D3 Softball: Clinton Returns to Final
June 15, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
BATTLE CREEK – Tierney Nelson is feeling a little old this weekend at Bailey Park.
It’s all relative, of course, to the fact she’s finishing her Clinton career with a fourth and final trip to the MHSAA Softball Finals.
That first season, 2009, Nelson felt some memorable butterflies. But as she pitched her team into its second straight championship game Friday, those had fled years ago.
Nelson struck out seven and gave up six hits in pitching the top-ranked Redskins to an 8-1 Semifinal win over No. 5 Unionville-Sebewaing, last season’s runner-up in Division 4. She also had a two-run single for the reigning champion, which will face Gladstone in Saturday’s 10 a.m. title game.
“We know what we’re capable of. No offense to anybody; we know we’re the best,” Nelson said. “And we bring that every game..”
Nelson is one of three four-year seniors, along with catcher Abi Clark and shortstop Haley Mercy. Together they played in Semifinals as freshmen and sophomores before helping the Redskins (42-1) to last season’s title.
Mercy had two hits Friday, and sophomore third baseman Kris Forest had two hits and two RBI. Clinton led 8-0 after four innings.
“The girls that have been here four years in a row, and the juniors for three, they knew what to expect,” Clinton coach Al Roberts said. “It’s a matter of coming out and playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played.
“Tierney on the mound, that means an awful lot, obviously. And beyond that, there’s a whole lot of nucleus there. Abi Clark is a tremendous leader, and Haley Mercy is a tremendous leader, with calm and poise. (She’s) just a coach on the field, (and) without question, one of the best I’ve ever coached as far as having instincts for the game.”
Juniors Tessa Dinsmoore and Elexis Pitcher each had two hits for USA (40-5). Click for a full box score.
Gladstone 5, Springport 4
Gladstone advanced to its third MHSAA Final and first since winning the title in 2009 by scoring the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh inning.
Senior Katie Becker drove in pinch runner Alexis St. Cyr, after junior Alison Austin opened the inning with the single. Austin then gave up one hit but nothing more in the bottom of the inning to ice the win for the Braves (30-5-1).
Becker and junior catcher Jordan Kowalski each had two hits for Gladstone, and Austin struck out six while giving up five hits.
Springport (39-3-1), which suffered its first loss since late April, took a 3-2 lead after the first inning before Austin came on in relief. Senior third baseman Kelsi Lauer was 3 for 3 for the Spartans, while junior second baseman Hannah Baum had two hits and sophomore catcher Taylor Heisler drove in two runs. Click for a full box score.
PHOTO: (Top) Clinton senior Abi Clark rounds third on her way to the plate during Friday's Division 3 Semifinal vs. Unionville-Sebewaing. (Middle) Gladstone junior Alison Austin fires a pitch during her team's win over Springport.
Standish-Sterling Claims 1st Softball Title on Senior's Season-Ending Blast
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
June 17, 2023
EAST LANSING – If Saturday’s MHSAA Division 3 Final was a boxing match, Ottawa Lake Whiteford would have won on points.
But it was a softball game, and it was Standish-Sterling senior Macey Fegan who delivered the knockout punch – a double over the left fielder’s head in the bottom of the seventh inning to score classmate Lexi Mielke from first base with the only run in an epic, walk-off, 1-0 victory over shell-shocked Ottawa Lake Whiteford.
“My pitch is a ball up in the zone,” said Fegan, one of three seniors for the Panthers, who went out with the school’s first softball state championship.
“She threw one up in the zone, and I sent it.”
Fegan sent it to the left field wall, allowing Mielke – who led off the inning and reached first base by getting hit by a pitch – to turn on the jets and round the bases as seemingly the entire town of Standish went crazy in the Secchia Stadium bleachers.
“Once I saw it got back to the wall, I just started running as fast as I could,” said Mielke, the team’s leading hitter with a .562 batting average. “Then I rounded third and saw Coach (Rich Sullivan) waving his arms, and I knew I had to get home.”
Mielke made it home, then was quickly mobbed by teammates in front of home plate, a historical moment for unheralded Standish-Sterling, which knocked off – among others – No. 1 Evart (Regionals) and No. 5 Gladstone (Quarterfinals) en route to the championship.
“I knew this was a special team and potentially a historic team,” said Sullivan, who finished up his ninth season. “They are the scrappiest group I’ve ever had. That dugout kept getting louder and louder as the game went on, with more and more energy, even though they were striking us out a lot.”
Certainly, it was Whiteford that had all of the scoring chances over the first six innings – with five hits and seven runners left on base through six, compared to one hit and one left on base for Standish-Sterling.
Whiteford junior ace Unity Nelson, who threw a two-hitter with 11 strikeouts in the Semifinal win over Laingsburg, was mowing down the Panthers (38-7) in the same fashion, with 12 strikeouts through six innings.
But it was a classic pitchers’ duel as Standish-Sterling senior Devri Jennings wasn’t blinking. Jennings allowed five hits (all singles) and two walks in seven innings, but repeatedly pitched her way out of jams.
“We had chances throughout the game,” said fourth-year Whiteford coach Matt VanBrandt, whose daughter, Alyssa, was the team’s senior shortstop. “We didn’t get our bunts down, and that hurt us. We had a lot of baserunners, but we just couldn’t push that run across.”
Whiteford (38-5), which also finished runner-up last year in Division 4, was led by Alyssa VanBrandt with two hits.
Despite getting absolutely nothing going for the first six innings, the Panthers entered the seventh with confidence and the top of the order at the plate.
After Mielke reached base on the uncharacteristic hit-by-pitch from Nelson, Fegan entered the box with a good feeling.
“I had made contact my first two at-bats (a fly out and ground out),” explained Fegan, a 5-foot-10 centerfielder who leads the team with 61 RBIs. “I knew I could make contact, and I wasn’t scared.
“Once I saw it go to the wall and Lexi coming around to score, I couldn’t wait to get in the middle of the dogpile with everyone else.”
Fegan, a Division I basketball commit to the University of Toledo, who is actually leaving for Toledo on Sunday, said she couldn’t have scripted a better ending to her high school sports career.
“It’s going to be replaying in my head tonight, that’s for sure,” said Fegan, a two-time basketball all-stater who finished her career with more than 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
“It was perfect. You don’t want to win 10-0; that’s no fun. Winning 1-0 in a walk-off, now that’s where it’s at.”
PHOTOS (Top) Standish-Sterling’s Macy Fegan (23) stands in for a pitch during Saturday’s Division 3 Final. (Middle) Panthers players pile up after clinching the title. (Below) Devri Jennings begins unwinding toward the plate. (Photos by Olivia Napier/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)