5A softball: Legend claims its third state championship in five years
AURORA – It’s only been two short years since the Legend softball team won back-to-back state titles in 2017 and 2018, and the Titans are back on top yet again in 2021.
At Aurora Sports Park on Saturday, the No. 4-seeded Titans won 8-0 over No. 2 Columbine in the Class 5A title game to claim their third championship the past five years. For Legend head coach Kristen Shirk, the Titans’ latest title-winning team felt a lot like the group that won their program’s first chanmpionship back in 2017.
“This team right here reminded me of that 2017 team where we had a core of juniors, a couple seniors and some young kids,” Shirk said. “You kind of just felt good about how they were all season and here at state. They were loose yesterday and they weren’t tight today either. I knew today was going to be a good day just from the feeling I got from them this morning.
“We fired on all cylinders and that’s what we needed to win it.”
After knocking out top-seeded Horizon in the semifinals, the Titans entered Saturday’s championship game having allowed just five runs in three games. In the championship game, junior Cam Ponich, who didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, struck out 12 batters while throwing a shutout against a Columbine lineup that averaged five runs per game through the first three rounds of the tournament.
With a 1-0 lead going into the fifth inning, the Titans hit three home runs in the span of six at-bats and scored five runs in the frame to break the game open. They added two more in the sixth for good measure and Ponich worked her way out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the inning to quelch a potential late rally from the Rebels.
“It was so exciting,” Ponich said. “I knew that we were going to win it because my team has so much energy. I had no doubt going into the tournament. I thought we had a chance to win it from the start of the season because we have such a good team dynamic. I really felt like we stepped it up during state and we were on a whole new level than we were during the regular season.”
Both Legend and Columbine finished the season with matching 25-4 records. The Rebels have one championship in their program’s history, which they won in 2019.
