D1 Semis: Pitchers Hit Big for Finalists
June 12, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Portage Central senior Gina Verduczo was maybe a tad bummed as she recalled in detail two walks she gave up Thursday morning. After all, she’d walked at most 10 batters this entire season.
But the Mustangs’ ace also was a little surprised to find out some of her personal highlights in what might be the most memorable game of her high school career – until Portage Central plays again in Saturday’s MHSAA Division 1 Final.
Verduczo threw a no-hitter and drove in the game’s only run in the sixth inning as Portage Central advanced to its first championship game since 1977 with a 1-0 victory over Utica Ford.
She’d glanced at the Secchia Stadium scoreboard a few times. But apparently she missed the “0” in Ford’s hits column indicating her near-perfect performance from the pitching circle.
“My dad was a baseball player; he was a pitcher, and he taught me to focus on the job and hand and not look at what you’ve done,” Verduczo said. “You still have six more outs to go, three more outs to go. Obviously, down to the end, she could’ve gotten a hit. I still had a job to do.”
Portage Central (42-3), ranked No. 3, will try to finish that job against No. 4 Bay City Western in the championship game at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
Verduczo finished the Semifinal with 11 strikeouts and allowed only those two runners who reached on bases on balls. She closed the game by striking out the side in the bottom of the seventh inning.
As Mustangs coach Tom Hamilton pointed out, Verduczo also knows the disappointment of falling in such a tight game. Portage Central was top-ranked in Division 1 heading into last season’s tournament, but lost to eventual MHSAA champion Mattawan on a walk-off home run in the District Final.
“If there’s a person we’ve got on this team (that) we want on that mound, she’s got that bulldog mentality,” Hamilton said. “This is her moment to shine.
“She’s been in games like that where she’s been on the other end. So it’s nice to see her be on this end of it.”
Portage Central senior outfielder Lea Foerster singled with one out in the sixth inning, and after moving to second on senior Taylor Snyder’s sacrifice came home on Verduczo’s single to right field.
Verduczo had a pair of singles, the only batter in the game with multiple hits.
“We’re excited for the last seven innings,” Verduczo said, referring to Saturday’s Final. “This was one of our goals, and we’re happy to be part of it.”
Utica Ford freshman Nikki Sorgi also was impressive in the circle, allowing only six hits and walking one batter in her team’s first Semifinal appearance. Ford finished 30-9. Click for a full box score.
Bay City Western 2, Romeo 1
Bay City Western (40-3) returned nearly the same lineup that carried the Warriors last season to their first MHSAA championship game in team history. And the lessons learned during that run surely paid off in Thursday’s second Semifinal.
Western fell behind 1-0 in the fourth inning when Romeo sophomore shortstop Morgan Gardner drilled a Hannah Leppek pitch over the left-field fence – the only home run Leppek has given up this season.
“I don’t like that feeling, obviously, and I wasn’t used to it,” said Leppek, an all-stater last season. “I had to teach myself really quickly how to get over it.”
Still, with Romeo pitcher Taylor Weaver also dominating, it began to look like the Bulldogs would be advancing to their first-ever MHSAA Final instead of Western returning.
But Leppek did bounce back quickly. She doubled in the tying run and scored the go-ahead in the sixth inning, and allowed only three hits the rest of the game.
Leppek ended with two hits in three at bats, and struck out six batters while walking only one.
“I learned (in last year’s Final) how to handle my emotions and the stress and the crowd, and everything like that,” Leppek said. “(And) my hits definitely built me back up.”
Sophomore second baseman Kelsie Popp – whose walk-off homer Tuesday pushed the Warriors past Hudsonville 4-2 and into the Semifinals – drove in Leppek with a double.
“She’s starting to learn how to be a clutch hitter, isn’t she,” Western coach Rick Garlinghouse said of Popp. “She comes through. She protects (Meredith) Rousse, (Kaylynn) Carpenter and Leppek in our batting order, and they can’t pitch around those three with her batting fourth. We’re a pretty hard team to beat that way.”
Weaver allowed only four hits, striking out six without allowing a walk. Romeo, ranked No. 2, finished 31-8. Click for a full box score.
PHOTOS: (Top) Portage Central pitcher Kim Verduczo fires a pitch during her Division 1 Semifinal no-hitter. (Middle) Bay City Western pitcher Hannah Leppek unloads a pitch in the Warriors’ Semifinal victory.
Grandville, Dakota Follow Veterans' Leads
June 15, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – A powder puff football game was not going to keep the Grandville softball team from making history this season.
Ellie Muilenburg made sure of that. The Bulldogs had big plans, but needed her to keep them.
Sporting a white head band, maroon hair bow and black plastic brace on her left knee, Muilenburg took the pitcher’s circle for Grandville’s first MHSAA Semifinal since 1982.
Less than a year after tearing a knee ligament, seven months after surgery to repair it and about 30 games after she returned to the circle, the Bulldogs’ senior ace allowed two hits and struck out nine in a 2-1 win over Clarkston at Secchia Stadium.
On Saturday, Grandville will play for its first MHSAA softball title.
“After my ACL injury, I thought it was going to be a really tough battle coming back, and it was. But I’ve come back stronger than I’ve played my whole career,” Muilenburg said.
“It was mentally, emotionally, physically draining. But I knew I could do it for my team. We’ve been saying since day one this was the state championship team. We knew we could make it.”
The Bulldogs (32-7), an honorable mention in the final regular-season poll, will face top-ranked Macomb Dakota (35-2) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
Muilenburg also helped pitch Grandville to league and District titles last season and is a four-year varsity player. But she suffered a knee injury during a powder puff football game in the fall and had surgery just five months before her softball team’s first games of this spring.
“There were times when she’d go, ‘I’ll be back,’ and I’d go, we’ll see,” Grandville coach Troy Ungrey said. “Ten games in she said, ‘I’m testing it out next week.’ When she said she was ready to go, of course I said, ‘Yes!’”
Muilenburg did indeed return for the team’s 11th game, a 14-3 win over Holland West Ottawa where Ungrey noticed “she had a smile on her face like the first game she threw for us” freshman year.
With Thursday’s win, Muilenberg moved to 17-1 since her return. But a young Clarkston team nearly put Grandville’s good times to an end.
With only one senior on the roster, the Wolves (32-10) – also a rankings honorable mention – matched zeroes with the Bulldogs through five innings. Grandville scored its runs in the top of the sixth, both on errors. Clarkston came back in the bottom of the inning and loaded the bases, scoring on freshman Sierra Kersten’s sacrifice fly with two outs – but Muilenburg came back to get a swinging strikeout to end the rally. She also got the final out on strikes before being engulfed by her teammates.
“As a pitcher, it’s really a mental game. And so mentally, I just have to think I’m better than you – I’m going to get this; this is my game,” Muilenburg said. “And so I just turn around and throw how I do.”
She struck out nine and gave up only two hits, while Clarkston sophomore Olivia Warrington didn’t yield an earned run and struck out six while allowing four hits.
Macomb Dakota 6, Mattawan 3
Dakota was in a similar spot as Grandville last season, making a championship game for the first time before falling to Farmington Hills Mercy in the Final.
It’s been tough for the Cougars this spring to not look ahead to mid-June. But putting up four runs in the first inning Thursday provided a deserved reward for their self-discipline leading up to that point.
“All year, it’s been come back here, do work and stay focused,” Dakota junior centerfielder Olivia Patton said. “Each game, we knew that each inning counted and everything matters … (but) we knew that we wanted to come back here all season.”
Patton had one of the hits and scored the second run of that first-inning rally, which included senior first baseman Julia Salisbury driving in one, senior pitcher Kendahl Dunford doubling home two and sophomore catcher Sam DiCicco knocking in the fourth.
For the game, Patton, junior shortstop Corbin Hison and senior leftfielder Kattie Popko all had two hits. Patton’s second was a triple.
Fifth-ranked Mattawan (32-8) did get to Dunford for one run in the first inning and two in the third. But she retired the final 12 batters in order, giving herself and a number of contributors from last season another chance to win the program’s first title.
“The first time we were here was very nerve-wracking, and obviously it still is,” Patton said. “But knowing we can do it, and staying positive, is very helpful.”
Mattawan junior pitcher Emily Koperdak also had two hits and scored twice. Senior third baseman Joanna Bartz drove in two runs.
PHOTOS: (Top) Grandville's Ellie Muilenburg unloads a pitch during Thursday's first Division 1 Semifinal. (Middle) Dakota's Lauren Bobowski rounds third base on the way to scoring one of her team's six runs.