FRANKLIN — The bus horn echoed through the parking lot as the celebration spilled into the night Friday.
Moments earlier, members of the Ross High School softball team had drenched coach Christi Luckett with a bucket of Gatorade after the Rams survived a tense extra-inning showdown to clinch the Southwestern Buckeye League Southwestern Division title outright.
Soaked yet smiling, Luckett stood outside of the visiting dugout reflecting on a championship her team refused to share.
“Sticky and cold,” Luckett said with a laugh. “They earned that. It’s all good. It’s good.”
Ross outlasted Franklin 7-6 in eight innings, capping a dramatic back-and-forth battle that secured the Rams the SWBL Southwestern Division crown — their third straight — instead of a three-way tie with Franklin and Talawanda.
The Rams, riding a 10-game winning streak, entered the night determined to finish the job themselves.
“Does anyone really want to share?” Luckett said. “It was kind of a joke when we were warming up today about, you know, ‘sharing is caring,’ and we’re like, ‘Well, today let’s not be caring. We’re not going to be caring.’
“They came in single-mindedly focused on they wanted it outright. And so they went and earned it. I’m proud of them.”
Ross (17-6, 9-1 SWBL Southwestern) appeared in control early after building a four-run lead, but Franklin answered repeatedly. Senior Adrian Allen’s solo home run in the first inning — which tied her for the school’s career home run record at 21 — put the Wildcats on the board before Ross surged ahead in the third on freshman Josi Alvis’ two-run homer and an RBI single from junior Meadow Webb.
Junior Kailyn May added a solo home run in the fifth to give Ross a 5-1 advantage, but Franklin (14-12, 7-3 SWBL Southwestern) refused to fade. The Wildcats clawed back behind a three-run double by junior Heidi Brooks. Junior Kydee Shults tied the game at 6-6 with a two-run blast to left in the sixth inning.
“We had both games, we were down,” Franklin coach Jim Hamrick said of his team’s 6-5 loss to Ross two days earlier. “The first game we played them, we were down 5-1. I think this one we were down 5-1 again, and we came back and tied. Just couldn’t get that last one in there the last inning.”
Ross finally pushed across the eventual winning run in the eighth when senior Liv Powers smacked a triple and then scored on junior Paige Baker’s ground ball the following at-bat.
Baker closed it out in the circle in the bottom half to send the Rams into celebration mode. Baker struck out 10 while continually working through pressure-filled moments as Franklin threatened throughout the night.
“It’s definitely stressful, especially on the mound,” Baker said. “At times, you get in your head and you’re like, ‘I have to throw this pitch, I have to guide it,’ and it just never works. I feel like once they started scoring runs and stuff, I reminded myself when you’re warming up and there’s no batters, nobody in the box, you pitch so much better when you’re relaxed.”
Luckett said Baker’s composure has become one of the Rams’ biggest strengths.
“When Paige is pitching, you get a little different sense of calm, I guess, because she pulls it back in,” Luckett said. “If she gets a little wild, she finds her center and focuses back in. Kam (Commins) does a great job of really talking to her, talking her down from the ledge. They’re a great one-two combo.”
The Rams finished with 15 hits, including three-hit performances from Baker, Alvis and Commins. Sophomore Mia Michel added two hits.
Still, Luckett pointed less to the offense and more toward the energy in the dugout that carried Ross through the final innings.
“The biggest part of this win was how our dugout was so engaged,” Luckett said. “We haven’t really seen a lot of that this year, so we’ve really been emphasizing it. They just wouldn’t stop. That helps the girls that are out on the field, because it’s a stressful situation.”
For Baker, the game felt like a postseason atmosphere long before the tournament arrives.
“Honestly, I feel like all the league games leading up to this have been not as challenging for us,” Baker said. “This is like the toughest team we’ve played probably all season, and it’s been really fun. Getting to see my teammates play to their full potential. We did not want to split the league title.”
The loss denied Franklin a share of the championship, but Hamrick said his team proved it belonged in the conversation with the league’s best.
“I feel real good about the team,” Hamrick said. “They’re obviously very disappointed, rightfully so, but if we could have signed up day one for playing on our home field and having a shot to share the league title, we would’ve signed up for that all day long.
“We competed all day long with Talawanda and Ross, and they’re great teams. They’re not good teams — those two teams are great.”
Allen still delivered a milestone night despite the defeat. Her first-inning homer tied Franklin’s career home run record previously held by Susan Gray while also giving Allen her 100th career RBI and 100th career run scored.
“She tied the school career record today,” Hamrick said. “Hopefully she can get it done before we go into the playoffs.”
Franklin travels to Harrison on Monday, while Ross puts an 11-game winning streak on the line when it hosts Division II seventh-ranked Kings on Saturday at noon.
“I’m just ecstatic for the girls,” Luckett said. “This is their first goal on their list at the beginning of the year when we discussed it. So, check that one off and let them celebrate, and then get right back down to business, because we’re not done yet.”
