Perfection: Hudsonville Follows Winning Formula to Cap Undefeated Season
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
June 15, 2024
EAST LANSING – Good things typically happen when Hudsonville leadoff hitter Megan Beemer gets on base in the first inning.
That trend carried over to Saturday’s Division 1 Final – and it helped jumpstart her team’s offense.
Early runs, sparkling pitching and stellar defense proved to be key factors as the Eagles capped an unbeaten season with a 5-0 victory over Lake Orion at Secchia Stadium.
“It’s always important to get off to a good start, and I think Megan Beemer has scored in the first inning in, I want to say, 34 or 35 times of our 42 games,” Eagles coach Tom Vruggink said. “When she gets on in the first inning she’s going to steal second, maybe third, and (Tessa) Heffelbower is going to bring her in. That’s our formula, and it worked out great today.”
Senior hurler Ava Snip tossed a one-hit shutout, and Hudsonville (42-0) won its first Division 1 Final since 2012 and fourth in school history.
“To make history like today is like a dream for all of us,” said Beemer, a senior who will play next season at University of Michigan. “Me and Elly (Koopman) were on the team sophomore year and got punched in the face in the Semifinals, so this was our goal ever since then when we felt the sting of that. To come back and win it was huge for all of us.”
The Eagles struck early and loaded the bases in the top of the first inning.
Beemer, who went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, singled to open the game. She stole second, and trotted home when junior Autumn Dennis ripped a shot up the middle and put the Eagles ahead 2-0.
Freshman Lauren Luchies followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0.
“As the leadoff batter, that's my goal,” Beemer said. “To get on in the first inning because that sets the tone for the rest of the seven innings.”
Snip, a lefty, felt more relaxed after getting the early run support.
“To get three runs on the board early made me not so nervous anymore, because at the beginning I was really nervous,” said Snip, who had eight strikeouts. “My nerves went away after the three runs because my offense had me, and my defense always has my back.
“This is so incredible. I can't believe we went undefeated this whole year and that we just did it. We proved to ourselves that we could go unbeaten, and it's insane to think about.”
Beemer was proud of her teammates’ effort on the mound.
“She did so good, and she had a breakout year,” Beemer said. “She has been my best friend since middle school, so seeing her succeed in this big moment was huge.”
Lake Orion pitcher Rylee Limberger had her team’s only hit off Snip, to lead off the fifth inning, but a double play by Hudsonville ended any threat.
The Eagles added to their lead in the sixth inning with a two-out rally. Beemer singled and then scored on a double down the left-field line from sophomore Tessa Heffelbower.
Junior Claire VanderWeels had a two-out, RBI single in the seventh.
The Eagles banged out nine hits on the day with Heffelbower and VanderWeels each collecting two hits as well.
“This is so awesome,” said Vruggink, who has won nearly 1,200 games during a 43-year career and is the fifth-winningest coach in MHSAA softball history. “We didn’t quite finish it two years ago, but this team has played unbelievable all season long and our pitching carried us. They stepped up to the pressure of an undefeated season, and I can't say more about them. They are tremendous athletes, tremendous kids.”
Lake Orion (38-6) was making its first Finals appearance in program history.
“We had a great season, and we played quite a few really good teams to get here,” Lake Orion coach Joe Woityra said. “I thought they were ready to play, but things got sped up real quick in that first inning and we couldn’t battle back like we had before.
“Obviously, Hudsonville has a great team also, and their pitcher did exactly what she needed to do. She shut us down, and not many pitchers did that this year.”
PHOTOS (Top) Hudsonville celebrates its Division 1 championship win Saturday at Secchia Stadium. (Middle) A Lake Orion infielder places a tag on the Eagles’ Megan Beemer. (Below) Lauren Luchies makes a throw to first.
JoBurg 3-Sport Great Capping Career Filled with All-State Honors, Team Trophies
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
April 5, 2024
It won’t be hard for Jayden Marlatt to remember opening day on the softball field from any of her four years at Johannesburg-Lewiston.
As a freshman, she missed the opener due to needing to quarantine. Her sophomore and junior years started on the road because the Cardinals’ field was under construction.
This season the Cardinals will open up — weather permitting — on their brand-new field, hosting Mio on Monday, April 8. Marlatt is slated to be the starting pitcher again and add to her school record collection.
While Johannesburg-Lewiston is looking forward to playing on the new diamond, Marlatt and her teammates have high hopes of finishing the season almost 200 miles south. They’re looking to get back to Michigan State University – the site of the Division 4 Semifinals and Final.
The Cards have had their sites on that goal since they fell 4-2 to Mendon in last year’s Semifinal at Secchia Stadium. The loss ended a 30-4-1 campaign that saw the Cardinals play every game on the road for a second consecutive year, but come up only one victory short of a first championship game appearance.
The trip to East Lansing also came after the Cards won the program’s first District title since 2008 and advanced to the Semifinals for the first time since 1981.
“It has been a long two seasons on the road,” said eighth-year head coach Kim Marlatt, noting the team utilized a Little League field for practices during the stretch. “They’ve been putting in a lot of work in the offseason, so it is excited to get going.”
The new field isn’t the only new things this spring. The Cardinals will have a junior varsity team for the first time during the Marlatt’s tenure. The JV squad is coached by Ryan Marlatt, who has been serving the program the past eight years as assistant coach. He also has been the head girls basketball coach at JoBurg the past two seasons.
The Marlatt coaches are the proud parents of Jayden, who continues to garner recognition as perhaps the greatest athlete in Johannesburg-Lewiston’s history.
The three-sport star had a huge hand in all that JoBurg accomplished last season leading the team in batting average (.670), home runs (13) and runs batted in (61). As the team’s ace pitcher, she collected 249 strikeouts and compiled a 1.32 ERA.
“Jayden has put in the hard work,” Kim pointed out. “She is a very humble athlete. ‘She doesn’t like to talk about herself. She likes to compete, and she likes to be on the top of her game for her teammates.”
Jayden has been named all-conference and all-state in softball, basketball and volleyball nearly every season over her four years at JoBurg. She’s led her teams to Ski Valley Conference, District and Regional titles along the way.
She’s also been named Player of the Year by multiple publications. And she’s a front runner to be voted the Most Valuable Player of the Ski Valley Conference in softball. Earlier this year, league coaches voted her the MVP for both basketball and volleyball.
“The Ski Valley never used to vote on an MVP,” Ryan Marlatt said. “Hopefully she can add the triple crown and get softball this year.”
Jayden Marlatt, who has played all three sports all four years, acknowledged softball is perhaps her most treasured, and she’ll continue in that sport at Ferris State. Her career total of more than 500 strikeouts, and her 14 home runs last season, are both JoBurg school records. "I like them all but probably softball,” she confirmed when asked to name her favorite sport.
She averaged 12 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists and four steals per game this winter helping the Cards basketball team to a conference runner-up finish. She was key to JoBurg's ability to put a 12-game winning streak together, and she topped the 1,000-point career mark along the way.
Her outstanding senior year on the basketball court and this spring’s possibilities nearly vanished as the volleyball season ended.
She suffered what looked to be a serious lower-leg injury in the final game of the JoBurg volleyball season. “She finished in the emergency room,” Kim Marlatt said.
Diagnosed a high ankle sprain, it was an aggravation to an injury from her junior year in basketball. She wasn’t quite at 100 percent on the basketball court this season until the holiday break. She’s starting the softball season healthy, though.
Before the injury, Jayden led the Cards to their third volleyball conference championship over the last four years. After becoming JoBurg's all-time kills leader during her junior season, and with many of her teammates from her first three seasons graduating, Jayden had to fill a variety of roles while anchoring the offense from her outside hitter spot.
She ended up leading the team in both kills with 421 and digs, with 431, in her final season on the volleyball court. And she is listed among MHSAA’s all-time leaders in kills for a single match and career.
It’s more than Marlatt’s stats that stand out for Kristine Peppin, the school’s volleyball coach the past 15 years.
“It is not about the size of the school or the size of the player, it’s the heart that they have inside,” she proclaimed. “This girl would be a successful player on whatever team she was on.
“Yes we’re a small school, small town,” she continued. “That kind of leadership and heart and drive to be the best is what’s given her that success.”
Marlatt’s work ethic is second to none, Peppin noted. She never saw Jayden give less than a “1,000” percent in practice or games in her career.
“She’s a super hard worker and extremely modest for the kind of skill she possesses and the success she’s had,” Peppin said. “Her teammates think it’s amazing to be on her team.”
Marlatt’s volleyball skills caught the eye of at least one of her conference opponents’ coaches back in junior high. Ron Stremlow was performing one of his many coaching duties for Fife Lake Forest Area when he first saw Jayden on the volleyball court.
“I could tell then this girl was somebody special,” said Stremlow, who became one of the winningest coaches in state volleyball history with the Warriors. “When she got in high school, it just took off.
“She puts the time into it, and she works hard,” Stremlow continued. “Kids like that get what they deserve – they work for it.”
Stremlow, now retired, also acknowledged he’s enjoyed being able to watch the hard-throwing Marlatt on the softball field the last couple of seasons as Forest Area hosted the Cardinals consecutively due to JoBurg’s lack of a home field.
It’s something he’ll have to travel to do this year though, as JoBurg is scheduled to host the Warriors on April 15.
The Cardinals also will host a Regional on their new field June 8. The winners of District play at Rogers City, Harbor Springs, St. Ignace and Gaylord St. Mary will participate.
To play in the Regional, the Cards will have to emerge from the Rogers City District featuring the host Hurons, Atlanta, Hillman, Onaway, and Posen.
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Johannesburg-Lewiston’s Jayden Marlatt drives a pitch during softball season. (2) Cardinals’ 1,000-point scorer Marlatt sets up for a free throw attempt. (3) Also a standout in the fall, Marlatt prepares to connect during volleyball season. (4) Marlatt celebrates a trophy win during last season’s Semifinals softball run with parents (and coaches) Kim and Ryan Marlatt. (Action shots by Dylan Jespersen/Petoskey News-Review; family photo by Breya Domke.)