Evart Overcomes Early Deficit, Millington Comes Back Late to Set Up D3 Finale
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
June 17, 2022
EAST LANSING – Its hopes of playing for another state championship were dwindling as the Millington softball team was down to its last strike in Friday morning’s first Division 3 Semifinal.
However, two big swings changed the Cardinals’ fate and paved the way to an improbable finish.
Top-ranked Millington rallied with three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull out a dramatic 4-3 win over Algonac at Secchia Stadium.
Senior Leah Coleman’s two-out double scored Ashley Ziel for the game-winning run to stun the Muskrats.
“I knew we could come through,” Coleman said. “We’re a family, we play for each other and I knew when Ashley got on base that I could score her in that position.”
Ziel, a senior pitcher who struck out eight, tied the game with two outs and with her team trailing 3-1. She drilled a 0-2 pitch to the wall to score Shannon Ziel and Emma Dickie.
“We always train to be in these situations, and you never know when you are going to be in it,” Ziel said. “I just thought that I had to get on base, I have to win this for my team.
“I saw that pitch coming and I just took a swing at it, and I saw it go to the fence and I thought, we’re tied. I knew Leah was going to pull through, and I knew right when we scored that we were going to win that game.”
Millington (35-3) will face Evart in Saturday’s 3 p.m. Division 3 Final.
The Wildcats defeated Grandville Calvin Christian 6-1 in the other Semifinal and will seek their first Finals title.
Millington won Division 3 in 2019 and was runner-up in 2018.
Algonac (33-4) took the early lead when junior slugger Ella Stephenson homered to left center in the top of the first inning. It was her 17th of the season.
The Muskrats increased their lead in the top of the sixth. Sierra Vosler opened the inning with a triple and then scored on Brianna Thomason’s infield single to make it 2-0.
Millington’s Trinity Fessler delivered a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the inning to trim the Algonac lead in half.
Stephenson, who went 3-for-4, singled in the seventh inning, went to second base on a passed ball and then scored when Jaycee Reams ripped a two-out single up the middle to make it 3-1.
Millington coach Greg Hudie said the tight-knit bond of his team was a factor in the come-from-behind win.
“I think it has a lot to do with how close they are as a family,” he said. “They train hard together all year long, and I think that’s what really put it together. Not giving up on each other even though we were down and our backs were against the wall.
“Most teams would probably be starting the bus, but I thought they did a great job and you couldn’t ask for a better finish.”
Algonac pitcher Kenna Bommarito, a sophomore, struck out 10 and held down a potent offense until the final inning.
The fourth-ranked Muskrats outhit Millington 9-8, but left several runners on base and were unable to get the final out to secure their first trip to the Finals.
“We can’t seem to get the big one,” Algonac coach Len Perkins said. “We had them right where we wanted them, but they hit the ball and made the difference.
“They found holes at the right time, and that’s softball. You have to come up with the big play, and they got the big hits. We had our chances, but didn’t get hits in those situations. They did, and you have to give them credit.”
Evart 6, Grandville Calvin Christian 1
One big inning helped propel Evart to its first Finals appearance.
The unranked Wildcats (32-8-1) overcame an early deficit to score five runs in the second inning.
Evart banged out eight hits, including six in a row, in the inning and took advantage of two Calvin Christian errors to gain control.
“It was probably the best inning we’ve had the whole season,” sophomore catcher Ally Theunick said. “It was awesome. We were all energized, and we were getting hits all over. It didn’t stop.”
Evart coach Amanda Brown said her team has had previous stints of timely hitting. Four of the five runs came with two outs.
“We found the fire, and it worked out beautifully,” she said. “We’ve had two other games like that where we had two outs and we scored six or seven runs like that, and it's just fun. No one wants to be the last out.
“The hitting is definitely contagious with any of these girls, and once something gets going they just run with it and they feed off it. Our dugout was amazing, and they did a great job.”
Evart tacked on another run in the fourth inning. Kylynn Thompson smacked a double to score Theunick.
The Wildcats’ defense shined once again and allowed only one run for the seventh straight postseason game.
“Our defense has been phenomenal,” Brown said. “They work their tails off, and we do so many fundamentals. We tell them all the time that fundamentals will win or lose games. Make the play when it’s presented, and make the best of it.”
Calvin Christian went ahead 1-0 in the first inning when Emili Goodheart singled home Anna Voet. It was the only run the Squires would muster against junior pitcher Addysen Gray, who struck out eight and walked one.
“It feels great to know we are playing for a state championship, and to have our whole school here feels so good,” said Gray, who also went 3-for-4 at the plate.
The Wildcats finished with 12 hits as Skyler Baumgardner, Brooklyn Decker and Thompson had two hits each. The Squires, who finished 34-4, had only four hits and were plagued by five errors.
PHOTOS (Top) Millington players and fans celebrate during Friday’s first Division 3 Semifinal at Secchia Stadium. (Middle) Evart’s Katelyn Gostlin enjoys the moment on the way to first base during her team’s Semifinal win.
Comeback Coloma Claims 1st Softball Title
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
June 16, 2018
EAST LANSING – Wendy Goodline hadn’t given up hope Saturday with her Coloma softball team trailing by four runs after five innings.
But she had started to reflect on how good her team’s season had been, win or lose.
After her Comets rallied for six runs over the final two innings to defeat Millington 7-6 and claim the school’s first-ever MHSAA Division 3 softball title, however, those thoughts went out the window.
“I’ll be honest, I was in the dugout thinking, ‘Win or lose, I’m proud of these girls, they played well, they hit the ball, they didn’t have any errors, they earned it,’” said Goodline, who is in her 19th season as Coloma coach. “Then we came back, and I forgot everything I said in the dugout.
"I’ve gotten a lot of Facebook things from former players, and it’s all because of them. These kids have seen those other teams compete and work hard and do what they have to do to be good. Softball doesn’t just begin in March in Coloma, and the players before them are what made this happen. I can’t emphasize that enough.”
The game featured the top two ranked teams in Division 3, and it showed, as they combined to both come up with huge hits, while also featuring spectacular pitching performances for stretches.
“I thought Coloma was a very good team,” Millington coach Greg Hudie said. “I felt like we were better, but we didn’t capitalize like we should have, and it bit us.”
Millington junior pitcher Gabbie Sherman put in a solid performance, striking out four batters and allowing just four earned runs. During one stretch from the end of the first inning through the fifth, she retired 14 straight Coloma hitters.
Coloma, meanwhile, used both of its pitchers, as Goodline started Jaidyn Hutsell, brought in Skylar Crisenberry to spell her in the fourth inning, and went back to Hutsell to close the game out in the seventh.
“We both bring different tools to the table, and we both rely on each other,” Crisenberry said. “I have so much confidence in her, and I think that’s how we switch in and out all the time, just having confidence in her. I would never be upset. I just wanted to win, and I knew Jaidyn had the tools to come in again and finish it off.”
Hutsell entered the seventh inning with a one-run lead and a runner on first base, but struck out the first two batters she faced. After a two-out single from Darrien Roberts, the Comets (38-3) intentionally walked Leah Denome, who had already tied a championship game record with four hits. The strategy worked, as Hutsell was able to force a groundout to shortstop Megan Koeningshof to end the game.
“I was very excited going back in,” said Hutsell, who had a pair of doubles at the plate. “Skylar did a great job keeping everything under control and not having any runners score, and I just came in and was confident.”
Crisenberry had pitched out of a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the fifth inning to keep the Comets in the game and set up the final rally. After loading the bases, she followed up a strikeout with a popout and flyout to keep her team within four runs.
In the sixth, Coloma was able to make some contact against Sherman and capitalized. Hannah Mathis scored on an error, Hutsell smashed a double to centerfield to drive in Kayla Yore, and Morgan Taylor scored on a sacrifice fly from Mya Potter to pull the Comets to within one of the lead.
Sydney Bishop’s RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring Denome, gave Millington (39-3) an insurance run heading into the final frame.
It wasn’t enough, however, as the Comets strung together three straight hits to start the seventh, and pulled to within one again when Megan Neubecker scored after a ball was bobbled in left field. Yore drove in the tying run with a sacrifice fly, and Wagner drove in the go-ahead run with a double to center.
“Megan Neubecker was the leadoff hitter, and I told one of my assistants, ‘You talk to her,’” Goodline said. “She’s a sophomore, she was nervous, she hasn’t been hitting real well – she hit well early in the season, then kind of hit a lull here – so I said, ‘You’ve got her, you talk to her.’ That hit was huge. It started it all.”
Hutsell had started the scoring in the game, driving in Koeningshof with a double in the first inning. Millington tied the game at 1 in the bottom of the third inning, when Roberts, who had tripled in the previous at-bat, scored on an infield single by Denome.
In the fourth, the Cardinals used a two-out rally to take control of the game, as an RBI single by Roberts was followed by a two-run triple by Denome. Her triple was the third of the game for Millington, an all-division championship game record.
That forced the first pitching change for the Comets, but the Cardinals managed another run as Denome scored on a wild pitch to make the score 5-1.
Hutsell finished the game with six strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings, while Crisenberry struck out two in 2 1/3.
Denome had three RBI for the Cardinals, while Roberts had three hits and one RBI, and McKenna Slough and Sabrina Gates each had two hits. Gates had one of the Cardinals’ three triples.
Millington, which entered the postseason ranked No. 1, could bring every player back next year, as there was not a senior on the roster.
“We haven’t really talked yet, but I just told them that this is still a huge honor, and to get some pictures with the trophy – I know they probably don’t want to,” Hudie said. “It’s a huge honor even to be runner-up, so I told them to make sure they don’t pass this moment up.”
VIDEO: Coloma scored three times in the top of the seventh inning, capped by Morgan Wagner's two-out double.
PHOTOS: Coloma players hoist their championship trophy during the Division 3 awards presentation Saturday. (Middle) Coloma’s Jaidyn Hutsell turns on a pitch.