Staff photo/ Brian Yauger Mathews senior Kelsie Newsom leads off toward third base for the Mustangs in their regional final matchup with Monroeville.

AVON LAKE — Sometimes it’s just not your day.

Mathews’ season came to a close on Friday in the regional final, falling 9-1 to Monroeville at Avon Lake High School.

Held off the scoreboard for the first three innings, Monroeville came alive in the fourth with a pair of runs to take the lead. Once they got the advantage, they didn’t let up.

A bases-clearing double in the fifth gave Monroeville a 5-1 lead and it added four more in the following inning.

“They game plan and they stick to their plan,” Mustangs coach Jim Nicula said. “They were down 1-0 for however many innings and we had them on the verge with runners on second three different times and we couldn’t push that across. They just were patient and waited. I think it’s a culture that their coaching staff has instilled in them. There was no panic. They were just very solid.”

Senior Maddy Hufford scored Kelsie Newsom in the bottom of the first inning, but that’d be the only run the Mustangs tallied.

Mathews ends its season with a 25-6 mark.

“We truly are a family,” Nicula said. “You’re spending spring, winter and summer with them, because you’re doing different things, working with individuals. This team is great. Today, we weren’t great, but that happens. Once you get into the tournament, you gotta be great every time you step on the field, and if you’re not, and playing teams that are great, they’re going to win and that’s what happened today.”

Nicula doesn’t want a bad game to diminish what was a fantastic season, however.

“It doesn’t make them or doesn’t determine who they are, though. The competition that we played the last three years, there’s nobody in the state in Division VII (or the old Division IV), that’s even come close to that,” Nicula said. “We’ve won many of those games and finished with great records. It’s just that if you want to have a run at the end of the postseason, you gotta be great every day, and if you face somebody that is and you’re not that day or they’re a little bit better than you, and this is what you get.”

The Mustangs’ eight seniors leave the program as one of the most decorated groups in school history.

Not only were they the first class to record four straight district titles, they also have four league titles, two regional runners up, a state final four appearance and a sea of all-state and all-district selections between them.

“I think these guys’ legacy is that they continued the level of success that we’ve had at Mathews,” Nicula said. “We’re a state-caliber team and that senior class did that. They carried that moniker, and it’s evident by their four district championships and four regional appearances and three regional finals and a state semifinals appearance. There’s only going to be one team at the end of the year that’s going to be happy. Everybody else is going to have sorrow, and then later they’ll celebrate the accomplishments they made, but it’s hard on the day that it doesn’t go your way.”

Now the program turns toward 2026. Losing eight seniors means a lot of holes to fill.

When asked what he wants his seniors to remember as they move on to the next stage of their lives, Nicula brought up family and the life lessons that softball teaches you.

“Just the culture that we built in and the work ethic that they will carry on into life,” he said. “It’s about a family. Whether it’s your work family, whether it’s your personal family or whatever. Humans, we need to be together. We need each other in order to survive and get through tough times like today and celebrate the good times that we have. I just hope that they take the lessons that they learned throughout these last four years and it translates into college and work and the rest of their lives.

“The celebration we had with the senior night and alumni night and field naming celebration, they’re going to come back and they’re going to be those kids and they’re going to have kids with them, eventually, and I want them to pass that down to their kids.”

Monroeville (26-3) won its regional contests by a combined score of 26-2.

Monroeville takes on Sycamore Mohawk in the Division VII state semifinals on Wednesday at 3 p.m.