Armada Upsets No. 1 Lakeshore, Mercy Extends Stunning Playoff Push
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 11, 2026
EAST LANSING — For Armada freshman pitcher Megan Cox, there were two big moments during a Division 2 Semifinal against Stevensville Lakeshore on Thursday that required her to compose herself.
The first came with two outs in the sixth inning, when Cox officially lost a no-hitter. While a small letdown, it wasn’t a huge deal, given she and Armada were still holding on to a 4-0 lead at the time.
But composure was really needed in the top of the seventh.
After a dropped fly ball in the outfield with two outs plated a run, Lakeshore scored another to make it 4-2 and had runners on first and second with two outs.
“I was getting a little nervous,” Cox admitted. “I was just trying to hit my spot.”
She did, ending the game on a strikeout to give Armada a 4-2 win over the top-ranked Lancers and a trip to Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. championship game at Secchia Stadium.
Cox certainly didn’t pitch like a freshman, striking out 14 batters for the Tigers (36-8).
Armada head coach Rob Girvin said his staff and Cox didn’t have anything special gameplan-wise for Lakeshore’s lineup.
“A lot of people talk matchups,” Girvin said. “I’ve always been the school of thought that if they can’t stop it, you keep doing it. I just going to (call) what she throws well and if they hit it, they hit it. We’ll go best on best and if you’re better than us, we’ll tip our cap.”
Armada’s offense set the tone early, taking a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on RBI singles by sophomore Lilyana Piconke and Cox.
The Tigers made it 3-0 in the third on an RBI single by senior Taylor Capozzo and went up 4-0 in the fourth on an RBI single by junior Addy VanHoeck.
From there, Cox held off Lakeshore to put Armada (36-8) in its first Final since finishing Class C runner-up in 1979.
“We thought we’d throw together a schedule that might make us .500, but really test us,” Girvin said of the regular season. “Make us go through some adversity in games so we would get down in games and have to battle back. They learned throughout the year. Yeah, we blew a couple early in the season where we had to learn, but they’ve really bought into team-first ball.”
Lakeshore, which was pursuing its ninth Finals title, finished 34-5.
“She threw great,” Lancers head coach Denny Dock said of Cox. “Hat’s off to her. She met the challenge. We didn’t play very good offensively and worse, we didn’t play very good defense. When you’re facing the good pitchers, you have to match zeroes. You have to make zeroes, and we didn’t do that.”
Farmington Hills Mercy 7, Ogemaw Heights 1
If you told high school softball pundits before the 2025 season that Farmington Hills Mercy was soon going to reach a state championship game, nine of 10 undoubtably would have assumed it would have been last year.
With a senior-laden team and the eventual Miss Softball Award winner in Kaitlyn Pallozzi, Mercy spent most of last spring ranked No. 1 in Division 1, but got upset in a Regional Semifinal against Northville.
Decimated by graduation losses and with just 13 players showing up for tryouts in March, Mercy — which moved to Division 2 this year — hardly had expectations after finishing below .500 during the regular season and seeing its streak of five straight Catholic High School League titles come to an end.
But lo and behold, Mercy has caught fire at the right time and is in a championship game for the first time since winning the Division 1 title in 2016.
“If anyone was around us for the last six, seven weeks, we were incredible at practice and everything,” Mercy co-coach Alec Lesko said. “They went from being scared to make a play, to wanting every ball hit at them. It was a huge difference. Every single one of those kids in the lineup wants to be in the batter’s box when the game is on the line. It flipped like a switch. It was great to see.
Mercy jumped on Ogemaw Heights early, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning on an RBI triple by junior Taylor Selimi, an RBI double by sophomore Vanessa Husband and an RBI single by freshman Audrey McGavin.
Senior Sophia Chaput then homered in the second inning, and McGavin hit an RBI sacrifice fly in the third to make it 5-0 Mercy.
From there, senior pitcher Anna McGavin held Ogemaw Heights at bay by brilliantly pitching out of jams.
In the fourth inning, Ogemaw Heights put runners on second and third with nobody out, but McGavin struck out three straight. In the fifth, the Falcons had runners on first and second with no outs, but a double play and a strikeout got McGavin and Mercy back in the dugout.
Ogemaw Heights also put its first two runners on in the sixth inning, but a lineout, popup and strikeout by McGavin ended the threat.
She allowed one run on eight hits, striking out 11 and walking two.
“We just couldn’t get them across,” Ogemaw Heights head coach Ryan Nicholson said. “They’re a good team. (McGavin) had a good rise ball going on us. She’s a good pitcher. … We just couldn’t push them across, so I give them all the credit.”
PHOTOS (Top) Armada’s Megan Cox fires a pitch toward the plate during her team’s Semifinal win over Stevensville Lakeshore on Thursday. (Middle) Mercy’s Sophia Chaput (28) yells toward her team’s dugout after reaching second base, while Ogemaw Heights’ Aubrey Evans throws the ball back to the pitcher.
1977 Baseball, Softball Finals Full of Firsts
June 5, 2017
By Ron Pesch
Special for Second Half
This season’s MHSAA Baseball and Softball Finals will be played in two weeks, June 15-17 at Michigan State University.
As we begin to turn our attention to that grand finale for the school year, MHSAA historian Ron Pesch takes on a recollection of the diamond championships in both sports from 1977.
That season’s baseball playoffs were the seventh under MHSAA sponsorship, while softball was in its third season as an MHSAA tournament sport.
BASEBALL
CLASS A – Four of coach Pat O’Keefe’s Grand Ledge baseball teams have advanced to the final game in the MHSAA’s top division since the start of tournament play in 1971. A standout athlete at Standish-Sterling High School, Central Michigan University and in the minor leagues in the Houston Astros organization, O’Keefe has led two Comets squads, the 2001 and the 1993 teams, to MHSAA runner-up finishes. Grand Ledge grabbed Class A championship honors in 1995, but it was the first title, earned in June of 1977, that caught everyone by surprise.
After opening the season with three victories and a single defeat, Grand Ledge dropped their next four games in a row before rallying to a 14-6 regular-season mark and a third-place finish in the Capital Area Conference. Behind solid pitching, O’Keefe saw his team’s bats come alive in the postseason. Tim Skinner had three hits, scored twice and had a pair of RBI in District games with Owosso and Brighton. With six straight tournament wins, Grand Ledge advanced to Saturday morning’s Semifinal contest at Valley Field in Grand Rapids against Sterling Heights and its pitching ace, Rick Lemanski, who was unbeaten in 12 games. Ranked No 2 in the state by the Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association, Sterling Heights loaded the bases with two out in the fourth inning, but a pop up to first baseman Scott Kemp ended the rally. With one out, the Stallions threatened again in the fifth with runners at second and third, but the rally ended when a missed sign on a suicide squeeze resulted in a strikeout and a tag out at third, ending the inning. Following a one-out double to center, junior Mike Dyer scored the game’s only run on a play at the plate in the eighth inning to win the contest. Craig VanDerSteen picked up the win for Grand Ledge, striking out 11.
Against top-ranked Detroit Catholic Central, the unranked Comets scored twice in the second inning, three times in the fourth and once in the fifth. Craig Dukes struck out two and scattered seven hits to secure the victory for Grand Ledge, while Dyer drove home three runners, scored, and sparkled defensively from the shortstop position.
“He played like a major leaguer, and he comes through in clutch spots like nobody I’ve ever seen.” said O’Keefe. Entering the 2017 season, his 49th as skipper at Grand Ledge, O’Keefe stood atop the MHSAA’s career coaching wins list with 1,221 victories against 208 defeats and a single tie.
CLASS B – In Class B, Gibraltar Carlson pounded out a 7-1 victory over No. 1-ranked Harper Woods Bishop Gallagher. Played at Stanley O. Broome Park in Flint and delayed until Monday due to rain, the game saw the Marauders score twice in the first inning. Southpaw Craig Smith, who struck out eight in a four-hit performance, singled and then scored on Kirk Williams’ triple. Williams scored to give Carlson a 2-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by Kelly Mousseau. The Marauders scored again in the second inning when Gary Southerland singled then scored on a Brett Kahn triple. Williams notched his second triple of the game in the third, scoring the first of four runs in the inning. Following a Mousseau walk, Mark Shallhorn singled to drive in both runners. Another single by Southerland drove home Shallhorn, and following a groundout, he scored on a single by Kahn.
“This was undoubtedly the finest season in his 24 years of coaching for (John) LeFevre,” stated The Associated Press when it named him Class B all-state Coach of the Year. “He led Gibraltar-Carlson to a 28-7 record which were personal bests for most wins and winning percentage.”
CLASS C – Like O’Keefe, Blissfield’s Larry Tuttle began his coaching career in 1968. Number two on the all-time baseball win list, a mere seven wins back, Tuttle and his Royals earned their first Class C MHSAA baseball crown in 1973, then grabbed their second in 1976. At Marshall High School in 1977, Blissfield became the first Class C baseball team to repeat as champions, downing Center Line St. Clement by a score of 4-2. Trailing 2-1 headed into the fifth inning, Blissfield’s Jim DeVantier singled, stole second and third base, then scored on a wild pitch to knot things up. A bases-loaded walk to Bud Friess followed to give the Royals the lead. An insurance run in the seventh, scored by Steve Cannon on another wild pitch, gave Dave Pagel the win. Pagel, a two-time all-state selection headed to Central Michigan University, struck out seven and allowed four hits on the day. Friess also pounded out a two-run triple in Blissfield’s 5-0 win over Sanford-Meridian in the morning’s Semifinal. Mike Burgermeister went the distance for the Semifinal victory. The Royals finished the year with a 28-2 mark. St. Clement, Class C champion in 1972 and 1974, ended with a 28-8 record.
CLASS D – Mark Kelley struck out 15 in leading Ann Arbor St Thomas to a 4-3 win over Frankfort in a Class D Semifinal, then in the title game pitched the final two innings in relief to earn the win in St. Thomas’s come-from-behind 10-9 clincher over top-ranked Potterville. The games were played at Alumni Field in Mt. Pleasant. Trailing 7-4 headed into the top of the seventh inning, the Irish scored six runs on five hits, including a two-run single by Tom Dishman and a two-run double by Mike Stork to take a 10-7 lead. Potterville scored twice in its final at bat to pull within one run of the lead. With the bases loaded and one down, Kelley managed to retire the next batter with a pop-up to short, then struck out the final batter for the victory. Starting pitcher Gary Farmiloe, ousted from the title game after two innings, went 2 for 3 and scored the winning run in the Semifinal game versus Frankfort, then went 3 for 4 at the plate against Potterville with two singles and a double. St. Thomas, 5-11 at one point during the season, finished with a 15-12 record.
SOFTBALL
CLASS A – Senior Karen Searles tossed a two-hitter in Portage Central’s 10-0 victory over Temperance-Bedford in a Class A Semifinal, then allowed five hits in a thrilling 4-3 victory over Flint Carman to clinch the championship. The Mustangs opened a 3-0 advantage in the bottom of the fifth inning on a two-run single by Kim Barnes. Searles, who finished the year with a perfect 20-0 record, gave up three walks and a pair of hits in the sixth, including a two-run single by Kim Lancaster as Bedford rallied to tie the game. In the bottom of the seventh, an error allowed Karen Frank to reach first base with one out. Sacrificed to second, she scored on Sandy Surch’s third hit of the game. The Final was hosted at Memorial Field in East Detroit.
CLASS B – At Henry Robinson Park in Ionia, Roxanne Abramouski picked up her 31st victory without defeat as Grosse Ile downed South Haven, 5-3, for the Class B title. Grosse Ile opened a 3-0 lead in the first inning as Shawn Perry reached first on an error and scored following a double by Ann Perrault. A single by Allison Smith scored Perrault, while Smith later scored on another error. Patty Silye singled home a pair of runs in the fifth, expanding the lead to 5-0, before South Haven cut the margin to two with three runs in the sixth inning. A semifinalist in 1976, Grosse Ile finished the year with a flawless 33-0 record and 0.75 ERA. Abramouski continued her playing career at Ferris State, where she still ranks among the school’s pitching leaders in various categories.
“I would say it has been a pretty good year for girls athletics at South Haven,” said coach John Yelding. Earlier in the year, the Rams also finished Class B runner-up in volleyball.
CLASS C – DeWitt’s Cindy White fired a four-hitter, then went 4 for 4 at the plate to lead coach Debbie Boyd’s Panthers to a 12-5 thumping of Center Line St. Clement in the Class C championship played at Ella Sharpe Park in Jackson. White drove in five runs in the contest, notching a triple, a double and a pair of singles as DeWitt picked up its first MHSAA championship in any sport. St. Clement took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but the Panthers exploded for five runs in the third, two in the fifth and five more in the sixth for a 12-1 lead entering the seventh. DeWitt downed Niles Brandywine, 7-1, earlier in the day to advance to the title game. The championship was especially sweet for Coach Boyd, who had announced prior to the tournament that she would step down after five years at the helm.
CLASS D – Allendale senior Ruth Crowe tossed a pair of two-hitters as the Falcons downed Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes, 10-0, in the morning’s Semifinal, then defeated Custer Mason County Eastern, 8-0, at Fink Field in Fowler. Allendale, top-ranked in Class D, scored early and often, tallying six runs in the first inning as Mason County Eastern allowed 11 hits and five unearned runs on the day. Deb McBurnett doubled to right-center in the second inning and scored on a Weez Stelland single for a 1-0 lead. Three errors, a walk and a bunt single by Crowe pushed the margin to four in the third inning. Another run on errors came in the fifth, and with two out in the sixth inning, five consecutive singles combined with errors allowed three more runs to score. Allendale ended the year with a 22-2 record, while Mason County Eastern wrapped up the season at 19-3.
Ron Pesch has taken an active role in researching the history of MHSAA events since 1985 and began writing for MHSAA Finals programs in 1986, adding additional features and "flashbacks" in 1992. He inherited the title of MHSAA historian from the late Dick Kishpaugh following the 1993-94 school year, and resides in Muskegon. Contact him at [email protected] with ideas for historical articles.
PHOTOS: (Top) The Lansing State Journal on June 19, 1977, touted Grand Ledge’s first MHSAA baseball championship. (Middle) The DeWitt softball team won its first MHSAA title in any sport that spring. (Top photo courtesy of the Lansing State Journal, bottom photo from MHSAA archives.)