Escanaba Delivers Memorable D2 Encore
June 15, 2019
By Perry A. Farrell
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – Two rarities happened in the first inning of the MHSAA Division 2 softball championship game Saturday at Michigan State’s Secchia Stadium.
The first was Escanaba all-state pitcher Gabi Salo allowed a walk against Stevensville Lakeshore. The second was Salo gave up a run.
Salo entered the championship game with a 25-2 record, 0.24 earned run average and 337 strikeouts and just 21 walks.
If that’s not enough, she had given up only six earned runs all year.
She gave up three runs – two earned – in the championship game, but contained the Lancers enough to secure a 7-3 victory that clinched the Eskymos’ second straight Division 2 title.
“I thought I had my best stuff today,’’ said the junior pitcher. “I thought I went out strong.
“This means so much. Our school went without a state title from 1981 until last year. For us to bring home another one, I don’t have words. This one feels even better than last year.’’
The Lancers surprisingly struck early when Salo surrendered a two-out walk and Meghan Younger drove her home on a double just out of the reach of the centerfielder. It was just the seventh earned run Salo had given up this season.
She finished Saturday with 11 strikeouts while allowing seven hits. Escanaba finished the spring 34-3, while Lakeshore ended 33-11.
Salo helped her own cause in the second inning with a game-tying sacrifice fly, scoring Lexi Chaillier, who had walked, stolen second base and was sacrificed to third.
Escanaba took advantage of two walks and a bounce out to first by Chaillier to take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning.
Younger was able to solve Salo with two singles and a double, but her teammates mostly were stifled until the sixth.
Meanwhile, Escanaba loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth inning with one out on a walk and singles by Heather Bergstrom and Carsyn Segorski. Chaillier popped out, but Nicole Kamin and the Eskymos took advantage of a fly ball dropping out of an outfielder’s mitt that allowed three runs to score and gave the reigning champ a 5-1 lead.
A four-run cushion with three innings left was all Salo needed.
Lakeshore put together a threat in the top of the sixth inning on a single by Younger and fielder’s choice and error by Salo.
Shelby Grau singled, but rightfielder Chaillier threw out a Lakeshore runner at home to negate a potential run. However, Anna Chellman came through with a two-run single to left field to make it 5-3. Salo got out of trouble with a strikeout with two runners on.
“Originally, I was going to throw it to first because I’ve gotten a few girls out at first on those kinds of hits,’’ said Chaillier. “I saw the girl running from third, and I knew I had to go home with it.’’
Said winning coach Gary Salo: “(Chaillier) better be on some all-state teams. I’m going to be upset if she isn’t. She does everything for us. That was a great throw.”
Escanaba sealed the win in the bottom of the sixth inning when a Lakeshore wild pitch allowed two runs to score.
“All week we just kept saying we’re three wins away from going to Wienerlicious (restaurant in Mackinaw City) … (then) we’re two wins away,” Gary Salo said. “We’re going to go back home and celebrate there. We haven’t been home all week.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Escanaba's Georgia Lehto connects with a pitch during Saturday's Division 2 Final. (Middle) The Eskymos' Gabi Salo fires toward the plate.
Tradition Continues to Grow as USA Claims Record 9th Softball Finals Title
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
June 17, 2023
EAST LANSING - Unionville-Sebewaing won its record ninth MHSAA Finals championship – and fourth in a row – on Saturday, but this one might have been the most dramatic.
And most unexpected.
“This one is really special because no one thought we would make it again,” said USA junior left fielder Jenna Gremel, who was the star of the game with a three-run home run in the top of the fourth inning to lift the top-ranked Patriots to a 5-4 win over No. 2 Mendon in the Division 4 championship game at Secchia Stadium.
“We didn’t have a dominant pitcher or a lot of seniors, but we were determined to keep (our tradition) going.”
USA drew on years of experience to survive a serious scare in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Patriots led 5-3 entering the bottom half of the inning, with the No. 8 and No. 9 hitters in the Mendon order up next.
But things would soon get interesting, as eight hitter Brielle Bailey led off with a solid single and Abby Butler got hit by a pitch. The bases were loaded with two outs when freshman Mattea Bingaman was hit by another pitch, forcing in a run to make it 5-4 and leaving the bases loaded.
Mendon’s next hitter made contact, but popped it up to pitcher Rylie Betson, who clutched it in her glove to secure perhaps the school’s most improbable championship.
“I don’t know where those hit-by-pitches came from, I don’t know if we’ve had one of those all year,” said USA coach Marc Reinhardt, who has coached travel softball in the USA community for more than 10 years but is in his first year as varsity head coach. “But Rylie is my warrior. She came through under some serious pressure.”
USA won its third title in a row last spring behind the dominant pitching of senior Laci Harris and the bat of fellow senior Macy Reinhardt, the current coach’s daughter.
But finding someone to replace Harris in the circle was a big question, and Betson was converted from a position player to No. 1 pitcher – and came through admirably.
“We didn’t have a kid who throws 60, so we’ve had to support her and play our best behind her,” Marc Reinhardt said.
After limiting the powerful bats of Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart to just one run in Friday’s Semifinal, Betson came back and went seven more innings Saturday, allowing five hits, three walks and four earned runs.
Then the Patriots did just enough with their bats to pull out the win.
Mendon actually made the first big move of the game in the bottom of the third inning, with a two-run triple by senior pitcher Lauren Schabes, who went on to score to give the Hornets a brief 3-1 lead.
USA struck right back in the top of the fourth, highlighted by Gremel’s three-run homer, which barely cleared the outstretched glove of Mendon left fielder Rowan Allen. The play was eerily reminiscent of Friday, when USA catcher Gabriella Crumm’s shot to left field was pulled back from over the fence by Sacred Heart centerfielder Alexis Zeien – a play which has garnered national attention.
“All I was thinking up there is that I wanted to get those runners in,” said Gremel, who had seven home runs coming into Saturday’s game. “I swung my hardest, and I ended up getting myself home, too. I wasn’t expecting a home run, that’s for sure.”
USA added one more run to take a 5-3 lead, which is how it stayed until the dramatics in the bottom of the seventh.
“I thought maybe the lucky leprechaun was going to sprinkle some magic dust out there for us in the last inning, but it didn’t happen,” said Steve Butler, in his sixth year as the co-head coach of Mendon, along with Mike Smith. “We battled them right to the end, and we had a chance to win and we probably should have won. I can’t ask for anything more out of these girls.”
Schabes went five innings for Mendon (35-6) and Allen, a freshman, came in and allowed no hits over the final two innings. Schabes also finished 3-for-3 at the plate.
USA, 33-10, finished with eight hits. Gremel was 2-for-3 with the three-run homer and Olivia Jubar went 2-for-3.
Reinhardt said he took the head coaching job after his youngest daughter graduated last spring because he is determined to keep the USA tradition going. The Patriots have earned nine Finals titles, one more than Stevensville Lakeshore and Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes on the list of those that have won the most in state history.
Reinhardt got all the young players from Unionville and Sebewaing together for the team’s sendoff to the Semifinals on Friday.
“I wanted to do that to put a little bit of fire in their belly to keep this thing going,” he said. “You could hear them whisper to each other: ‘I want to do that someday.’”
PHOTOS (Top) Teammates welcome USA’s Jenna Gremel (13) home during Saturday’s Division 4 Final. (Middle) Olivia Jubar (4) rounds third base. (Below) Rylie Betson makes her move toward the plate for the Patriots. (Photos by Olivia Napier/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)