D3 Powers Book Championship Matchup
June 16, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Everyone who follows high school softball in Michigan expected another dominating Meghan Beaubien performance in Friday’s first Division 3 Semifinal.
But few expected a pitchers dual – broken up only by Beaubien the hitter as Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central earned the opportunity to play for a third straight MHSAA championship.
Beaubien allowed just two hits and struck out 15 Shepherd hitters at Secchia Stadium, and also led off the sixth inning with a triple before scoring the game’s lone run as the top-ranked Kestrels escaped the Bluejays and their pitcher Haley Peska 1-0.
Peska, who no-hit No. 4 Millington in Tuesday’s Quarterfinal, allowed only five hits and struck out six in just about matching the state’s most celebrated hurler of the last three seasons.
“We’ve played a lot of really good teams on our way here this year," Beaubien said. "This is a great example of it – Shepherd’s a team that nobody thought would be in the mix at this point, and they just played a great game and almost beat us.
“(But) the experience of being here has helped us mentally and with our confidence.”
Monroe St. Mary (26-3) will next face No. 3 Napoleon in Saturday’s 5:30 p.m. Final.
Maybe not the best news for Michigan State’s softball program – Beaubien will continue her career at University of Michigan – but the St. Mary’s ace has given up four hits total in 33 innings pitched at Secchia over the last three seasons. In fact, Friday’s was the first Semifinal in three seasons that she didn’t throw a no-hitter.
Not that giving up two hits made her any less dominating. That was made plain both in the sound the ball made pounding catcher Kenna Garst’s glove on her many fastballs, but also when she ended the game with a strikeout on a floating change-up that no one in East Lansing was expecting.
She’ll finish her high school career with an ERA well south of a run per game and passed 1,300 career strikeouts a while ago.
“This whole run was like, ‘OK, any game could be your last game.’ I know that,” Beaubien said. “Now I know for sure. Tomorrow is my last game. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet. It’s a little weird. I just want to go out there and make my last game of my career end with another state championship.”
The combination of two superb pitching performances made this one fly by in a mere 77 minutes. Freshman rightfielder Samantha Michael did have two hits in two at bats for St. Mary, with junior shortstop Kelsey Barron doubling in that lone run and junior third baseman Danielle Michael notching the team’s other hit.
Senior centerfielder Ryanne McKenna and junior shortstop Kianna Andrews had the hits for Shepherd (25-19), and of course Peska made the most memorable impact for a Bluejays team playing in its first Semifinal since 1997.
“They’ve got two coaches over there (Bobb Servoss and assistant Terry Lynch) that know a lot about the game … and in this game it’s all about keeping hitters off-balance,” St. Mary coach John Morningstar said. “You’re never letting anyone sit on something, and if all you’ve got is speed in this game it’s going to be a long season. Kids will catch up to that hard ball. Moving it around the way (Peska) does, she’s very effective. She had us chasing a lot of pitches that we wouldn’t normally swing at.”
Napoleon 16, Gladstone 0
Not that more proof was needed on top of a 36-4 record. But Napoleon’s seniors showed again Friday they’re ready for one last matchup with the St. Mary ace.
As freshman, they were part of a team that downed Beaubien and St. Mary in a Regional Final. But she and the Kestrels came back to eliminate the Pirates in a Quarterfinal in 2015, and Napoleon didn’t make it out of the District a year ago.
“We have been looking ahead, and saying we’re going to end up meeting Meghan, we're going to meet her,” Napoleon senior shortstop Paige Kortz said. “And just talking and scouting, hearing scouting reports. Of course they probably have with us (too), but just going ahead and figuring out what their weaknesses are, and we’re going to try to hit them tomorrow.”
They seemed to hit everything Friday, especially during the first inning. Napoleon jumped out to an 8-0 lead and finished the game with 19 hits over five innings.
Senior outfielder Kallie Pittman was 4 for 4 and scored two runs, while senior second baseman Ashton Jordan was 3 for 4 with two doubles, two runs and four RBI. Senior third baseman Haley Rose also was 3 for 4 and scored three runs, while Kortz, senior centerfielder Dylan Wiley, senior catcher Rachel Griffin and junior designated player Caitlin Pace all had two hits.
Senior Sydney Coe, in addition to driving in two runs, allowed only three hits in the circle and struck out six Gladstone batters. Senior centerfielder Alyssa Polley, sophomore third baseman Sydney Herioux and junior rightfielder Kaitlyn Hardwick hit safely for the Braves (34-10).
This was the fourth Napoleon team to make Quarterfinals and the first to make Semifinals, meaning of course that Saturday’s championship game also will be a first.
“Especially having eight seniors,” Kortz said, “we at the beginning of this season were determined to be Lansing bound. And determined to make school history.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Monroe St. Mary’s Samantha Michael rounds a base during Friday’s win over Shepherd. (Middle) Napoleon’s Sydney Coe takes a swing during the second Division 3 Semifinal.
Nelson Aiming for Another Finals Trip to Close Stellar Whiteford Career
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
April 16, 2024
OTTAWA LAKE – It’s easy to figure out what is on Unity Nelson’s mind.
The Ottawa Lake Whiteford softball pitcher is focused on getting the Bobcats back to Michigan State University and in a position to win a Division 3 championship.
“We’re going to get back there,” Nelson nods, while knocking softly on the wooded dugout at Whiteford’s softball field.
Nelson has been one of the most dominating pitchers in the state the past couple of seasons and has the No. 1-ranked Bobcats poised for another strong season. Whiteford has come painfully close the last couple of seasons to bringing home a Finals title but come up short.
In 2021 they lost in the Division 4 Quarterfinals after going 32-5. In 2022, Whiteford won a school-record 40 games before falling in the Division 4 championship game. Last season, a 37-5 season ended with a loss in the Division 3 Final.
Nelson said this year’s Bobcats are a new team with the same championship mindset.
“We are really close,” she said. “That helps us. On and off the field, we are very close. With some of the new faces on the team, I think all the seniors have had to step up a little bit. We want everyone to have fun, and we are trying to help them with the new experience.”
Nelson grew up in nearby Clinton, where her sister Tierney was an all-state pitcher who went on to play a season at Lamar State College in Texas. Unity followed in her sister’s softball footsteps.
“I remember watching my sister play,” Nelson said. “She was a pitcher and I looked up to her. I’ve seen videos of me pitching when I was 4.”
By 7, Nelson was pitching to her dad, Mike, and joined a travel team. As a ninth grader, she enrolled at Whiteford and was an instant hit.
The Bobcats are coached by Matt VanBrandt, previously an all-state baseball player at the school and Whiteford’s baseball coach for several seasons before he gave it up around the time his daughters Anna and Aly were born. His wife Audra assists him, and both daughters played for them. Aly won the Miss Softball Award last year as the top senior position player and is now starting for University of Indiana.
Nelson came into this season 64-6 over her three varsity seasons, with 858 strikeouts in 404 innings. She’s allowed just 26 earned runs in three seasons. Last year in the District, she struck out 22 of the 24 batters she faced over eight perfect innings.
She already holds several Whiteford single-season and career records, but Matt VanBrandt is careful not to overpitch the 5-foot-2 Nelson.
“I don’t plan on pitching her any more this season,” he said. “She’s pitched about 65 or 70 percent of the innings over the last three years, and that’s what she will do this year. She’s always had another pitcher alongside of her, and this year we have Karlei Conard, who is going to play in college and possibly pitch.”
The soft-spoken Nelson has become more vocal this season.
“At first she was a lead-by-example player,” VanBrandt said. “She was doing that as a freshman.
“This year, she’s become more vocal to the underclassmen, but in a positive way. She’s matured in her leadership. She’s grown every single year. It’s been so much fun to watch her grow and interact with her teammates. She’s everything you want in a leader. She pushes everyone to be their best.”
Nelson is devoted to the sport. She pitches to her dad as many as five days a week. She’s grown to understand what she needs to do to stay sharp.
“If I need to work on a certain pitch, I’ll do that,” she said. “I’ll listen to what my body needs. If it hurts, I’m probably not going to pitch. I’ll stretch and ice instead.
“If I don’t feel connected mentally and physically, I try to work and slow things down at home and get back to how I want to feel.”
While Nelson is focused on a state championship, she’s also not in a hurry to speed things up. She wants to enjoy her senior season before she heads off to pitch at North Dakota University.
“I try to just stay in the moment,” she said. “I don’t want to reach too far into the future. It’s about this game, this inning, this pitch. That’s what I want to live by right now. It’s my senior year. I want to hold on to that.”
While Nelson dominates the circle, future Bobcats stars often gather around the dugout to watch. When Whiteford faced Blissfield on Monday in a non-league game, several had a front-row seat, watching and cheering every pitch, every at-bat and occasionally had one of the Whiteford coaches check in to be sure they understood what was happening on the field.
It’s part of keeping the program connected, VanBrandt said.
Nelson and the rest of the varsity Bobcats love seeing the smiles on the faces of the kids watching.
“I hear them cheering when everyone is hitting,” she said. “It’s so cute.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Ottawa Lake Whiteford’s Unity Nelson unwinds toward the plate during a game in the pitching circle. (Middle) Nelson readies to make a play. (Photos by Kristie Conrad.)