this year, are playing several squads of the Division III level or higher.
Notre Dame took two more on this past week —and gained a split as the sun stayed out —with Wellston in Division III on Wednesday and Chillicothe in Division I on Thursday being the opposition.
The Titans suffered just their second setback with a 1-0 loss at Wellston, but bounced back for their 12th victory on Thursday —turning back the Chillicothe Cavaliers 8-2.
Two weeks ago on April 6, and against the Division I Centerville Elks, Notre Dame dropped a 2-1 decision —scoring a single fifth-frame run, before the Elks answered with a run apiece in the fifth and sixth stanzas.
That was Notre Dame’s only other loss, as they defeated Division II Greenville 1-0 —with both games being played at Greenville.
The Titans returned home on Thursday against the Cavaliers, and overcame four errors with 10 hits including two home runs en route to the win.
Notre Dame scored three first-inning runs, added a single marker in the third, and posted two runs apiece in innings four and six.
The Cavaliers crossed twice in the fourth for a 4-2 deficit, but got no closer.
A pair of Titans pitchers, freshman Ava Rush and sophomore Alayla Soard, combined to allow zero earned runs on three hits and three walks with 10 strikeouts —as Rush worked the opening four and one-thirds frames for the win.
She gave up all three hits —singles by Chillicothe freshmen C.J. Rittinger, Cadie Boltenhouse and Nia Brown.
Rush walked two and struck out seven, facing 23 batters before Soard saw the Cavalier lineup one time thru.
Rittinger pitched the distance for Chillicothe, as all eight NDHS runs on 10 hits were indeed earned.
She struck out two, hit Lyndsey Schaefer with a pitch, did not walk a Titan, and faced 31 batters.
Maddie Entler engineered the Titans’ offensive attack with three hits and two runs scored, as Maycee Ford had two with three RBIs —one of those hits being a home run.
Gwen Sparks had a solo homer, Kyndall Ford added a double, and Schaefer, Soard and Kate Entler added a single apiece.
Schaefer scored twice as well, as Soard and Maddie Entler added runs batted in.
Against Wellston, three Notre Dame errors actually led to the Golden Rockets scoring the game’s only run.
Both teams had two hits and left four baserunners on, but in the bottom of the fifth, Notre Dame was charged with two throwing errors on the same play —as Wellston junior Karly Rinehart rushed across the plate.
It was a classic pitchers’ duel at Wellston’s Nancy Kibler Field —as the NDHS senior Sparks tossed a one-walk and dozen-strikeout gem, the only run of course coming unearned.
Sparks saw 23 Golden Rockets, threw 89 pitches with 61 for strikes, and gave up only singles to Rinehart and Madaylnn Childers and a walk to Avery Fain.
Wellston junior and winning pitcher Hannah Potts was just as masterful in the complete-game shutout, striking out 10 Titans —and facing 25 on 98 total pitches with 66 for strikes.
The Golden Rockets did not make an error behind Potts either.
Kyndall Ford and Maycee Ford had the two Notre Dame hits, both singles, as Sparks and Maddie Entler each walked with Rush recording a sacrifice.
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