Allen Park's Return to Finals Weekend Ends with 1st-Time Celebration
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
June 18, 2022
EAST LANSING – Allen Park senior Madilyn Ramey remembers the walk to the Old College Field awards area last year following a disappointing loss in the Division 1 Softball Final to South Lyon.
Ramey and her teammates took the same path this season. But this time, they enjoyed a much different emotion.
Second-ranked Allen Park won the program’s first Division 1 Final on Saturday after blanking Macomb Dakota 5-0 at Secchia Stadium.
“Last year, that same walk we just had was a different type of feeling,” said Ramey, who had a home run and a pair of outstanding defensive plays in her team’s championship game return.
“Now that we came back here, we rewrote the story and it just feels amazing.”
Ramey, who will play at the University of Michigan, was one of eight starters back from last year.
“That was our main focus, and we really wanted to get here again,” she said. “It was just nice to execute today, and we really fed off each other’s energy. That’s what it has been about these last few games. Our energy has kept us in the game.”
Allen Park coach Michael Kish, whose team finished 38-4-1, said his team was determined to return to the Final and avenge last season’s loss.
“Three hundred and 65 days of motivation,” he said. “Six a.m. workouts, we had 12-hour days and we did everything we could. That was my thing. I know the more you invest, the more it’s going to be worth it.
“We knew we had the talent; that wasn’t the issue. It was more of the confidence and the family aspect.”
In the third inning, Allen Park snared the early momentum.
After a leadoff single by senior Madison Hool and a sacrifice bunt, freshman Kiley Carr tripled over the right fielder’s head to give the Jaguars a 1-0 lead.
Carr would score to make it 2-0 after a Dakota fielding error off the bat of Makalya Sitarski.
A squeeze bunt by Avery Garden sent Sitarski home, and it was 3-0.
“That inning was huge, and it’s momentum,” Kish said. “Before the game we were loose, and we’ve been here before. They had the nerves, and we knew if we got on them early it would be tough for them to come back.”
In the sixth inning, senior Madilyn Ramey slugged a solo home run and the lead expanded to 4-0.
“It felt amazing,” Ramey said. “I hit one last year here. My first at bat I struck out and I just had to reset, and it felt great to get that.”
Kish had high praise for Ramey’s overall play.
“She’s a gamer, she’s a competitor and she plays the game like a 10-year-old girl that just fell in love with the game,” Kish said.
Allen Park tacked on one more in the top of the seventh inning. Another sacrifice bunt from Garden scored Faith Peschke, who led off the inning with a walk.
Third-ranked Dakota (32-5), which won the Division 1 title in 2017, outhit the Jaguars 5-4, but couldn’t get any timely ones off Allen Park senior pitcher Morgan Sizemore and a stellar defense.
“That’s a really good team over there,” Cougars coach Dan Vitale said. “They are well coached and their shortstop … we know why she’s committed to Michigan. She made some great plays against us and stole some hits from us.
“We weren’t expected to get this far, and we did, so we’re really proud of our kids. We plan on being here next year.”
PHOTOS (Top) Madilyn Ramey’s teammates welcome her at the plate after a sixth-inning home run Saturday at Secchia Stadium. (Middle) An Allen Park runner gets back to third base as Dakota’s Gracie Maloney takes a throw.
She's Back: South Lyon Ace Bradshaw Returns for Another Title Pursuit
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
April 11, 2024
SOUTH LYON — Two words likely won’t sit well with a lot of Division 1 softball teams around the state this year.
She’s back.
Or to play on the words of former Texas Longhorns quarterback Sam Ehlinger after a Sugar Bowl win in 2019, and others who before and since have added dramatics to the phrase: “She’s baaaaaaaaaaaack.”
“She” is South Lyon senior pitcher Ava Bradshaw. And if anyone who follows high school softball in the state happened to forget that name, let’s do a little refresher.
Back in 2021, Bradshaw burst onto the scene in her first year of high school and played like a freshman …. in college.
Bradshaw was a dominant two-way force both pitching and hitting, so much so that behind her, South Lyon won its first MHSAA Finals title, in Division 1.
In the championship game against Allen Park, Bradshaw threw a three-hit shutout, striking out nine and walking one in a 5-0 South Lyon victory. She also had two RBI.
“I didn’t realize how crazy what we did was,” Bradshaw said. “We really did make that run.”
Bradshaw was even better as a sophomore and seemed destined to lead South Lyon to a repeat.
However, a first inning against Mattawan during which everything that could go wrong seemingly did started a 3-1 Quarterfinal loss that stunningly ended those 2022 aspirations.
But hey, no problem. Bradshaw had two more years to win another championship, right?
Then came the summer prior to her junior year, when Bradshaw suffered a torn ACL during her travel ball season. She was hoping to come back at some point last year as a junior, but understandably didn’t want to push anything too hard, especially since by that point she had committed to play in college for Duke.
This year, it would have been understandable if Bradshaw would have just wanted to sit out her senior year, enjoy the countdown to graduation and simply gear up for the next chapter.
But Bradshaw was having none of that.
“In high school ball, every day I’m practicing and I’m playing with my friends, playing for my town and for my school,” she said. “That’s an honor, and I have so much fun. I couldn’t imagine not playing my senior year. That would be so sad. When I look back on my high school experience, some of the biggest memories I have come from softball. I couldn’t imagine not finishing what I started.”
So Bradshaw is indeed back and not only fully healthy, but stronger and hungrier than she ever has been during her high school career.
Bradshaw said going through rehabilitation for her injury last year has made her better physically.
“I was forced to do certain movements and exercises that I never would have done had I not been forced to go to (physical therapy),” she said. “I became a more well-rounded athlete. I improved flexibility and mobility.”
In her first game this season, Bradshaw struck 12 of the 15 batters she faced and went 4-for-4 at the plate.
“We just plugged her right in,” South Lyon head coach Dave Langlois said.
Not having Bradshaw last year actually could end up making South Lyon even better this year.
“I think we were the only ones to score a run on the state champs, Hartland, in our Regional,” Langlois said. “We were one hit away with a young, inexperienced team for the most part. Those kids got to get experience in crucial times (without Bradshaw) when they may not have gotten (it).”
South Lyon probably still would’ve been formidable if Bradshaw decided not to play this year. But adding her back to a talented roster of underclassmen who are a year older and better?
It’s no wonder why “she’s back” might be the most terrifying two words for softball teams not named South Lyon this spring.
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties
PHOTOS (Top) South Lyon’s Ava Bradshaw makes her move toward the plate during a game against Flat Rock this spring. (Middle) Bradshaw, middle, celebrates with teammates after they won the 2021 Division 1 championship at Secchia Stadium. (Top photo by Conner Lipke; middle photo by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)