Home runs help Fairmont beat Oak Hills in regional softball semifinal

Fairmont (19-8) will play fellow Greater Western Ohio Conference member Centerville (16-13), which beat Mason 6-5 in the first semifinal Wednesday, at 5 p.m. Friday at Indian Hill with a chance to earn the first state final four berth for the program since 1984.

The winner will play No. 9 Massillon Jackson (20-7-1) or No. 2 Perrysburg (27-1) in the state semifinals at 3 p.m. on June 7 at Firestone Stadium in Akron.

“There are no words to describe how excited I am,” said Fairmont’s Paige Russell, who had an RBI double in the third inning. “This team means so much to me. It’s my last year, and they’re really acting like they want to get there, and I believe that we can do it.”

Fairmont beat Centerville twice in the regular season: 10-9 in eight innings on April 3; and 9-5 on April 21. The teams split two games in 2024. Centerville swept two games in 2023.

“One of us is moving on,” Fairmont coach Amon Williams said. “That’s good for the GWOC. It’s good for the area. It’s good for the rivalry. That Centerville-Kettering rivalry is pretty intense.”

The last GWOC team to make the final four was Greenville, which won a state championship in 2007 and returned to state in 2010 and 2012. Greenville moved to the Miami Valley League in 2019.

Fairmont East won a Class AAA state championship in 1982, beating Westerville North 12-3 in the final. It first made the final four in 1978, the first year the tournament was held, losing 9-3 to Akron Springfield. In 1984, by which point Fairmont East and Fairmont West had merged into one school, Fairmont lost 14-0 to Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary.

The other current GWOC members that have made the state semifinals are: Beavercreek (1983); Northmont (1990 and 1998); and Springfield South (1995).

Fairmont earned this opportunity thanks in part to solo home runs by sophomores Jaylin Turner and Kinley Pigg in the fifth inning. They turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead.

It was the second home run of the season for Turner and the first career home run for Pigg.

“We needed some energy,” Williams said. “We needed a jolt. We couldn’t have asked for a better jolt. It put a shot right in our arm.”

In the seventh, Bailey Young provided insurance runs with a two-run, two-out single.

Fairmont took a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh. Oak Hills had a promising rally going, but a runner rounding third changed her mind about scoring and tried to get back to the bag. She was thrown out at third. Instead of having runners at first and third with no outs and one run in, Oak Hills had a runner at first with one out.

That play ended the comeback attempt and allowed Fairmont to extend a memorable season.

“For the last six years, we’ve been putting in the work and bringing the program back to where we should be,” Williams said, “and now we’re starting to take those steps.”