The Trojans are 20-1 this season, going a perfect 16-0 in the Ohio Heritage Conference to claim their fifth straight South Division championship. They’re ranked ninth in the state in Division IV.
“From the beginning of the year, we’ve been talking about all gas, no brakes,” said Southeastern coach Kaitlyn Blair. “We’re not thinking about what happened in the past. We’re just going to keep chucking forward. We’re not going to focus on the last game, we’re not going to focus on the last at-bat — we’re just going to be all gas, no brakes.”
The Trojans started the season 12-0 before falling to Fort Loramie on April 19. Since the loss, they’ve won eight straight games, including key victories over OHC North foes Fairbanks, West Jefferson and Mechanicsburg.
Southeastern is led by its high-powered offense. The Trojans are outscoring their opponents 237-40. They also have four players ranked in the top 10 in the OHC for batting average — sophomore Reese Wells (.567, five HRs, 16 doubles, 29 RBIs), junior Allie Lewis (.564, 40 runs, 23 stolen bases), sophomore Kaylee Wells (.535, five HRs, 39 RBIs) and senior Regan Cline (.527, five HRs, 25 RBIs).
“We’re hitting the ball, we’re moving runners when we need to and we’re getting it done on the base paths,” Blair said.
The group is also rewriting the school’s record book. They’re on pace to set single-season school records for hits, batting average and doubles. Lewis set a new career stolen bases record with 53 … and counting. Kaylee Wells also set a new school record with 29 doubles … and counting.
Reese Wells has been stellar in the circle. She’s 18-1 with five shutouts and 172 strikeouts in 115 innings pitched. She recently surpassed 300 career strikeouts.
“She’s hitting her spots and she’s changing up speeds,” Blair said.
The Trojans have been strong on defense this season, allowing a league-low 24 runs in conference play.
Southeastern picked up a huge victory on Tuesday, beating OHC North co-champion Mechanicsburg 8-2. The Indians took an early 2-0 lead, but the Trojans scored five in the third and three in the fourth to bring home the victory.
“We were making it happen on the base paths when we needed to and we were getting clutch hits when we needed to,” Blair said. “We were capitalizing on dropped balls and things like that. It was really the clutch hits that helped us the most.”
The victory is a huge confidence booster for the Trojans, who hadn’t beaten the Indians since 2017.
“In our meeting in right field after the game, we had to reel them in a little bit,” Blair said. “That was a great win, but we’ve got to be a little humble. They were so jacked up, but what was great about it was that during the game, they were humble about it. They were confident and humble. They didn’t let our highs affect them too much and they didn’t let Mechanicsburg’s highs affect them too much. We just kept a level head and played our ball game.”
Southeastern hopes to make another deep tournament run this season after falling to Russia in a D-IV district final game last season. Southeastern is the No. 1 seed in the D-IV Dayton South sectional and will host No. 10 seed Cincinnati Oyler at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 9, at South Charleston Park. With a victory, the Trojans could face OHC South rival Cedarville for the third time this season in a district semifinal game.
“We’re just going to keep playing our game,” Blair said. “We’re not going to focus on who we’re playing, what their record is or if we’ve played them before. We’re just going to keep our nose down and stick to it.”
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