More Big Moments Ahead as Midland's Schloop Caps Career District Sweep
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
June 5, 2024
Grace Schloop has thrown the final pitch in four straight District Finals for the Midland softball team. But that doesn’t mean the lead-up to them got any easier.
“Absolutely not,” the Midland senior said. “I think, as I get older, I get more nervous for these games. As an upperclassman, there’s more expected of you. You have to do what people have seen you do, and you don’t want to fail.”
This past Saturday, Schloop did again what people have seen her do her entire career, striking out 14 batters in Midland’s 7-2 Division 1 District Final against arch-rival Midland Dow, adding to her school record total and keeping her senior season and tremendous Midland softball career alive.
Schloop has been a four-year star for the Chemics, re-writing the record books both as a pitcher and a hitter. Her 801 career strikeouts tops Midland’s list, as does the 294 she’s accumulated this season. She’s also set the school mark for home runs in a career (29) and season (11 as a sophomore) for the Chemics.
This spring, Schloop is hitting .426 with a .496 on-base percentage, 13 doubles, three home runs and 40 RBI for Midland. In the circle, she has a 1.01 earned-run average to go along with those 294 strikeouts in 145 1/3 innings pitched. She had a 19-strikeout game against Division 3 No. 4 Evart, which is also a school record.
“We knew there was a lot of talent there and that she had a high ceiling,” Midland softball coach Matt Starling said. “But I don’t know if we saw this coming. She worked her way to becoming the pitcher that she is. We knew she was going to be good, but this good – I’d love to tell you we knew this was going to be a thing. She’s put in the extra time to be this good. She’s really earned this.”
Schloop entered high school as someone the Chemics were almost immediately counting on to deliver, as – thanks to the pandemic wiping out the previous season – they didn’t have a pitcher on staff who had recorded an out in a varsity game.
Luckily for her, she had help when it came to transitioning to a higher level: her older sister Gabby, who was a senior on that 2021 team.
“I knew that it was very intense, and that I was going to have to take on a very different role than I had in middle school,” Grace Schloop said. “But I had my sister there with me, and I kept looking to her, and I had one of my best friends there, and they had so much faith in me. I honestly don’t think I would be where I am today had I not had (Gabby), or the other senior, Taylor Sanborn. They were both very intense and hard-working, great athletes. To be able to look up to that, we were able to push ourselves to be like them. I wanted to be like how they were.”
Gabby Schloop is playing shortstop at Northwood, while Grace has signed to play at Saginaw Valley State. The two are scheduled to meet next season.
“We have had many dinner talks – rivalry dinner talks – already,” Grace said. “The games are scheduled to be played at Northwood, and we have discussed it many times. Throughout the entire winter, I pitched to her, so she pretty much knows my weakness, and I know her weakness. She thinks I’m going to hit her. But I’m not going to.”
While her big sister has been away, Grace has taken on the task of being a role model for younger players, something she doesn’t take for granted.
“I help do pitching lessons with the little girls, and people around me say they look up to me,” she said. “It makes your heart so warm. That’s probably the coolest thing ever, that people look up to you.”
She’s providing an excellent example, not only with her in-game performances, but the work that goes into them. When Schloop entered high school, she was a power pitcher. Now, she has a full arsenal of pitches to get hitters out.
“She’s certainly a power pitcher, for sure, but she’s developed her secondary pitches now,” Starling said. “She has an element of changing her speed and has just become more refined with her pitches. Her movement has improved a lot since her ninth-grade year. As a ninth-grader, she could throw the ball hard, and you really can’t teach that. Her development of the other skills has been off the charts.”
The result has been plenty of wins for the Chemics, including the four-straight District titles, which was the goal; and the long list of records, which is a nice addition.
“Half of them, I didn’t even realize I was close to until it happened,” Schloop said. “Sometimes, I’d go home after a game and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was me. I did that.’ It feels very out of body. I’m just there to pitch and do what I need to do.”
Next on the to-do list is a matchup with Saginaw Valley League rival Grand Blanc in Saturday’s Regional Semifinal. The teams split their season series and shared the conference title along with Dow.
While Schloop is sure to be dealing with those same nerves heading into Saturday, history tells Starling that she’ll be more than ready for the moment.
“Her competitiveness, as with all kids when they get older and mature, she certainly has it,” Starling said. “She seems to relish those big moments.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Midland pitcher Grace Schloop begins her windup during a game this season. (Middle) Schloop makes her move toward the plate. (Photos courtesy of the Midland athletic department.)
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.