Millington Run Unprecedented, Unforgettable
June 27, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
When they were younger, “they weren’t the best,” Millington softball coach Greg Hudie admitted Thursday in recalling the group that became the core of his varsity the last four seasons.
But these Cardinals made themselves into so much more. While all championship teams are memorable, this one will remain unforgettable for what it accomplished this spring.
Millington – after falling just short in finishing Division 3 runner-up a year ago – returned to Michigan State University’s Secchia Stadium two weekends ago and this time left with the school’s first MHSAA championship in any sport.
The MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” for June was one of two title winners during the 2018-19 school year – joining the Ypsilanti Lincoln boys basketball team – to win the first Finals championship in school history.
“Just being the first state championship in our school is pretty remarkable,” Hudie said. “No matter how many we have now, it’s pretty cool that everybody will remember it. If it’s 50 years from now, and we have 10 state championships, this was still the first one. And the group of girls we did it with was very awesome as well, very good all-around – academically, athletically, a really tight family team.”
Millington finished 38-2-1 this spring, capping a four-year run at 150-16-1 with four league, District and Regional titles, three Semifinal appearances and this first championship.
The District title won in 2016 actually was the program’s first, and that year’s postseason run to the Semifinals helped set the tone for a freshman class that would become nearly unstoppable by the end of their careers.
Pitcher Gabbie Sherman, catcher Sydney Bishop, infielders McKenna Slough and Hannah Rabideau and outfielders Elizabeth Bees, Leah Denome and Samantha Ayotte all finished as four-year varsity players. Sherman, Bishop, Slough and Denome started the entire way (Rabideau was slated to do the same but was injured that first season). Current juniors Darrien Roberts and Madi Hahn joined the varsity as freshmen in 2017 when the team’s run ended in the Quarterfinals. Shortstop Sabrina Gates earned a starting job as a freshman in 2018 and then-sophomore Neveah Hendricks moved into the outfield as the team came within a 7-6 championship game loss to Coloma from claiming a first title.
This spring, with all of those players back and freshman Trinity Fessler taking over an outfield spot, Millington blasted through the regular season losing only to eventual Division 1 semifinalist Clarkston and Division 2 semifinalist Eaton Rapids, while defeating back-to-back Division 2 champion Escanaba. The Cardinals outscored their seven postseason opponents by a combined 56-4, closing with an 11-0 shutout of Marine City in the Quarterfinal, 7-1 win over Standish-Sterling in the Semifinal and 8-0 clincher over Schoolcraft in the championship game.
The build-up began long before high school. During elementary, Sherman was the first to start playing higher-level travel ball in the surrounding area. But around the time her class was playing 10-and-under, she and her family decided to play on a team with the other Millington girls – and as the pitcher she was able to carry the load while they were learning the game.
In fact, the team jokingly recalls now how Bishop nearly didn’t make that 10U squad. But Hudie said his catcher has worked harder than anyone he’s coached during a decade leading the program – and by sophomore year she’d earned all-state honorable mention.
This team rewrote the school’s record book, and the home run category is maybe the best example of what these seniors brought to the program. Millington would hit about five home runs a year during Hudie’s first six as coach – then had 44 in 2016, followed by 28, 38 and this spring 48. Bishop broke a decades-old record with 14 homers as a freshman, and Roberts blasted 18 to break the record this spring.
Roberts, Denome, Rabideau, Bishop and Sherman made the Division 3 all-state first team this season. Hahn joined those five on the all-Tri-Valley Conference East first team, with Slough and Gates making the second.
Sherman will continue her career at Kent State, while Denome will play next at Spring Arbor, Rabideau at Mott Community College and Bees at Rochester College. Bishop, who graduated with the GPA over 4.0, had a number of softball scholarship offers and will try to walk on at Oakland University.
“It will be hard to duplicate. Hopefully we can keep it going. … Obviously these girls were paving the way,” Hudie said. “We had a couple of girls before them, had a couple scattered (over more classes), and obviously freshman year they didn’t get to the Semifinal just on their own. But this group kinda showed how to stay together, how to put work in together, and I think that helped the program out most.
“Just showing five or six awesome girls who are willing to put in the time together in the weight room, in the batting cage (what they can accomplish). That really taught our program, our younger girls, and that’s neat.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2018-19
May: Gladstone boys track & field – Read
April: Garden City baseball – Read
March: Holland West Ottawa boys swimming & diving – Read
February: Lowell wrestling – Read
January: Farmington United gymnastics – Read
December: Warren Woods-Tower wrestling – Read
November: Rochester Adams girls swimming & diving – Read
October: Leland boys soccer – Read
September: Pickford football – Read
August: Northville girls golf – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Millington’s players raise their first MHSAA Finals championship trophy in school history June 15 at Secchia Stadium. (Middle) The Cardinals’ Leah Denome rounds first base after one of her four hits in the title game. (Below) Millington poses with its trophy and in front of the Secchia scoreboard after its championship win.
Marathon, Redemption Make Franklin's 1986 Softball Run Eternally Unforgettable
By
Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
May 14, 2026
Tracy Lectka is celebrating a victory.
In Steve Fecht’s image found on the front page of the June 1986 Observer newspaper’s sports section, she is riding on the shoulders of ecstatic Livonia Franklin fans. Lectka’s arms are raised, and teammate Maria Vasseliou grabs at her jersey. The shot radiates the postgame celebration that came with the Patriots’ 1986 MHSAA Class A softball state championship – an honor that had slipped away a year previous.
Just as powerful is a photograph from the Observer’s Dan Dean from the 1985 run to the title game. Within, Lectka’s father Ron embraced his daughter, comforting the pain of what might have been.
“My Dad was a huge part of my life and taught me everything I knew,” recalled Tracy. “He coached girls softball for Redford Thurston for years. … That was the most hits and runs I had given up all year. That picture speaks volumes to say the least.
“The woman next to me was our outfielder Cherie Mascarello’s mom. She was a huge supporter of the team. Never missed a game, like my mom.”
The Spring of 1985
In just his second year of coaching Livonia Franklin, Joe Epstein had built confidence among his players stressing focus and fundamentals. Lectka, a junior, emerged as an outstanding pitcher, and Epstein featured her constantly as she tossed more than 200 innings. Among Franklin’s victories were three over cross-town rival Livonia Stevenson and the state’s top pitcher, all-state senior Lisa Bokovoy. Franklin finished fourth in the Michigan High School Softball Coaches Association (MHSSCA) weekly Class A regular-season rankings.
During the tournament, Lectka tossed three consecutive four-hit shutouts, but, according to Observer staff writer Brad Emons, “was roughed up for 11 hits” in a 5-0 loss to Mount Clemens L’Anse Creuse North in the 1985 state title game. Played at Lansing’s Ranney Park, North’s star pitcher – right-hander Chris Harms (21-5) – twirled her sixth shutout of the tournament. During that Saturday lockdown, she had allowed seven hits but was “tough in pressure situations.” The Patriots had loaded the bases in the second and fifth innings but could not score.
“We just didn’t hit in the clutch,” Epstein told the Observer, “and they made it count when they had people on.”
North, 22-6 on the year, had opened the season among the state’s top-ranked teams. Harms earned second team all-state honors from MHSSCA, while Lectka was an honorable mention all-state selection. She finished the season with a 22-3 mark.
With an impressive 25-4 record, and one of the state’s top pitchers returning the following spring, Epstein vowed the team would be back.
A Shot at Redemption
With Lectka – one of three seniors – and top players Vasseliou, Cherie Mascarello, Rose Obey, Sue Ritz, Patty Wixson and Karen Schoeninger, the team was the MHSSCA’s Class A preseason favorite entering 1986. That quickly changed within the rankings when the Patriots lost their second game, 12-3, to Walled Lake Central, then dropped a double header to Garden City. A year earlier, Franklin had defeated the Cougars three times, including in a 21-inning pitching duel between Lectka and sophomore Shelly Malone, which Franklin won 1–0.
After some experimenting with the lineup, Epstein was able to right the ship. From there, things progressed with relative ease, as his team dropped just two more games against quality opponents, splitting a double header with Westland John Glenn, then dropping one of three games with a solid Plymouth Salem squad, a conference rival. The Patriots finished the regular season fifth in the final Class A rankings and eased their way through the District. They shut out both John Glenn and Belleville in the Regional to earn a trip back to Lansing for the final rounds.
Speaking just prior to their MHSAA Semifinal game with South Lyon, Coach Epstein was asked by the Observer about his squad’s chances.
The Lions, one of nine teams earning honorable mention in the MHSSCA’s rankings, were led by junior ace Andrea Nelson. They had trounced Salem, 19-4, beneath sweltering heat in their District Final. Following that win, Franklin upset fourth-ranked East Kentwood and then downed Lansing Eastern to continue the postseason run.
“I feel confident that if we beat South Lyon, we can go all the way,” said Epstein, “and I don’t go on a limb very often. … I understand there were a bunch of walks and errors (in Salem’s game with the Lions). I’ve seen some good teams have bad days.”
On the opposite side of the Class A bracket stood Waterford Kettering, a scrappy unranked squad Franklin had beat, “in an invitational tournament, 10-5,” and Grosse Pointe South, which, behind the pitching of University of Michigan-bound Lynn Vismara, had shocked both top-ranked Utica Ford and No. 2-ranked Fraser in Regional play.
“(We’re) a better hitting team than last year,” said Epstein, convinced strong pitching from other teams would not deter his crew from their quest. “And I’ve got some other kids who can swing the bat.”
Epstein’s belief would be severely tested.
The Marathon
“The game began innocently enough at 5:30 p.m.,” wrote the Observer’s Chris McCosky about Franklin’s battle with the Lions. “At 8:30 p.m. in the 17th inning, it was still scoreless. Despite the run shortage, the game (had) produced high drama. South Lyon loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the 12th. The Lions put together back-to-back hits in the 13th, but the lead runner was thrown out at third …
“Franklin had its chances, too,” continued McCosky. “The Pats put together three hits in the fifth, but a potential run was tagged out at third. They put runners on first and third in both the fifth and 17th and came away empty.”
Drew Sharp, writing for the Detroit Free Press, covered what happened next.
“… Amid growing darkness at Michigan State, the umpires asked South Lyon coach Jeff Gale and Franklin coach Joe Epstein whether they wanted to continue playing at nearby Ranney Park, which (had) lights or wait until 10 a.m. Saturday.”
Epstein stated he had three players scheduled to take the ACT college entrance exam the next morning and requested the game be moved and continued. Gale wanted to wait. Because the coaches couldn’t come to a solution, the umpires were put on the spot. While the choice wasn’t an easy one, they decided play would resume at MSU in the morning.
Earlier in the day, Kettering sophomore Julie Vachon ripped a long line drive just beyond the reach of the left fielder for a game-winning grand slam, sealing a 4-3 comeback win over Grosse Pointe South.
Title Time
Come daylight, all three test-takers were ready, having skipped their scheduled appointment back home. With two outs in the top of the 20th inning, Vasseliou, the Patriots’ junior shortstop. tripled in a pair of runs to end the deadlock, sealing a 2-0 victory and sending Franklin back to the title game played later in the day at Ranney.
The Lansing State Journal’s Tom Gantert beautifully summarized the Patriots’ weekend in the paper’s Sunday edition. “Livonia Franklin High softball pitcher Tracy Lectka doesn’t ask much from her teammates. Just that they score …”
Kettering’s Vachon allowed two walks, struck out a pair, and gave up just three hits during the championship game. But Vasseliou, again facing two outs, drove in Kris Roman who had led off the first inning with a single. That gave the Patriots a 1-0 lead they would not increase or relinquish.
Lectka notched just a single strikeout, but, defensively, her teammates were nearly perfect. Outside a single error, her infield scooped up everything it faced from the Captains. Only three balls tossed by the senior left the infield during the title game. She finished the day with a no-hitter, extending her streak of scoreless innings allowed to 44. Franklin ended the season with a 31-5 record and the school’s second MHSAA state championship in any sport. Ten years previous, the Patriots had won the 1975 Class A football trophy.
“‘We played awesome. I love it,” a teary-eyed Lectka told the Observer. “This is it.” It was her final game on the diamond. A year earlier, she had accepted a college scholarship to play basketball – not softball – at Wayne State.
Soon after, Sports Illustrated visited the family to snap a photo of Tracy for publication in their weekly sidebar, “Faces in the Crowd.” Over 35 years later, in mid-September 2023, the softball squad, along with that football team, were inducted into Franklin’s inaugural Athletics Hall of Fame.
Epstein, who had passed away in 2012, was also honored individually that evening. He had taught in the Detroit Public Schools from 1957 to 1966 before moving to Franklin. A long-time physical education teacher, he also led Franklin’s softball team to a runner-up finish in 1990. His wife Linda joined three others to cut the honorary ribbon for the Hall.
The induction celebration brought back wonderful memories. But it was noted that a few of the team’s achievements during their runs to the Finals were missing from the MHSAA state record book.
Happily, that has now been corrected.
PHOTOS (Top) The Observer reported on Livonia Franklin’s 1986 Class A championship, including a memorable photo. (2) Ron Lectka, far left, comforts his daughter Tracy after her team’s 1985 title game loss. (3) The cover of the 1986 MHSAA Softball Finals program sets the scene for the weekend to come. (4) The Patriots celebrate. (5) Franklin poses for a team photo after the 1986 win. (Photos gathered by Ron Pesch from Observer archives and Tracy Lectka.)