SHELBY, Ohio — Bryan’s softball team wasn’t satisfied with just reaching its first regional championship game in program history.
The Golden Bears put together another game for the ages to earn their first trip to Akron.
Sophomore pitching standout Thea Staten struck out the final seven Lexington batters in a dominating complete-game performance, while freshman Amiyah Langham and senior Kailee Thiel sparked the offense with home runs in the third inning, as the Golden Bears topped the Minutemen 4-1 in a Division II regional final on Friday at Shelby High School.
“It’s incredible. We’ve had tastes of this in other sports, obviously, so knowing what we’re going into that, we’ve worked so hard to get to this point in the season, it’s just an incredible feeling,” said Thiel, a key contributor to Bryan’s 2023 state final four girls basketball team. “So many emotions going on, it’s indescribable.”
Bryan (21-5) advanced to take on Circleville Logan Elm in a Division II state semifinal at 12:30 p.m. Friday at Firestone Stadium in Akron. Logan Elm knocked off Dover 7-3 in a regional final on Friday.
“Our girls have put in hours and hours of work, and they’ve been excellent all year,” Bryan coach Samantha Molina said. “So super proud of them and excited to see what they can do in the next level.”
Lexington, which beat Bryan 4-0 in a 2022 Division II regional semifinal — it was the Golden Bears’ first appearance at that level in program history — finished the season at 28-3.
After scoring 18 runs in five innings in Wednesday’s regional semifinal win over Akron Springfield, Lexington was limited to one run on just three hits against Staten. The 2023 first-team all-Ohioan in Division II racked up 13 strikeouts while allowing just two walks, and if not for an illegal pitch that turned what would have been a strikeout into an RBI double from Lexington’s Jillian Morr a couple pitches later in the third inning, Staten could have put up zeroes across the board.
“I knew that they were going to be a great team, and I really needed to buckle down and have good self-confidence and self-talk,” Staten said, “and talk myself through it, take a deep breath, and trust all the stuff that I have.”
Lexington put runners on first and second with one out in the fourth inning, but Staten struck out the next two batters to end the threat. A strikeout ended the fifth after the Minutemen’s Kyra Boyd doubled and reached third earlier in the inning.
“It’s a really good feeling to know that you can trust your pitcher,” Thiel said. “Obviously, we can trust each other no matter where we are on the field. But having a pitcher that’s in there, you know that she’s going to do her thing every game. That’s just an incredible feeling.”
Bryan only mustered three hits against Lexington’s Makaree Chapman, who tallied eight strikeout and two walks in six innings. But two of them provided plenty of damage.
After Marlee Yoder singled to start the third inning, Langham belted a two-run home run down the left field line to give Bryan a 3-1 lead. It was her second career home run and second in the regional tournament.
Three batters later, Thiel connected on a shot well past the center field wall as Bryan took a 4-1 lead.
“We talked about just getting base hits and getting on and moving runners, but the home runs were kind of the cherry on top for that,” Molina said. “Both of them had great approaches in our warmup today and were able to execute that during the game.”
Bryan took a 1-0 lead in the second inning after Mylie Vollmer, who drew a two-out walk, scored from first after Tabithah Taylor’s bunt resulted in a Lexington error at first base. The Minutemen had four errors to the Golden Bears’ one.
“We knew [Staten] was going to be good, and we have a good pitcher too. It was just going to come down to that,” Lexington coach Todd Galownia said. “... They just had a couple home runs. We hit them out, it’s a different story.
“That’s how this game goes. Made an error or two that we usually don’t make, and they opened the gate a little bit with four runs, and that’s enough when you have a pitcher like that.”
Vollmer, Bryan’s third baseman, made a couple of key catches in foul territory early in the game to spark the Golden Bears’ defense. Bryan also turned on a bunt from Lexington’s Quinn Patrick in which Vollmer threw to second baseman Josey Arnold at first, and Arnold fired a throw to catcher Ella Voigt to get Morr out at home.
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