If you know your high school softball and checked out our latest FAB 50 ratings, you’re aware of how Lebanon High out of Southwestern Ohio pulled off a big upset last Saturday, taking down previously No. 5 Hoover of North Canton  in the Wendy’s Classic in Ashland, Ohio by a score of 3-1.

Don’t count out Hoover just yet, though.  The defending state champs did see their 51 game victory streak come to an end, but the Vikings are an experienced group of winners and are led by the No. 1 senior in the country, third baseman Jenna Lilley who signed with Oregon as well as senior pitcher Tara Thacker (Northern Illinois signee) who lost for only the second time… in her career!

But last Saturday belonged to the Warriors as pitcher Tara Trainer, who’s committed to Indiana and is our No. 88 rated player in the junior class, continues to impress after missing most of last year recuperating from a near-fatal car crash.  In this big win, she recorded 12 strikeouts.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to play great teams like Hoover at the Wendy’s Classic,” Trainer says. “After the first inning I started to settle down. The game could’ve gone either way and it was a great game.”

Go back two years when Trainer was a freshman—she burst onto the Buckeye State softball scene posting a 16-2 record with a 0.69 ERA.  One of those two losses was to Hoover High in the D-I state finals as the Vikings won 2-0 to capture the state title that year as well.

Out of action for nine months, Trainer was able to get back on the field late in the year in 2013 and led the Warriors to the state quarterfinals where she gave up only two hits while striking out 10, but lost 1-0.

The question is, just how good can she be this year now that the junior is apparently back to full speed?

Tara was recently named the Ohio State Player of the Week after she struck out 18 in one game and then three a complete game on-hitter with 15 more K’s in another.

Heading into action today, Lebanon was 8-0, but it’s not like the team is a total sleeper.

The win in the Wendy’s Classic gave it back-to-back tourney titles—the first in the long history of the prestigious event—and the last two years the Warriors have been ranked No. 2 in Ohio at the Div. I level.

In 2013, Lebanon finished 26-3 and two years ago went 31-2 with the one loss in the state title game and the other being a 2-1 defeat to Poland led by Erin Gabriel, a sophomore pitcher at Tennessee who’s gone 10-1 her first two years there.

Seven girls who played on the runner-up team in 2012 are now on the field and this year’s squad is loaded with seven experienced seniors (OF Mikala Bonny, SS Sam Showalter, C/3B Kayla Strother, OF Kayla Frank, IF Savannah Scott, OF Andrea Brezinski, abd C Kaitlyn Bergman) and four talented juniors (3B Jordan Crawford, P/2B Kim Frank, OF Hannah Huffman and Trainer).

Somehow, unless another surprising upset knocks out either Hoover or Lebanon, you get the feeling these two teams will meet again in the playoffs. It would be the fourth straight title for Lilley and her fellow seniors if the Vikings take state or the first after two narrow misses for Lebanon.

Either way, it’s going to be fun to watch the rest of the year play out in the Buckeye State.

“We’re lucky to have an experience team who has played together for a very long time,” concludes Trainer. “We’re continuing to work hard to improve our skills and taking it one game at a time.”