Millington Run Unprecedented, Unforgettable
June 27, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
When they were younger, “they weren’t the best,” Millington softball coach Greg Hudie admitted Thursday in recalling the group that became the core of his varsity the last four seasons.
But these Cardinals made themselves into so much more. While all championship teams are memorable, this one will remain unforgettable for what it accomplished this spring.
Millington – after falling just short in finishing Division 3 runner-up a year ago – returned to Michigan State University’s Secchia Stadium two weekends ago and this time left with the school’s first MHSAA championship in any sport.
The MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” for June was one of two title winners during the 2018-19 school year – joining the Ypsilanti Lincoln boys basketball team – to win the first Finals championship in school history.
“Just being the first state championship in our school is pretty remarkable,” Hudie said. “No matter how many we have now, it’s pretty cool that everybody will remember it. If it’s 50 years from now, and we have 10 state championships, this was still the first one. And the group of girls we did it with was very awesome as well, very good all-around – academically, athletically, a really tight family team.”
Millington finished 38-2-1 this spring, capping a four-year run at 150-16-1 with four league, District and Regional titles, three Semifinal appearances and this first championship.
The District title won in 2016 actually was the program’s first, and that year’s postseason run to the Semifinals helped set the tone for a freshman class that would become nearly unstoppable by the end of their careers.
Pitcher Gabbie Sherman, catcher Sydney Bishop, infielders McKenna Slough and Hannah Rabideau and outfielders Elizabeth Bees, Leah Denome and Samantha Ayotte all finished as four-year varsity players. Sherman, Bishop, Slough and Denome started the entire way (Rabideau was slated to do the same but was injured that first season). Current juniors Darrien Roberts and Madi Hahn joined the varsity as freshmen in 2017 when the team’s run ended in the Quarterfinals. Shortstop Sabrina Gates earned a starting job as a freshman in 2018 and then-sophomore Neveah Hendricks moved into the outfield as the team came within a 7-6 championship game loss to Coloma from claiming a first title.
This spring, with all of those players back and freshman Trinity Fessler taking over an outfield spot, Millington blasted through the regular season losing only to eventual Division 1 semifinalist Clarkston and Division 2 semifinalist Eaton Rapids, while defeating back-to-back Division 2 champion Escanaba. The Cardinals outscored their seven postseason opponents by a combined 56-4, closing with an 11-0 shutout of Marine City in the Quarterfinal, 7-1 win over Standish-Sterling in the Semifinal and 8-0 clincher over Schoolcraft in the championship game.
The build-up began long before high school. During elementary, Sherman was the first to start playing higher-level travel ball in the surrounding area. But around the time her class was playing 10-and-under, she and her family decided to play on a team with the other Millington girls – and as the pitcher she was able to carry the load while they were learning the game.
In fact, the team jokingly recalls now how Bishop nearly didn’t make that 10U squad. But Hudie said his catcher has worked harder than anyone he’s coached during a decade leading the program – and by sophomore year she’d earned all-state honorable mention.
This team rewrote the school’s record book, and the home run category is maybe the best example of what these seniors brought to the program. Millington would hit about five home runs a year during Hudie’s first six as coach – then had 44 in 2016, followed by 28, 38 and this spring 48. Bishop broke a decades-old record with 14 homers as a freshman, and Roberts blasted 18 to break the record this spring.
Roberts, Denome, Rabideau, Bishop and Sherman made the Division 3 all-state first team this season. Hahn joined those five on the all-Tri-Valley Conference East first team, with Slough and Gates making the second.
Sherman will continue her career at Kent State, while Denome will play next at Spring Arbor, Rabideau at Mott Community College and Bees at Rochester College. Bishop, who graduated with the GPA over 4.0, had a number of softball scholarship offers and will try to walk on at Oakland University.
“It will be hard to duplicate. Hopefully we can keep it going. … Obviously these girls were paving the way,” Hudie said. “We had a couple of girls before them, had a couple scattered (over more classes), and obviously freshman year they didn’t get to the Semifinal just on their own. But this group kinda showed how to stay together, how to put work in together, and I think that helped the program out most.
“Just showing five or six awesome girls who are willing to put in the time together in the weight room, in the batting cage (what they can accomplish). That really taught our program, our younger girls, and that’s neat.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2018-19
May: Gladstone boys track & field – Read
April: Garden City baseball – Read
March: Holland West Ottawa boys swimming & diving – Read
February: Lowell wrestling – Read
January: Farmington United gymnastics – Read
December: Warren Woods-Tower wrestling – Read
November: Rochester Adams girls swimming & diving – Read
October: Leland boys soccer – Read
September: Pickford football – Read
August: Northville girls golf – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Millington’s players raise their first MHSAA Finals championship trophy in school history June 15 at Secchia Stadium. (Middle) The Cardinals’ Leah Denome rounds first base after one of her four hits in the title game. (Below) Millington poses with its trophy and in front of the Secchia scoreboard after its championship win.
Vicksburg, Richmond Earn Title Chance
June 16, 2016
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING — Avery Slancik of Vicksburg could empathize with her rivals in the pitching circle.
She's been where Livonia Ladywood's Rozlyn Price and Alexa Flores were Thursday. At some point, every pitcher has.
Slancik and her Vicksburg teammates took advantage of eight walks while hitting safely out of the infield only once, rallying from a 5-0 deficit to beat the second-ranked Blazers 7-5 in the MHSAA Division 2 Softball Semifinals at Michigan State University.
Slancik, a sophomore, remembers how she felt after the Bulldogs were eliminated in the Regional championship game last year.
"I had a similar situation last year when I gave up some home runs and our team got knocked out," Slancik said. "I feel for the pitcher. She pitched her butt off."
It was nearly a repeat of last year for Slancik, who gave up back-to-back doubles to begin the game, then surrendered a two-run homer to Price in the third inning. At that point it looked bleak for Vicksburg, trailing the tournament-tested Blazers by a 5-0 margin.
However, Slancik didn't allow another run or hit over the final four innings.
"I know my team has my back, and they can hit," Slancik said. "Whether I give up a home run, base hit or whatever, we can come back strong. We never quit. It all comes down to stress, if you can take the pressure. That's why I practice. I worked my whole life for this, and it's happening. It's like a dream come true. I know God put me in this position for a reason."
Vicksburg, unranked all season, will take a 36-8 record into the Division 2 championship game at 12:30 p.m. Saturday against Richmond at MSU's Secchia Stadium. It's the first time a team from Vicksburg had made it to an MHSAA championship game in any sport. The Bulldogs won championships in the non-bracketed sports of boys cross country (1963) and boys tennis (1974). Only three other teams from Vicksburg reached an MHSAA Semifinal, with the boys soccer team losing in 1997 and 2004 and the baseball team losing in 2015.
The Bulldogs reached the title game by beating three top-10 teams in their last four games: No. 9 St. Joseph in the Regional Semifinal, No. 10 and reigning champion Wayland in the MHSAA Quarterfinals and No. 2 Ladywood (32-13) on Thursday. Richmond (31-9) received only honorable mention in the final coaches' poll, setting up an unlikely Final.
"We haven't even been honorable mention," Vicksburg coach Paul Gephart said. "We've beaten teams that are ranked and haven't been given any respect at all. Yeah, it's awesome. Between Tuesday and today, we've earned a little bit of respect. We just find a way. I always tell them, 'Find a way.' We didn't really hit the ball well, but we found a way."
Vicksburg hit only three balls out of the infield in the entire game: a single up the middle by Carlie Kudary and two fly-outs to left field. The Bulldogs' other four hits were infield singles.
Epitomizing Vicksburg's "find a way" approach was junior catcher Grace Stock, who came to the plate four times but didn't have an official at-bat. She walked three times and had a bunt. One of her walks, on a 3-2 pitch, forced home a run.
"I was confident up to bat," Stock said. "I tried to swing at good pitches and let the bad ones go by and get on base to help my team. I did whatever it took. Get on base, score runs and be smart at the plate. We got on base any way we could and used our strengths."
Ladywood jumped out to its 5-0 lead with three runs in the first inning and two in the third. Flores led off the game with a double and scored when Cecilia Werner doubled right after her. Werner scored on a single by Elizabeth Kemp.
A two-run homer by Price over the 220-foot sign in center field made it 5-0 in the third.
The Bulldogs were unfazed.
"The amount of runs we've scored in the whole year, getting five runs is nothing," Slancik said. "We've beaten teams 24-0. We can come back from five runs."
Vicksburg began its comeback by scoring two runs in the bottom of the third inning, with three walks, two wild pitches, a passed ball and one hit helping deliver those runs.
The Bulldogs took the lead in a bizarre fourth inning during which they scored five times without hitting a ball out of the infield.
Olivia Holmes began the rally by leading off with an infield single. After four more walks, a bunt single and an error, Vicksburg had a 7-5 lead. Two runs scored on bases-loaded walks, with another crossing on a wild pitch.
Ladywood coach Scott Combs pulled his standout pitcher, Price, after her sixth walk of the game with one out in the fourth inning. She was relieved by Flores, who started at first base.
"The ball never left the infield," Combs said. "They did a good job of putting the ball down on the ground and getting a base at a time, but you can't walk (eight) people and expect to win. The disappointing part is we probably haven't walked (eight) in the last 10 games. That's on us."
After falling behind, Ladywood got a runner on base in each of the last three innings, but couldn't get the runner past first. The Blazers had six hits, three for extra bases, in the first 2 1/3 innings before their bats fell silent.
"We always preach the attitude that when you get up by four or five runs, play for one run each inning," Combs said. "A couple of bunts that we didn't get down were important. When you don't do that and people see the ball lasering all over the place, they change their swing and think they're going to hit home runs. It just got a little contagious. I don't want to say they were selfish, but they were trying to over-swing."
Richmond 5, Escanaba 2
Richmond broke a 2-2 tie by scoring three runs in the top of the fifth inning, reaching the MHSAA championship game for the fourth time. Richmond lost in the title game in 1985, 1998 and 1999.
"We've had our down points, but over the last couple of games we've started getting key hits and playing to our potential," Richmond pitcher Erin Shuboy said.
Richmond took one-run leads in the second and third innings, only to have Escanaba match those runs in the bottom of those innings.
No. 8 hitter Emma Caperton, who doubled home a run in the second, singled and scored the tie-breaking run in the fifth on a strange play. Amy Thueme reached first on a throwing error and headed for second after the overthrow. Caperton was going to stop at third, but she continued home when Thueme slid into shortstop Callie Heller, who fell on her and was shaken up.
Lindsay Schweiger and Shuboy singled home the other runs in the inning. Richmond tacked on one more run in the seventh on a single by Rachel Leach.
Shuboy, who had eight strikeouts, retired 10 of the last 11 batters she faced.
"We still hit the ball hard," said Escanaba coach Jamie Segorski, whose team finished 36-3-1. "Softball's a funny game. You miss the ball by an eighth of an inch and it's a fly ball. You hit it square, it's a home run. It is what it is."
PHOTOS: (Top) A Vicksburg hitter connects during the Division 2 Semifinal against Livonia Ladywood. (Middle) A Richmond runner slides under a tag in her team's win over Escanaba.