The memory of a past failure created a rallying cry for the fourth-seeded Marysville softball team as it prepared to face fifth-seeded Lancaster in a Division I district championship game Friday at Pickerington Central.

Each team had the same seed when they met in a 2021 district final that was won by the Golden Gales, but the Monarchs were determined not to let that happen again.

After scoring three times in the first inning, Marysville gave up two in the second but leaned on pitching and defense throughout the game’s remainder to hold on for a 3-2 victory that gave it a second consecutive district title.

Marysville lost to Lancaster 3-1 in a 2021 district final and then lost in a regional semifinal a year ago.

“We have (a large) senior (class) graduating this year, so we wanted to make it out of districts again, and it was just really important for us to get our goal,” Monarchs pitcher Tareyn Born said. “(Lancaster) knocked us out our sophomore year, so we got them back this year. We were all cheering for each other and we just pulled together.”

While Lancaster finished 21-6, the Monarchs improved to 24-4 and will face Newark at 2 p.m. May 24 in a regional semifinal at Olentangy Orange.

Marysville opened the scoring with a two-run double by Born that drove in first baseman Camryn Harbold and center fielder Abri Schmutz. Courtesy runner Reagan Traucht then scored on a single by shortstop Sienna Hutchins.

Lancaster, which scored both of its runs on an error, finished with just two hits off Born.

In the sixth, Lancaster first baseman Ashlin Mowery smashed a fly ball to center that Schmutz jumped to keep from going over the fence.

“I saw it going back and I knew it maybe had a shot of getting over, so I had to lay it all on the line for our pitcher who had been working her butt off the whole game,” Schmutz said. “Our defense is something we’ve been able to count on all season, just keeping errors to a minimum.”

Born struck out five and walked one while allowing no earned runs.

“This was the team we lost to in the seniors’ sophomore year, so we referred to that quite a bit this week,” Marysville coach Jen Segner-Maxwell said. “These girls didn’t want to go out against this team.

“When I put (my team) on the bracket (at the tournament drawing) and Lancaster came right at us, we’re like, ‘OK … We got this. One game at a time.’ We knew this was going to be a tough one.”

Lancaster, which was a regional runner-up last season, had just two seniors.
“We’ve had a very good season,” Gales coach Allison Kinniard said. “We played a lot of games so that we’d be battle-tested and be able to make a lengthy run in the tournament, but it just didn’t work out that way.”