“That’s when I knew we really had something going on here,” Roberts said. “(Miami East) is obviously on a huge roll as well.”
The sixth-seeded Warriors beat fourth-seeded Arcanum 7-0 on Monday to advance to a Division V district final game for the first time since reaching the D-III state final four in 2017.
Northwestern will face Cincinnati Reading at 5 p.m. Thursday at Hamilton Ross High School.
“I’m happy to get back (to districts),” Roberts said. “We’re excited to play.”
Northwestern joins three other Clark County teams — Kenton Ridge (D-IV), Shawnee (D-V), and Southeastern (D-VII) — in the round of 32
The Warriors are 16-8 this season under Roberts, who served as an assistant at Northwestern in 2010 before becoming the head coach at Shawnee from 2013 to 2021.
Northwestern finished tied for third in the Central Buckeye Conference Mad River Division, which saw five teams win postseason games so far this spring.
“The conference was really good this year,” Roberts said. “Both sides of the CBC were tough as always. It’s an outstanding softball conference every year. It was a big challenge.”
While the Warriors didn’t achieve their first goal of winning the Mad River title, Roberts knew his team could make a run in the postseason.
“Every year you want to win the conference,” Roberts said. “We didn’t win the conference, but we felt good. We played well all year long. I felt we had a pretty good shot. We’ve played two really good (tournament) games. We beat two really good teams. Milton-Union and Arcanum were two really good softball teams, and they were seeded higher than us.”
The Warriors are led by senior Azzy Hammer (.473 batting average, 28 RBIs, 10 doubles) and junior Olivia Deane (.375, 32 RBIs). They both earned first team All-CBC Mad River Division honors.
Sophomore Addy Hensley (.407, 13 stolen bases) and freshman Julia Shaw (.444, 17 stolen bases) were named to the second team. Junior Samantha Wolfe (.364, 20 RBIs) earned a special mention.
Sophomore pitcher Sophia Pamer ranks fifth in the CBC with 10 victories. She has 125 strikeouts and a 3.31 ERA in 107 2/3 innings.
“Our pitchers have really been solid,” Roberts said. “The whole team has just been fantastic.”
Northwestern’s next opponent, Reading (18-6), finished second in the Cincinnati Hills League. The Blue Devils beat Bethel-Tate 4-3 to advance.
Without a mutual opponent, Roberts doesn’t know what to expect. The Warriors, however, will continue to use the same formula they’ve used all season.
“We’re going to play the type of softball that we play,” Roberts said. “We always emphasize good defense, and we like to run. We have a lot of speed on the team. That’s been a real plus. We have a couple lefty slappers at the top of our lineup (Hensley and Shaw) and we just run the bases really well and aggressively. We’ll continue to do that.”
Here’s a look at other district final matchups in Clark County:
Division IV: State poll champion Kenton Ridge beat Brookville 18-2 on Tuesday to advance to a district final for the fourth straight season. It will play either Cincinnati McNicholas or Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy at 5 p.m. Thursday at Valley View High School. The McNicholas-CHCA game was postponed Tuesday night.
Division V: Shawnee beat Middletown Madison 15-0 on Monday, advancing to a district final for the second straight season. Shawnee will play Blanchester (16-10) at 5 p.m. Thursday at National Trail High School. The Braves last won a district title in 2022.
Division VII: No. 1 seed Southeastern beat Twin Valley South 11-1 on Monday to advance to a district final for the fourth straight year. It will play No. 9 seed Bradford (10-14) at 5 p.m. Friday at Houston High School.
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