Trenton, Lakeshore Emerge with 1-Run Semifinal Wins, Advance to Saturday
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
June 16, 2022
EAST LANSING – Trenton and Essexville Garber are not used to making long runs in softball.
In fact, most of the players on both teams weren’t even born the last time their schools reached the Softball Semifinals.
The newcomers put on a show Thursday on the state’s biggest stage, with Trenton holding off Garber, 2-1, in a classic pitcher’s duel at sunny, windswept Secchia Stadium.
“We just told them to believe,” said third-year Trenton coach Rick Tanguay. “Believe it’s going to happen and believe you’re going to put the ball in play. I’ve had a lot of these kids since they were 9 or 10 years old, and I’m proud of them.”
Trenton (34-10), which lost in the Division 2 Final in 2005 and had not been back to the Semifinals before this season, will play perennial power Stevensville Lakeshore in Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. championship game. Lakeshore defeated Escanaba, 2-1, in Thursday’s last Semifinal.
The Trojans had to come from behind to advance, after Garber jumped out to a 1-0 lead during the first inning.
Kortney Kotenko, a junior catcher, belted an RBI double to bring the big crowd from Essexville to its feet. The Dukes previously lost in the Class B Final in 1997, but hadn’t been back to the state’s Final Four until Thursday.
Garber would keep that 1-0 lead until the fifth inning, as junior pitcher Sarah Basket kept the Trojans off-balance.
Trenton finally broke through by manufacturing single runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Pinch-runner Jordyn Emery scored on a fielding error in the fifth, then sophomore shortstop London Williams singled to left in the sixth inning to score Maddie Dobbs.
Those two runs would prove to be just enough as Trenton senior pitcher Aila Johnson turned back Garber’s last-chance, seventh-inning rally.
The Dukes put the pressure on, as Basket singled and then Jacqueline Brinkman was hit by a pitch. After a double steal, Garber had runners on second and third with two outs, before Johnson was able to shut the door with a strikeout.
“I have to be confident out there for my team, but that last inning was rough,” Johnson said with a smile. “I was trying to hide it, but I was nervous out there.”
Johnson may have been battling nerves on the inside, but it didn’t show in her stellar performance. The Siena Heights commit finished with just four strikeouts, but she kept the Dukes guessing for most of the game and allowed just four hits and one walk.
Tanguay said it was a classic performance by the battery of Johnson and her senior catcher, Olivia Hickman, who are two of just four seniors on the Trojans’ 16-player roster.
“Aila doesn’t get a lot of love; she doesn’t get a lot of press,” said Tanguay. “She’s not one of the top 10 (ranked) pitchers in the state, but she comes out and she’s a workhorse and she does it.”
Matching her every pitch along the way was Basket, a junior, who finished with a five-hitter, no walks, one earned run and nine strikeouts.
Garber (35-9) is an even younger team than Trenton, with just three seniors on the 16-player roster. The Dukes relied on their stellar junior class to pull out several come-from-behind victories in Districts and Regionals en route to MSU.
“You know, this is the first time we’ve been this far in 25 years – and 25 is a long time,” said second-year Garber coach Chris Kokaly. “Losing by one run is hard because you think about all of the opportunities we had where we just needed a key hit. We’ve been getting those hits all season and today, it just didn’t happen.”
Stevensville Lakeshore 2, Escanaba 1
Lakeshore advanced to the championship game despite having just two hits in the Semifinal, both of them singles.
The Lancers (39-4) played small ball and took advantage of Escanaba miscues to manufacture single runs in the first inning and the sixth inning, and that proved to be just enough.
“The girls believe in their pitchers and their defense,” said 43rd-year Lakeshore coach Denny Dock, who ranks third in state softball history with 1,055 victories. “If we could get our bats out of the deep freeze, we’d be pretty good.”
Lakeshore’s pitching combination of junior Ava Mullen and sophomore Avery Atwood was outstanding, combining on a three-hitter.
Mullen set the tone by getting the first five outs of the game by strikeout. She kept cruising until the top of the sixth inning, when Escanaba used a walk and a solid single to right field by senior Lizzy Silva to tie the game, 1-1. After McKayla Mott singled, Dock decided to make a pitching change – bringing in Atwood with two runners on and two outs.
To say the decision turned out good is an understatement.
Atwood got the next hitter to pop out to the catcher on her first pitch, then struck out the side in the top of the seventh to get the win.
“I knew that Avery would do great, and she did,” said Mullen, who finished with 10 strikeouts. “I’m super proud of this team. We’ve worked on our attitudes and staying positive, and I really think that was a big reason why we won today.”
Gianna Kerschbaum and Gabby Solloway had the lone hits for Lakeshore, which has scored just five runs over its last three games – all wins – including a 2-1 victory over Wayland in the Regional Final and a 1-0 win over Jackson Northwest in Tuesday’s Quarterfinal.
Dock, also the longtime football coach at Lakeshore, has led Lancers softball to seven Finals championships, the most recent in 2015. Lakeshore finished runner-up in Division 2 in 2019.
Escanaba (30-6), which won Division 2 titles in 2018 and 2019 and made the Semifinals for the fifth time in six seasons, was out of sorts from the start Thursday. Mott relieved the starting pitcher after two walks and a wild pitch and threw most of the game, before freshman Grayson LaMarche relieved her in the fifth inning and took the loss.
“When two great teams play it comes down to a couple of plays, and that’s what happened today,” said second-year Escanaba coach Andy Fields. “Overall, this season was a phenomenal ride.”
PHOTOS (Top) Trenton’s Jordyn Emery scores her team’s first run in the fifth inning Thursday. (Middle) A Lakeshore runner gets across the plate just before the tag by Escanaba’s Carney Salo.
Mendon Ends USA's Title Streak, Starts Own with Commanding 1st Finals Triumph
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 14, 2025
EAST LANSING — Mendon wasn’t going to be denied this time – and in the process, the Hornets denied Michigan’s most record-setting softball program from adding another detail to its dominance over the last half-decade.
Seeking its record sixth-straight Finals championship, Unionville-Sebewaing was dethroned by a talented, motivated and determined Mendon team, which won its first championship with an 11-1 victory in the Division 4 Final at Secchia Stadium.
The game ended with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning after Mendon’s 11th run scored on a throwing error by USA.
In short, Mendon (35-2) did to USA what USA (20-16) has been able to do so often during its stretch of dominance.
The Hornets also avenged one-run defeats to USA in the championship game (5-4) two years ago (5-4) and Semifinals (6-5) last year.
“You just keep working and keep working and you see the kids go through (the losses),” Mendon head coach Steve Butler said. “You come up short one year and then another year. We keep telling them, ‘You got this. You know you have it.’ To see them come through and pull it off and beat a team like that the way we did, it was awesome.”
Mendon started its onslaught by scoring four runs with two outs in the bottom of the first inning.
With the bases loaded, an infield popup by senior Ally Butler eluded two USA infielders and fell to the ground, allowing two runs to score.
Junior Cienna Nightingale then hit a 2-run double to give the Hornets a 4-0 lead.
Mendon got four more runs in the third, first when Nightengale hit another 2-run double just beyond the glove of the left fielder.
“All I was doing was swinging and swinging for my team,” Nightengale said. “I had girls in scoring position, and that’s what I did.”
Seniors Elise Allen and Abby Butler each followed with RBI doubles to put Mendon ahead 8-0.
USA scored its only run on an RBI single by junior Macy Prime in the fifth inning, but Mendon got that run back in the bottom of the inning on an error.
Mendon put runners on second and third base with one out in the sixth inning, finishing the game off on an RBI sacrifice fly by junior Taya Bingaman and throwing error by USA.
Steve Butler said it was a moment his team had counted down toward since leaving East Lansing last year.
“This group, they are motivated,” Butler said. “They know what they want. They’re goal-oriented, and they’ve had their eyes on this since we started.”
For USA, it will try and regroup and start another streak next year. Only four seniors will graduate.
“I think it’s possible the girls started to feel some pressure from the streak we had going,” USA head coach Marc Reinhardt said. “All good streaks, they have to end sometime. I thought Mendon played a heck of a game. We left a few plays out there that we didn’t make that cost us a few runs. We’ve been dealing with that on and off during the season.”
PHOTOS (Top) Mendon’s Ally Butler (27) high-fives her coach during Saturday’s Division 3 championship win over Unionville-Sebewaing. (Middle) The Hornets’ Gracie Schultz extends to snag a line drive in left field.