![South Lyon](/sites/default/files/2021-06/210617_D1s_2H.jpg)
South Lyon, Allen Park Set to Provide 1st-Time Champ
By
Jason Schmitt
Special for MHSAA.com
June 17, 2021
EAST LANSING — Coming up clutch is nothing new for the South Lyon softball team.
So when the Lions came up big on the sport’s biggest stage Thursday afternoon, it really should have come as no surprise to anyone at Secchia Stadium — least of all to head coach Dan DePaulis.
South Lyon rallied from two runs down, pulling away down the stretch en route to an 8-4 win over Grandville in a Division 1 Semifinal played at Michigan State University.
“Everyone contributed at the plate today,” said DePaulis, whose team will be making its first appearance in a Division 1 championship game. “It was awesome. We’ve come from behind before and played a tough schedule. We’ve been in a lot of tough games and played some tough teams. I think that prepared them. Nothing surprised them today.”
The Lions fell behind twice early. Grandville scored the first two runs of the game in the first inning, courtesy of an RBI double by senior Jamie Vander Meer and an RBI single by senior Kylee Dillard. South Lyon got two right back, one on an RBI single from senior Ella Vitale.
The Bulldogs then retook the lead, 4-2, in the third inning. Senior Maddie Gkekas scored on a wild pitch, with senior Brook Bernt then scoring on an RBI single by Dillard.
That’s the last run Grandville would score. South Lyon put two runs up in the fourth inning to tie the game, the first when Vitale singled in junior Julia Duncan, who crossed ahead of a tag at the plate.
“That’s a huge momentum shift,” Grandville head coach Troy Ungrey said. “I mean, we get that out right there, it’s the third out. It’s 4-2, we still have momentum. We’ve got the top of our lineup coming up.”
The Lions would add another run in the inning on an RBI single by senior Riley Bourlier, scoring Vitale. South Lyon then took a 5-4 lead in the fifth inning, when Duncan’s single scored senior Tierny Donnelley.
“We’ve been doing that all year, just having really good at bats,” DePaulis said. “They’re putting the ball in play, hard ground balls, getting the run in, productive outs. The seniors really stepped up for us today at the bottom of our order. They had some big hits to get us going early.”
Vitale, Madison Seymour and Bourlier combined for three runs, three hits and three RBI in their team’s victory.
“It’s kind of fun, we (seniors) are all like stacked at the bottom together so we can cheer each other on,” Vitale said. “I feel like our whole lineup can get hits. No one end is stronger than the other. One of our sayings is like, ‘Ground balls win softball games.’ When we have a runner on third, we try to hit it hard on the ground so they can score.”
South Lyon scored seven of its eight runs with two outs.
“We had a team meeting the other day, and we talked about how we were doing it with two outs,” said DePaulis, who’s in his seventh year at South Lyon. “Those kids just come up clutch. Nothing phases them. They’re just really battling. At this point in the tournament, it’s more about what you’ve got between the ears than the talent. They really focused, they were mentally tough and they had really good at bats with two outs.”
Sophomore Emily Johnson had a team-high three hits and starting pitcher Ava Bradshaw went the distance, striking out 12 for the Lions (29-6-2), who advanced to Saturday’s Division 2 Final, where they’ll face Allen Park.
Grandville finished the season 36-6.
“We set a school record for wins this year,” Ungrey said. “Grace (Connelly) set a record for wins in the circle. Maddie (Gkekas) set the stolen base record. There are just so many good things to think about, all the way through. We brought up some sophomores at the end. They had a chance to taste this. I think in a couple years we’ve got a real good chance of coming back here.”
Allen Park 9, Farmington Hills Mercy 5
Allen Park played the patience game Thursday in its Division 1 Semifinal game against Farmington Hills Mercy. That’s not always an easy thing to do when your team boasts just one senior on the roster.
But it paid off for the Jaguars, who scored seven runs in the fourth inning to pull away from the Marlins en route to a 9-5 victory that clinched a spot in Saturday’s championship game at Michigan State University.
Junior Madilynn Ramey highlighted the inning with a grand slam, which broke a 1-1 tie and gave her team all the momentum it would need.
“The bases were loaded, and I knew I had to capitalize. I knew I had to come through for my team,” said Ramey, who finished the day 2-for-3 with her home run, a triple and a walk. “We’re the underdogs. We know we have to come out here and prove ourselves.”
Her head coach, Mike Kish, knew it was just a matter of time before his young Jaguars would break through.
“I believed. I absolutely believed,” he said. “We knew we had the talent. If we could just keep it close, long enough for us to take a deep breath and relax. And once we did that, this is what we do.
“(Madilynn) is our leader. She’s our shortstop. She’s our heart and soul. You know she’s going to come through. And sure enough she did.”
Allen Park batted around in the fourth inning. Sophomore Molly Hool singled to right-center to get things going. Junior Riley Kish and junior Autumn Bridges had a double and single, respectively, to load the bases for Ramey — who proceeded to clear them. The Jaguars added two more runs on an RBI double by sophomore Morgan Sizemore and an RBI single by sophomore Mia Hool.
The Hool sisters, along with Ramey and freshman Avery Garden, all finished with two hits. Allen Park (32-10) has a young roster which includes four juniors, five sophomores and five freshmen.
“We knew for a couple years that this talent was coming,” Kish said. “We only had three girls on the team who had played a varsity game before the season had started. We knew our pitchers were young, inexperienced. But we knew the talent was there. It comes out of potential.”
Mercy senior Grace Nieto finished 3-for-4 with four stolen bases for her Marlins, who finished the season 32-5. Senior Maggie Murphy and junior Kendall Spivey each drove in two runs in their team’s loss.
“They went to work with their bats. We knew their bats were coming. We didn’t do enough to mitigate them hitting it,” Mercy head coach Corey Burras said. “It was not a surprise. I thought the score would be 12-11. It wasn’t going to be 2-1. It wasn’t going to be a pitching duel.
“They moved on the ball. We moved on the ball. But they moved on the ball a little bit better than us today.”
PHOTOS: (Top) South Lyon’s Julia Duncan is moments from connecting with a pitch during her team’s Division 1 Semifinal win Thursday. (Middle) An Allen Park runner gets to third base head first as Mercy’s Kendall Spivey gathers the ball for a possible tag.
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Bluestreaks' Run Thrilling, Unforgettable
June 29, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Dawn Forter will never forget Brooklyn Woelmer’s knowing smile with Ida’s championship hopes one strike from being dashed.
The senior shortstop faced reigning champion Richmond and a two-strike count, her team down 3-1 with two outs in the seventh inning of the Division 2 championship game June 17 at Secchia Stadium.
If Ida’s run would’ve ended there, it still would’ve been worth celebrating. Seeking their first MHSAA title in the sport since 1994, the Bluestreaks had advanced to their first Final since 2006 despite entering the playoffs unranked and overlooked.
“I don’t know how many she fouled away. That last one barely touched (the bat),” Forter, her coach, said of Woelmer’s crunch time effort. “She stepped out of the box, took a deep breath, looked in the dugout and smiled.
“I’ll never lose that image. I knew when I saw her face that she was going to get on base.”
Woelmer ended up driving a double down the right-field line that brought in a run, and she crossed the plate as well on an error to tie the score at 3-3. The teams traded runs in the eighth inning before Ida put up four runs in the ninth to finish off the Blue Devils in the most thrilling conclusion from a tournament season packed with them.
There were a number of strong candidates for the final MHSAA/Applebee’s Team of the Month award for the 2016-17 school year. But it was impossible to look past Ida, which downed No. 10 Carleton Airport on the way to Michigan State, then No. 6 Stevensville Lakeshore in the Semifinal and the No. 2-ranked Blue Devils to earn a title at least a decade in the making.
Forter, who took over the program in 2004, had been part of an MHSAA runner-up finish as a player at Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central in 1989, and enjoyed a nice share of accolades playing shortstop at University of Detroit Mercy before also coaching at the college level and then returning to guide the Bluestreaks.
She has led the program to 349-131 record over 14 seasons and three league titles over the last four springs. This Ida team enjoyed something special from the beginning – although Forter had only 12 players, she said all could’ve started at any time – and together with three junior varsity call-ups, they won the program’s first District title since 2010 and first Regional title since 2009.
She said after the Semifinal win she was proud of all 15 of her players, and she meant it. All three of those call-ups had contributed in the Quarterfinal shutout of Flint Powers Catholic, 10 players saw the field in the Semifinal and 12 played in the championship game.
Ida had only three seniors and seven underclassmen on the postseason roster. But they showed they belonged at that late stage in the tournament – and showed some impressive poise conquering it.
“We were down a couple times during the postseason, after the other team scored first, but we chipped away,” Forter said. “We did what we do, we didn’t lose our minds, we stayed cool. We had confidence all along that we could battle back. We have extremely powerful bats, and we relied on the fact that that carried us all year. So there was no panic, even down 3-nothing in the seventh inning of the state finals. My assistant coach (Cheryl Hoffman) and I were more freaked out than they were.
“Where did they get that (composure)? I don’t know. We were a nervous mess.”
Ida had a little extra juice entering the postseason thanks to the rankings slight. Like many coaches in many sports, Forter said she doesn’t pay much attention to the weekly coaches association polls. But some of her players and their parents do. And when the Bluestreaks didn’t crack even the honorable mention list at the end of the regular season, Forter found herself a little irked too.
No doubt, that fueled the fire a little bit. “But I’d take that path again if it happens,” she admitted.
Ida finished 37-7, and after the season Woelmer, junior outfielder Karlee Lambert and junior second baseman Hannah Tuller made the all-state team. But their talents and contributions extend farther than the foul lines. Woelmer and senior outfielder Ashlyn Brososky claimed academic all-state individual honors as the Bluestreaks earned team academic all-state recognition. This year’s group boasted a grade-point average above 3.6, with no player below a 3.2. Forter also noted the group’s well-roundedness, with a number of her players active in Ida’s Young Life club and several participating in peer tutoring at the district’s elementary school.
This was a banner softball season for the southeastern corner for the state. Not only did Ida win in Division 2, but Monroe County neighbor and Forter’s alma mater St. Mary won its third straight Division 3 title. Ottawa Lake Whiteford, from bordering Lenawee County, was runner-up in Division 4.
Of that original 12 players on Ida’s roster, eight had been playing together since they were about 8 years old. They usually teamed up for the annual age-group tournaments that are part of the Monroe County Fair, coming away with at least four championships over the years against tough competition.
Those no doubt also prepared them to hang tough when their dreams rested on one more possible strike two weeks ago.
“How things played out, I don’t think I’ve ever been on an emotional rollercoaster like that as a player or a coach,” Forter said. “I was part of a state runner-up and I played college ball as well, and this didn’t compare to anything else I’ve experienced on a ball field.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2016-17
May: Whittemore-Prescott boys track & field - Report
April: Frankfort baseball - Report
March: Flushing girls basketball - Report
February: Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central girls skiing - Report
January: Powers North Central boys basketball - Report
December: Dundee boys basketball - Report
November: Rockford girls swimming & diving - Report
October: Rochester girls golf - Report
September: Breckenridge football - Report
PHOTOS: (Top) Ida coach Dawn Forter and her players celebrate Brooklyn Woelmer (14) scoring the tying run during the seventh inning of the Division 2 Final. (Middle) The Bluestreaks, after winning an earlier round of the MHSAA Tournament.