Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. South Range hoists the Division III regional championship trophy after defeating Champion 8-4 in eight innings.

CANTON — Call them the “comeback queens.”

For the third game in a row, South Range faced a deficit in a do-or-die playoff game, and for the third game in a row, the Raiders rallied to win and advance.

In thrilling fashion, South Range came back from an early deficit, survived a comeback effort from Champion, then held on late to defeat the Flashes 8-4 in eight innings Friday in the Division III regional final at Willig Park in Canton.

“It’s been awesome — not only are they all awesome softball players, but they’re awesome people,” said head coach Jeff DeRose. “It’s not just the seniors that got us here. Our whole entire team, as you can see at the bottom of the order — they led off that eighth inning, so it’s an all-around team. But I’m so happy for the seniors.”

For the Golden Flashes, they end their season at 25-5 and wrap it up with their first regional final appearance since 2019.

“We came pretty far,” said Champion head coach Cheryl Weaver. “We hoped to have gone further, but South Range played a good game. I hope we can (eventually) say we got knocked out by the state champions.”

The victory sends the Raiders back to Firestone Stadium in Akron for states for the first time since 2021.

South Range’s current group of seniors was part of that state runner-up team in 2021. After coming so close and falling just short that year, the group of Juli Stachowicz, Jamie Feren, Samantha Susany and Kelly Szolek has been itching to get back to this point.

“It really feels great,” Szolek said. “Since the beginning of the season, we knew this was our goal, and we wanted to get back to that state tournament. It’s hard to put into words how special it is, but I’m just so excited to be able to make it back to states in my senior season.”

Since she got injured earlier this season, Feren has had to watch her fellow seniors and teammates on crutches from the dugout. However, she’s still been a vital part of South Range’s run.

“It feels great because we just want to keep pushing, we want to keep pushing for our other senior Jamie Feren, who got hurt recently,” Stachowicz said. “We want it for her, and we want it for us.”

Champion got things started with a solo home run in the bottom of the third inning from Gabby Gradishar, and from there things were off and running.

After struggling to get a piece of Gradishar for the first three innings, right away, the Raiders rallied with three runs off four hits in the top of the fourth to retake the lead. Stachowicz, Gretchen Bartels and Jayli Wilt each had RBIs during the inning for South Range.

“Sometimes you just have to go through and see a pitcher for a few at bats before you can really get used to it,” Szolek said. “Luckily we were able to kind of hold them on defense so that we could give ourselves the time we needed to get comfortable in the box. I think it was just attacking pitches well and attacking early (in the count) and not letting (Gradishar) get so much ahead of our hitters.”

South Range added an RBI from Susany in the top of the fifth and had a three-run lead at that point. But Champion wasn’t quite done just yet.

Despite putting the ball in play, the Flashes struggled to convert those into hits and into runs against Stachowicz and the Raiders’ defense — until the sixth inning.

After a lead-off single by Maddie Sylvester and a walk for Gradishar, the Flashes were in business. Three straight RBIs from Morgan Davis, Bella Meyer and Abigail Meadors allowed Champion to tie the game heading into the seventh inning.

“The girls kept fighting, and that’s all we’ve been preaching is just fighting all the way to the end,” Weaver said. “That’s what we’ve been trying to do.”

During a scoreless seventh inning, Stachowicz bounced back from giving up the hits in the sixth to strike out the side in the bottom of the seventh to send the two teams on to extras.

“I just had to trust in my team,” Stachowicz said. “Yeah, the hits are going to happen. We knew coming into this game that they were going to put some big hits off me. So I just knew my team was going to come back at bat when we needed, and they really showed it and I’m really proud of them all.”

In the eighth, the bats came alive once again for the Raiders, as South Range led off the top of the inning with five straight hits, adding four runs in the process.

Champion was able to get one runner on base with a single from Davis in the bottom of the inning, but the Raiders’ defense cleaned things up from there.

“We just couldn’t pull our way out in the end — it was just too deep of a hole,” Weaver said.

Champion graduates four seniors, but returns several key pieces for next year, including Gradishar, Meyer and Addie Warzala.

“(The seniors) did a tremendous job for us and they’re going to be missed dearly. We gave it our best. …It does (help), it’s a positive thing to have,” Weaver added about the returning players.

Next for South Range is a trip back to Akron on June 1, when the Raiders will face Wheelersburg at 12:30 p.m. at Firestone Stadium. The Pirates defeated South Webster 13-0 to win Region 11 on Friday.

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com

South Range 8, Champion 4

South Range 000 310 04 – 8 12 1

Champion 001 003 00 – 4 5 3

WP: Juli Stachowicz (8.0 IP, 10 Ks, 1 BB); LP: Gabby Gradishar (8.0 IP, 10 Ks, 1 BB)

2+ HITS: SR: Kelly Szolek (2), Gretchen Bartels (2), Jayli Wilt (2), Anna Aey (2); C: Morgan Davis (2). 2+ RBIs: None. DOUBLES: SR: Bartels (2); C: Morgan Davis, Bella Meyer. TRIPLES: None. HOME RUNS: C: Gabby Gradishar.