Ingram Joins All-Time Strikeout Leaders in Pacing Northwest's Record Run
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 4, 2023
Jackson Northwest’s Nevaeh Ingram capped her magnificent high school softball career last spring among single-season and career strikeout leaders.
The 2022 grad totaled 415 strikeouts in her final campaign and 1,011 over three seasons (with 2020 canceled due to COVID-19). She also made the single-season shutouts list with 26 last season, and is continuing her career at Grand Valley State.
Northwest teammate Campbell Kloack, a junior this school year, was added for 18 doubles last season. Jackson Northwest finished 39-4 in 2022, making the team record list for wins, and the Mounties also made the team lists for 449 hits, 88 doubles, 32 home runs, 327 RBI, a .401 team average, 26 shutouts and 458 strikeouts.
See below for more recent additions to the MHSAA softball record book:
Softball
Laingsburg’s Hailey Bila set two MHSAA records and tied one more with one big inning May 18, 2022. She hit two grand slams during the second inning of a win over Webberville, becoming the first with two in an inning while setting a record as well with eight RBI in one inning. She also tied the record for homers in one inning, and finished with nine RBI total for the game – seventh on that list. She’s continuing her career at Michigan State.
Hemlock’s Averi Hall earned her first record book entry last June 1 when she drove in seven runs against Carrollton. She’s a senior this school year.
Lawton’s Ella Richter reached the record book for the first times last spring, hitting .640 for the season and with 12 of her 48 hits being triples to also make that stat list. She’s a junior this school year.
A pair of Warren Fitzgerald hitters joined the RBI single-game list last season, Clarice Chapaton with seven against Eastpointe on May 4 and Cheyenne Panek with eight against Hazel Park on June 3. Both are seniors this school year.
A pair of Zeeland East hitting performances from the last two seasons were added. Now-senior Katie Carlson joined the hitting streak list with hits in 30 straight games from May 8, 2021 into May 10, 2022. Then-senior teammate Ali Holman made three home run lists with her power-packed performance on April 20, 2021, against Grand Rapids Union – for three home runs in one game, two in one inning and three in three consecutive at bats. Holman plays at Lansing Community College, and Carlson has signed with Aquinas College.
Hamilton earned six record book listings for offensive success during the 2022 season, with 410 hits, 85 doubles, 30 triples, 33 home runs, 279 RBI and a .411 team batting average over 36 games. Now-senior Madison Jamrog also made the records lists with 11 home runs, and then-senior Tiernan Nykamp did as well with six RBI in a May 21 game against Shepherd. Jamrog has signed with Akron.
Rachel Cairo had a memorable junior season for Southfield Christian last spring, making the record book in three categories and ranking among the top listings in two. Her .737 average over 23 games ranks third all-time, and her 23 doubles are tied for 20th. She also was added for 10 home runs, and teammate Sophia Paryaski was added for 11 as a freshman. Cairo has signed with Central Michigan.
Bad Axe’s Haley Newland previously had reached the record book with 19 doubles as a junior in 2021. She added one more entry as she finished her career last spring, for 40 career doubles over three seasons and despite the 2020 season being canceled.
Leslie’s Jalen Fossitt moved onto the career doubles list in 2022 after just two seasons with 33 over her first 72 games. Teammate Ava Bradford also was added to the records for 10 home runs for the season including two in consecutive at bats last April 19 against Michigan Center, and eight RBI in that game as well. Leslie also was added to the team RBI list with 253 over 34 games. Fossitt and Bradford both are juniors this season.
PHOTO Jackson Northwest’s Nevaeh Ingram winds up during her team’s record-setting 2022 season. (Photo courtesy of the Jackson Northwest softball program.)
Just 1 Hit - Plus Brilliant Pitching - Earns Evart's 1st Finals Title in Any Sport
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
June 15, 2024
EAST LANSING – Evart flexed its muscles during Friday’s Semifinals, smacking three over-the-fence home runs.
In Saturday’s Division 3 Final, the Wildcats managed only one single the entire game – which turned out to be just enough to bring home the first team state championship in school history in any sport.
Sophomore ace Kyrah Gray threw a shutout, and her sophomore classmate Mattisen Tiedt delivered her team’s only hit in the bottom of the sixth inning – a run-scoring shot to right field to bring home Allyson Theunick – lifting Evart to a 1-0 victory over hard-luck Ottawa Lake Whiteford at Secchia Stadium.
“You could tell it was going to come down to one hit, and I still can’t believe that it was me,” said Tiedt, a first baseman who bats fourth in the lineup.
The Bobcats never gave up, using singles from Kaydence Sheldon and Koralynn Billau to put runners on second and third base with just one out in the top of the seventh inning. But Gray showed her grit, digging deep and striking out the next two batters to preserve the win.
Gray threw a five-hitter with 12 strikeouts in a classic pitchers’ duel against Whiteford senior Unity Nelson, who surrendered just the one hit and struck out eight.
“We won ugly,” said first-year Wildcats coach Shaun Gray, a 1998 Evart graduate and Kyrah’s father. “We have won ugly at times this year and, at other times, we showed off our bats. We’ll take it however we can get it.”
The win atoned for a heartbreaking Finals loss two years ago for Evart, which fell to Millington, 3-2, in eight innings.
This year’s game appeared headed for extra innings as both Gray and Nelson refused to give an inch.
Evart (37-4) finally got something going in the sixth inning when Theunick got hit by a pitch and stole second. That runner in scoring position brought the Evart fans, led by a loud and enthusiastic student section, to their feet.
After the next batter, slugger Katelyn Gostlin, fouled off several pitches before finally popping out to the shortstop, Coach Gray knew a breakthrough was near.
“Unity is such a great pitcher, but we were starting to get our timing down on her,” said Gray, who is assisted by Kevin Brigham. “I called a timeout and told Matty (Tiedt) that there was no one I would rather have batting right then than her. Then she got in there and came through.”
Whiteford (30-6-1) has lost in Finals three consecutive years, including now nearly identical 1-0 losses the past two.
In both of those games, Nelson dominated in the circle, only to see the opposition – Standish-Sterling last year and Evart this year – come through with one timely hit.
“Unity is one of the most inspirational players ever at Whiteford,” said fifth-year Bobcats coach Matt VanBrandt. “She keeps us in every game and, most of the time, we can do enough to win. Just not today.
“But we played six games in Secchia Stadium in the last three years, which is pretty impressive.”
Sheldon and Billau both had two hits for Whiteford.
Nelson, who will continue her pitching career at North Dakota, finished her senior season with a 19-3 record and 287 strikeouts.
Part of the reason Whiteford was not able to break this time through was the clutch pitching of Gray with runners on base. The sophomore came of age on the state’s biggest softball stage, also striking out the final two batters during the second inning after Whiteford put two runners on, just like her finish to the seventh.
She smiled when told that gave her dad a special Father’s Day gift one day early.
“My whole focus this weekend was just to pitch my game and not get overwhelmed by all of this,” Gray said, pointing around MSU’s sprawling Old College Field, where baseball, softball and soccer championship games are played.
“We knew it would be a dogfight, and we had to keep fighting to get one. We finally got it.”
The win made a prophet out of Shaun Gray, who completed his first year as Evart’s varsity coach but knows all of the girls extremely well after coaching them for years in recreation and travel ball, starting in elementary school.
“I got laughed at when I said that Evart could compete for the state title and that Evart could have all-state players,” said Gray about his hometown of about 1,700 people, just moments after turning that championship vision into a reality.
“No one is laughing now.”
PHOTOS (Top) Evart players celebrate their first Finals championship in any sport Saturday at Secchia Stadium. (Middle) The Wildcats’ Keira Elder (20) slides under a Whiteford tag. (Below) The Bobcats’ Unity Nelson unwinds as she steps toward the plate.