Talented Escanaba Pursuing Title Repeat
May 14, 2019
By Dennis Grall
Special for Second Half
ESCANABA – Ever since softball became part of the Escanaba High School athletic program in 1997, it has been among the best and most consistent offerings in the state.
Last year the Eskymos confirmed their elite prep status by winning the MHSAA Division 2 title, and they again are in the thick of this year's championship picture. Escanaba belted South Haven 5-0 in last season’s Final, after clipping Eaton Rapids 2-0 in the Semifinal two days before.
The Eskymos won their final 13 games last year to finish 31-3. Gabi Salo, then a sophomore, fanned 11 of the title game's opening 13 batters and allowed three hits while punching out 13 batters total. Salo and Escanaba yielded just two runs over seven postseason games. The six EHS seniors on that team compiled a 131-18 record during their four seasons.
Escanaba previously was Division 1 runner-up in 2003 and lost in Division 2 Semifinals in 2016 and 2017.
Salo has helped the Eskymos to a 15-1 record in this weather-marred spring, and Escanaba was ranked No. 1 in the state before losing to Kent State recruit Gabbie Sherman and Division 3 top-rated Millington 3-0 on Friday in Escanaba. Sherman, another of the state's prime pitchers, also throttled Escanaba 2-1 last year.
The Eskymos rebounded from Friday's loss in grand style on a frigid Saturday, whipping Marshfield, Wis., 9-5 and then clipping arch-rival Gladstone 7-0 behind a perfect game by Salo, who whiffed 14 batters.
Gladstone manager John Nevala said "if her control is good and she can get the corner called, she can be called unhittable. We had been hitting the ball pretty good until we faced Gabi."
Salo demonstrated better location and control against Gladstone than the previous night's rare loss. "She is in a class of her own," said Nevala. "She has to be one of the top pitchers in the state. She had very good movement.
"She has excellent speed (around 64-65 mph) and an excellent changeup. She changes speeds so well. She probably has three different speeds. You can't really dig in on one location at the plate."
This season Salo is 10-1 with two saves and sports a dominating 0.02 ERA. She has struck out 136 batters in 69 2/3 innings, but has also issued eight walks and hit four batters during wicked spring conditions the opening month. (NOTE: After a pair of no-hitters Monday and Tuesday against Marquette and Gladstone, respectively, Salo is 12-1 with 161 strikeouts in just under 84 innings pitched.)
A University of Wisconsin recruit since last spring, Salo felt she threw well against Millington and Gladstone, but indicated she was "pretty tight" in the freezing opener. She said her curveball and changeup worked better against Gladstone.
She didn't pay attention to keeping Gladstone off the bases. "I try not to think about those things. I feel like it is a jinx," she said.
Salo worked hard last year to develop her back-breaking change-up and now terms it her favorite pitch. "It is spot-on," she said. "It throws the hitters off their game. I go out, focus and attack the hitter. I like getting swinging strikes." She is not afraid to use her change on a 3-2 count.
She fires her fastball down-and-in or inside-and-high and loves to get her pitches inside on the batter's fists.
The Escanaba first-year manager is her father, Gary, who was the pitching coach for the Eskymos last year under Jamie Segorski, who resigned as coach just as practice began this spring. Gary and Gabi have been together for several years on different summer travel teams.
He signals the pitches from his dugout perch, using input from his daughter and junior catcher and Ferris State commit Dakota Cloutier, who also handled that spot last season.
Senior right fielder Lexi Chaillier, a three-sport, four-year standout, leads the Eskymos with a .481 batting average and five home runs. Gabi Salo leads with 18 RBI and hits .378, while sophomore first baseman-pitcher Nicole Kamin is hitting .477 with 14 runs driven in. Cloutier is hitting .356 with 12 RBI.
Expect that quartet to lead the way this weekend when the Eskymos play in a highly-competitive 20-team invitational tournament in Ann Arbor. The strong field is what the Eskymos search for in compiling a schedule, with trips into Wisconsin and lower Michigan to find high-quality opponents.
Referring to other top hurlers, along with Millington's circle ace, Gary Salo said "we want to go up against elite pitching if we want to go to the next level." And now, with a state title, he said the Eskymos know "we are going to get everybody's best game."
After Friday's loss and the twin wins Saturday, the Escanaba skipper said "our kids are very resilient. We licked our wounds."
Much of the high school program's success is credit to a tremendous Little League program. Gabi Salo began pitching at age 10 when her youth coach asked if anyone wanted to throw. For many years she has received extensive coaching from Pat Brower in Ann Arbor. "He has developed Gabi into the pitcher she is," said her dad. "It is well worth driving six-and-a-half hours each way."
Gabi Salo began her travel ball experience with the Escanaba Heartbreakers at age 10, then joined downstate teams, playing with Wixom Finesse the past three summers. The opportunity to play against quality travel teams in addition to high school has been crucial to her development.
Travel ball has taken the Salos to Atlanta, Huntington Beach, Calif. and Boulder, Colo. in addition to such destinations as the Grand Canyon. Gary Salo drives the family RV everywhere, with just father-daughter on most jaunts.
"Softball has given us a summer-long vacation," said Gary Salo.
"Definitely travel ball has helped me see parts of the country I would never get to see," said Gabi, who plans to enter the nursing field at UW and works at Christian Park Nursing in Escanaba. She also bowled for EHS and participates in dance, saying she would skip a softball game but would not skip a dance recital.
"The travel ball and high school competition is pretty equal," she said. "We play the best competition there is in the country."
Escanaba, which also excels in the classroom (a state-best 3.83 GPA), knows a title repeat will be difficult to achieve because teams like Richmond, Muskegon Oakridge, Eaton Rapids, Spring Lake, Detroit Country Day, Freeland and Stevensville Lakeshore are very dangerous.
"It is not a seven-game series. They are seven-inning games," Gary Salo said of the postseason dynamics.
"A lot of teams are playing really, really well," he said. "Any team has the opportunity to get lucky like we did."
Denny Grall retired in 2012 after 39 years at the Escanaba Daily Press and four at the Green Bay Press-Gazette, plus 15 months for WLST radio in Escanaba; he served as the Daily Press sports editor from 1970-80 and again from 1984-2012 and currently is in a second stint as the interim in that position. Grall was inducted into the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 and serves as its executive secretary. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for the Upper Peninsula.
PHOTOS: (Top) Gabi Salo makes her move toward the plate during last weekend’s Escanaba Invitational. (Middle) A championship banner at the Eskymos’ home field celebrates last season’s Division 2 championship. (Below) Gary Salo has taken over the varsity this spring. (Photos by Dennis Grall.)
Senior-Led Napoleon Fulfilling Promise
By
Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
April 28, 2017
By Chip Mundy
Special to Second Half
NAPOLEON – Napoleon softball coach Doug Richardson heard about his current group of seniors when they were in middle school.
Yet, even with the promising words, Richardson tempered his expectations.
“Normally at Napoleon, when you have good athletes come through, for some reason the basketball bug bites them, and all of a sudden softball becomes second nature,' Richardson said. “When I heard we had a great group coming through around the seventh grade, I felt like, 'Well, basketball will bite them pretty soon.'
“All of the parents that I talked to said, 'Not these girls.' They played basketball, but for the most part, softball is their game. It really is a joy to coach them.”
The parents were right. Napoleon, ranked No. 4 in the latest Division 3 state poll, has eight seniors, and six played on varsity as freshmen. The team is 13-1 and coming off a second consecutive championship in the Saline Invitational – quite a feat considering Napoleon faced Division 1 competition in winning the event.
The Pirates have maintained excellence during the four-year run of this group.
As freshmen, they were part of a team that defeated Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central pitching phenom Meghan Beaubien 2-0 in the Regional Semifinals. Napoleon remains the only team to defeat Beaubien in the MHSAA tournament; the Kestrels have won the past two Division 3 titles.
As sophomores, the Pirates had a 28-game winning streak and were ranked No. 3 in the state before losing to Beaubien and the Kestrels 4-0 in the Quarterfinals.
As juniors, Napoleon ended Grass Lake's six-year run as champion of the Cascades Conference.
With a three-year record of 104-16 coming into this season, the Pirates and their senior-based squad are looking to end with a flourish. After its victory over East Jackson on Tuesday, Napoleon is 100 games above. 500 (117-17) with this senior class, and that number obviously is going to climb.
'Any 5-year-old could coach this team'
A team dad mentioned that recently, and Richardson shares the joke. While it was an obvious overstatement, the point remains clear.
“I just make out the lineup and sit back and watch,” Richardson said. “It's a senior-laden team, and if you ask what the lineup is going to be, they could tell you right now, depending on whether Rachel (Griffin) is catching or playing third.
“We have eight seniors who know each other and know the game well. They do what they want to do. I do give them signs, but for the most part, they do what they need to do.”
Richardson pitches batting practice, and that has become an event for the Pirates.
“Our motivation for practice is to hit Doug because the other coach will buy ice cream for the entire team,” four-year senior Paige Kortz said.
Richardson, either bravely or otherwise, welcomes the challenge and sees practice as a time when his coaching is needed as much or more than during a game.
“Still, somebody needs to push them at practice,” he said.
The Pirates have a swagger. They arrive a little later than other teams on the road, but they do it because they feel prepared enough to take a shorter warmup.
“I love the way teams look at us when we get off the bus,” said Griffin, another of the seniors. “They're like, 'They're not even here to warm up.' The other teams are hitting off tees and maybe wondering if we are even going to show up.”
It could be said that Napoleon is the last team to arrive for a tournament and the last to leave as it typically plays in the title game and wins.
“We get there about 45 minutes early,” Richardson said. “We're not trying to intimidate anyone.”
Eye-popping numbers
It's early in the season, but the Pirates are hitting .496 (201-for-405) and have outscored their opponents 168-25 over 14 games. Defensively, they have made 12 errors – fewer than one per game.
Kortz, who played center field the past three seasons but now starts at shortstop, leads the way with a hefty .692 average. She also leads the team with four home runs, 32 runs scored and 14 stolen bases.
“Our goals are high considering it's our senior year,” said Kortz, who broke the school record for hits in a season as a freshman and then set a new standard as a sophomore.
Griffin is a hard-hitting catcher with power. She is batting .600 and leads the team with 24 RBI. Last year, she tied the school record with 12 home runs and broke the single-season record for RBI with 62.
“We have a good time with each other, and we all love each other and we're close,” she said. “It just makes you sad that one day we're not going to be seeing each other after practice or taking grounders with each other.
“I have so much fun at the tournaments, and I know we all have some good laughs in the dugout. When we have fun, we seem to do better.”
Six others – all seniors – are hitting better than .450, led by first baseman Kaitlyn Weaver (.500 with two home runs and 20 RBI). Haley Rose, who moved from the outfield to third base this season, is hitting .489, while outfielder Dylan Wiley is at .480 with 22 RBI and nine stolen bases.
Kalie Pittman, who rotates between second base and the outfield, is hitting .467, while second baseman Ashton Jordon is at .457. Sydney Coe, the ace pitcher, is batting .452.
“We see each other every day in school,” Coe said. “We know when something is wrong, so then you can talk to them about it and help them through it, both on and off the field.”
Coe is having another stellar season. She is 10-0 with a 0.80 ERA. She has allowed 31 hits in 52 1/3 innings and has 60 strikeouts and 13 walks. Griffin has caught Coe all four seasons at Napoleon, and they have a solid bond.
“I give all respect to Sydney for pitching because pitching is so hard,” Griffin said. “She's the one pretty much doing it, and I'm just her feedback. She can control it; if she doesn't want to throw a pitch, she won't throw it.
“Against Brighton, she was just coming out of nowhere and had everyone on their heels. She was making people dance in the batter's box. They did not know what was coming, and she was hitting all her spots. She was doing really good.”
Richardson allows the battery to call the pitches.
“It's me and Rachel working together on it,” Coe said. “I just try to communicate with her as much as possible. Like if I have a pitch that isn't working as well one day, we'll throw it with nobody on base or when it's a low count.”
While there is plenty of season left, many of the current Pirates will play softball at the next level. Coe is headed for Lawrence Tech, while Griffin will be at Davenport University and Kortz will be at Ferris State in the fall. Wiley plans to attend Findlay, while Rose and Jordan will play at Jackson College.
A step up in competition
Last weekend, Napoleon went to the Saline Invitational and won the championship. It might seem like an upset, considering Napoleon is a Division 3 school competing against mostly Division 1 competition. However, it was Napoleon's second consecutive year as champion of the event.
The Pirates loved playing the role of “little ol' Napoleon.”
“I know there were teams there that thought, 'Oh, they're Division 3,' and they didn't know what to expect because they are used to high-class competition,” Griffin said.
Napoleon played Saline in the championship game and trailed 4-1 in the sixth inning.
“We were like, 'Wow, we're not used to this,'“ Griffin said. “We had games where we were mercying everyone before we went into that, and it was like our lineup just flipped a switch and everyone was hitting.”
Napoleon tied it in the sixth and won it in the seventh on a hit by Rose.
“It gave us a confidence boost,” Kortz said. “We compete very well in our league, but to see bigger schools like Salem and Saline (both honorable mentions in the Division 1 rankings) and coming back in the championship game gave us a boost and made us believe that we can do it in harder games. We can come together as a team when we need to.
“I knew some girls on another team saying that her coach said (that) game shouldn't be as close of a game because we come from a rural town and how their team travels to tournaments on charter buses and we travel to tournaments on school buses.”
The players realize that going against teams from larger-school divisions can only make them better players.
“We go to the Class A tournaments to practice what we are going to see in the District, Regional and states,” Coe said. “Winning does give us confidence, so when we go into the postseason we are more confident in knowing that we can beat schools no matter how good they are.”
Napoleon has a local rival as well. Last year, the Pirates ended Grass Lake's six-year hold on the Cascades Conference championship. However, Grass Lake – an honorable mention in Division 3 this week – defeated Napoleon in the District championship game, and the two teams are set to play next week.
“It was heartbreaking to lose to Grass Lake, especially because we competed with them in the conference,” Coe said. “They are a really good team, and it's hard to beat a good team three times. That's what they've always said.
“So, going into it, we were hopeful that we could come out with a win, but as heartbreaking as it is, we understood what it meant and that we had to work harder in the offseason to push ourselves to the next level and rise above the odds.”
Chip Mundy served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86, and then as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen-Patriot from 1986-2011. He also co-authored Michigan Sports Trivia. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Sydney Coe winds up during Wednesday's doubleheader at East Jackson. (Middle) Paige Kortz waits on a pitch Wednesday. (Below) Kortz, left and Rachel Griffin are two of a strong group of seniors leading the Pirates. (Photos by Chip Mundy.)