Penn tops Roncalli in a nine-inning thriller

By Rich Torres, Special to IHSAA.org
WEST LAFAYETTE – The perfect upset required the perfect storm of opportunities, and the Penn Kingsmen capitalized each time Saturday night to win their first softball state title in 24 years.
The Kingsmen built a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth off a Roncalli fielding error, and a passed ball in the top of the ninth provided the go-ahead run, as both Aubrey Zachary and Olivia Signorino combined to four-hit the Royals to seize the Class 4A Indiana High School Athletic Association state title, 2-1, in extra innings at Purdue University’s Bittinger Stadium.
The state championship was the first for Penn (28-4-1) since 1999 (3A) and unfolded in the program’s third state appearance after finishing state runner-up in 2016 (4A).
“This is the goal every single season. You want to be the last team standing, and you want to win a state championship as a high school athlete. It’s the greatest honor you can have, so it’s really special because you see the culmination of all the hard work come to fruition,” said Penn head coach Beth Zachary, who is in her 16th season. “That’s why you work. That’s why you do what you do to get to these moments.”
Coach Zachary, a 3A state champion as a player at Castle High School in 2001, shared the upset victory over back-to-back state champion Roncalli (31-4-1) with her daughters, Aubrey and Ava, who both played key roles in halting the Royals’ run at potential history.
With consecutive titles won in 2021 and 2022, the defending national champion Royals were attempting to become the first three-time 4A state champion – in consecutive years. New Palestine won three straight 3A titles from 2017-19.
Senior Keagan Rothrock, a Florida recruit and a three-time Gatorade Indiana Player of the Year, kept the Royals in the game with her arm and her bat, but not even a game-tying lead-off, solo home run in the bottom of the seventh could fend off the Kingsmen.
“That was crazy. What a moment for her to tie the game up in the bottom of the seventh inning. Your best player is up in the biggest moment and ties it and then we load the bases,” Roncalli head coach David Lauck said. “I thought, yeah, we were going to end up winning this game. That was a good memory that she’ll never forget and the fans that are here will never forget.”
Rothrock’s blast that traveled more than 215 feet over the left-center field wall tied the game, which lasted nine innings and more than two-and-a-half hours.
In the circle, Rothrock was dominant, spinning the ball for 17 strikeouts through nine frames with two walks and only three hits allowed. She carried a no-hitter until the top of the fourth before Kiley Hinton broke up her hopes of joining Roncalli’s Ariane Kurtz (1999) as the second Royal with a no-hitter in the state title game with a two-out single.
Rothrock escaped the fourth, but the top of the fifth proved damaging. Abigail Widmar reached base with a lead-off single for Penn, and later Alexis Riem walked with one out.
Widmar was tagged out at home as she tried to score on a fielder’s choice by Ashlyn Kronewitter, but a dropped putout for the probable third out at first base on a weak grounder to shortstop by Izabella Hanna scored Riem for a 1-0 lead.
Roncalli left eight runners on base, including two in scoring position in the bottom of the fifth, but Signorino found a way to shut down the Royals.
Signorino earned the win to improve to 6-0 on the season, going 5.2 innings with three hits surrendered, one walk and five strikeouts.
Aubrey Zachary started the game and went 3.1 innings with one hit allowed – a double by Abby Willis with two outs in the bottom of the third – and struck out three with two walks.
Signorino lost a seven-pitch at-bat against Rothrock in the bottom of the seventh, but she stood her ground afterwards, battling through a bases-loaded situation to get a clutch strikeout to end the threat of a walk-off loss.
“Olivia has been great all postseason for us. She’s fresh. She’s rested. She’s coming off an injury, and she’s feeling good. She’s confident, and she throws hard,” Beth Zachary said. “I’m just so happy for her that she got back in postseason and not only to come back but to come back with such success. It’s just so powerful, and I’m so happy for her.”
Much like Rothrock, who was coming off offseason surgery this season, Signorino and Aubrey Zachary gritted through the final outs of their seasons, but the Kingsmen had more big hits.
Ava Zachary came through with a lead-off triple in the top of the ninth, scoring on a passed ball before Rothrock struck out the final three batters she faced.
“We should have won,” Rothrock said with tears rolling down her face. “The first run was on errors. We should have won.
“It was just a pitch that was up and just a tad out of Ann Marie (Meek’s) reach. Nothing either of us could control in that. It was just one of those things, a bad pitch.”
It was enough for the Kingsmen to sweep the Royals, who they also beat 13-3 in five innings during the regular season at the Carmel Invitational on April 22.
“Yeah, lead-off triple, the odds are she’s probably going to score somehow, but Keagan does what Keagan does, and we get two straight strikeouts, and then for some reason we kept climbing the ladder on some pitches, and one got away,” Lauck said. “All in all, it was disappointing we didn’t win the game.”
Roncalli’s eight seniors left their mark regardless, winning 95 games in three seasons and finishing in the state title game each campaign.
“It has been an incredible ride. Ninety-five wins for these seniors over the course of three years, two state championships and a state runner-up. They have completely energized our entire school,” Lauck said. “It’s just been awesome to be a part of and to be a small part of that as their coach.”
Zachary felt the same, as Ava, a sophomore, and Aubrey, a junior, each received their state championship medals.
“I walked up to (Ava in the ninth), and I said, ‘Just remember, nobody better. Nobody better. Be confident,’ and she said, ‘I got this,’” Beth Zachary said. “I could just tell on her face, I knew coming in today, she was going to do something big for us. It’s just the type of player she is. She plays with all her heart, and if she gets on base, then Ava is going to take bases.”
She took the biggest base of her career with the state title in the balance.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game coming in here. That’s an amazing team, and for us to perform the way we did, I think it’s really awesome,” Ava Zachary said. “We trusted our preparation. We came out here and we played our game.
“It definitely came down to us doing the little things. We’ve worked on that, and we played our game the whole way through. We had to capitalize on every moment.”
Roncalli’s Abbey Hofmann receives Mental Attitude Award
At the conclusion of the game, Abbey Hofmann of Roncalli High School was announced as the recipient of the Mental Attitude Award for Class 4A Softball.
The award is annually presented to a senior participant in the state finals who best demonstrates mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability and is nominated by her principal and coach.
Abbey was a member of Roncalli’s Student Council and served as Co-President of Spirit. She won the Most Outstanding Female Mental Attitude at her school and she had a total of 282 volunteer service hours. Abbey is a two-time selection to the All-Marion County Team and a three year varsity athlete.
Abbey is the daughter of Lori and Ottie Hofmann of Indianapolis, IN and will attend Marian University to study Nursing and Pastoral Leadership.
Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance presented a $1,000 scholarship to Roncalli High School in the name of Abbey Hofmann.