“This is it for her,” Luckett said of Peters, while getting a little choked up. “That one’s tough. She was my first four-year player — the only one. So, that one’s special to me.”
Peters and the youthful Ross Rams fell to Western Brown 8-2 in a Division III regional semifinal on Wednesday at Miami University.
“Over the four years, I definitely realized high school softball is something that not everyone can handle,” said Peters, a senior first baseman. “But the coaches and everyone at Ross make it amazing.
“Every single year, it just got better and better,” Peters added. “This year, the team, we were all family — like sisters. I don’t know of any other place I’d want to be.
“Our team supports everything from the lows to the highs.”
The Rams (20-7) had plenty of highs — and not many lows — during their quest to a second consecutive Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye Division title. They finished the season by winning 13 of their last 16 games, which included a district championship.
“At the beginning of the season, did I see that we were going to get that district title? No,” said Luckett, who finished up her fourth year at the Ram helm. “But these girls did. They 100 percent saw it. They locked in. They have worked very hard.”
Western Brown (24-3) tallied a run in the first and two more in the second for a quick 3-0 lead.
Ross freshman Mia Michel blasted a two-run homer in the top of the fourth to pull the Rams’ deficit to 3-2.
The Broncos scored three runs — all with two outs — in the bottom of the fifth before Sophie Jamison smoked a two-run bomb over the right-center field fence to make it 8-2.
“I think we knew what we needed to get done coming into this game,” said Peters, who was 1-for-3 at the plate. “It definitely was a slower start than what we expected. I think that’s kind of what killed us. We kept fighting, and that’s all you can really expect out of us.
“I think the nerves were high at times, but then we would settle back in and all together as a team. It felt good even though we didn’t come out with the win.”
Sophomore Meadow Webb went 2-for-3 with a run, and sophomore Paige Baker went 1-for-3 for Ross. Baker pitched all six innings and struck out five.
Western Brown will face Greenville in a regional final on Friday at 5 p.m. at Miami University.
Greenville 1, New Richmond 0 (9 inn.)
Greenville (27-2) defeated New Richmond 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth on a Zoey Burns walk-off double that scored Kylar Arnett.
Greenville and New Richmond each had three hits in the entire game. Burns, Arnett and Lily Brubaker accounted for the Greenwave’s three hits.
Greenville’s Ella Oswalt pitched all nine innings with four strikeouts.
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