Vicksburg Not Done After Historic Run
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
May 23, 2017
VICKSBURG — The first time Grace Stock played softball, she absolutely hated it.
The Vicksburg senior was just 8 or 9 at the time, and that dislike lasted all of one game.
In her second game, “I played second and there was a ball that was hit above me, and I went on tip toes and reached out my mitt,” she said.
“My eyes were closed and I caught it. After that, I just loved it and wanted to play all the time. I have a picture of it, too, which makes it even better.”
She may not be playing all the time, but she and her Bulldogs teammates hope to be playing well into the postseason.
Last year, her team became the first in Vicksburg school history to make an MHSAA championship game, losing 2-0 to Richmond in the Division 2 Final.
Losing just two seniors from that team, “people ask, reflecting back on last year, are your expectations the same?” fifth-year head coach Paul Gephart said. “I say, last year is in the past, and this year we’ve got to focus one game at a time.”
After flying under the radar last season, this year’s Bulldogs are ranked fourth in state with Districts set to start next week.
“It’s absolutely extra pressure,” Gephart said. “I think it motivates other teams. They’re going to bring their best effort against you.
“I think it’s bulletin board material for other teams and kind of fuels them. Now we’re on the other side of that, and there is that pressure as far as expectation.”
The Bulldogs take a 25-9-1 (16-2 Wolverine Conference) record into the final week of the regular season. They have clinched the conference title for the second consecutive year.
Three key seniors – Stock, Carlie Kudary and Shaidan Knapp – earned all-state honors last year and have been starters since their freshman season.
Sadie Martin – the team’s second pitcher and an “awesome” outfielder, Gephart said – and “really solid” first baseman Raquel Rice round out the senior class. Gephart said in his mind he refers to the seniors at the Fab Five.
“All five of them, the four years they’ve been here, the team has been academic all-state,” he said. “I think that’s huge that they’re that intelligent and that driven.
“The way it works in softball, individual academic all-state you get that award your senior year, and all five will get that award this year.”
Stock is second on the team with a .487 batting average and 44 RBI.
“She is a solid catcher, all-around catching,” Gephart said. “Offensively, defensively, she’s the best catcher I’ve been around or associated with in female softball.”
Stock was behind the plate and Avery Slancik on the mound for every postseason game last season.
“I used to be a pitcher, but I wasn’t too good at that. But I liked that I was in every play, so catching suited me well,” Stock said.
Slancik, a junior, started playing travel ball with the Portage Hurricanes when she was 8 and was coached by her dad, Michael Slancik.
“Dad actually coached nine of the 11 girls we have on the team,” she said. “Back in the day I was a pitcher and a catcher, but my brother was a catcher so I chose to pitch.”
When she was a freshman, her father put up a barn with three batting cages inside.
“Me and my brother (Trace), who is a freshman at Hope and plays baseball there, and a neighbor are out there all the time practicing and getting better every day.”
Slancik has been the Bulldogs number one pitcher since she was a freshman and earned all-state honorable mention last year.
“He’s coached baseball his whole life until I started playing softball,” she said. “Whenever we went to his house, we’d always play catch.
She and Stock are best friends, which will make for an interesting season in another year. While Stock will play softball at Calvin College after graduation, Slancik plans to play at Hope the following year. “It’s going to be fun,” Slancik said. “They’re big rivals, but we’re going to stay best friends.”
Kudary, meanwhile, is a slap-hitter and one of the fastest players on the team.
“She gets on base a lot for us and since she bats leadoff, that gets us going right away,” Gephart said. “As a freshman, initially she was on the JV and we brought her up when we had an injury, and she’s been a starter ever since.
“She has so much speed, there are teams who would have really good hits in gaps, but she gets to them. That makes us really solid up the middle with Avery pitching, Grace catching, Shaidan at shortstop and Carlie at center.”
Knapp leads the team with a .510 batting average and 50 RBI. Her grandfather, Ed Knapp, got her started playing softball.
“He’s coached baseball his whole life until I started playing softball,” she said. “Whenever we went to his house, we’d always play catch.
“I’d ask to go to the park to hit instead of playing at the playground. I’d want to hit softballs. He’s been with me through the whole experience.”
Ed Knapp, who has coached various sports since 1964 and baseball until 1998, is Gephart’s assistant. He is also a member of the Michigan High School Coaches Association and Vicksburg halls of fame.
Knapp’s sister, Tailynn, is a freshman infielder – but they don’t get special treatment from their grandfather.
“He doesn’t really treat me like a grandchild, but at the same time, he’s such a sweet old man he acts like everyone’s his grandchild,” Shailyn said. “It’s nice to be able to see him on the field because I know him off the field. He’s a really fun guy.”
Ed Knapp said there is a down side to coaching his granddaughters
“People are always going to say, yeah, they’re playing because he’s the coach. They always say that until they look at how they play. No coach can survive if they play favorites.”
On the up side, “It’s a lot of fun watching them progress and get better. They really listen. It’s easy to work with them because you can do it in more of a grandfatherly approach.”
He hopes to instill words of wisdom to the players from his decades of coaching.
“You have to have fun. That’s the main reason kids play sports, is to have fun,” he said.
“I just cringe when I hear some of these coaches screaming and yelling at their players. You can just see those girls with their heads going down.”
Team bonding plays a big role in Vicksburg’s success.
“The key is how close we are and just trusting that the person behind us has each other’s back,” Slancik said. “For instance, if one of us gets out, the next person will get another hit.
“If one person makes an error, the next person can step up and say, ‘It’s all right, I’ve got you.’ We’ve been implementing that into our game.”
Stock recalled how the team also got a boost from the community when it returned from the MHSAA Finals last year.
“Fans were lining the street and, we got escorted by police officers and fire trucks, so that was pretty cool,” she said. Later that summer, “There was a party at the football field for family and friends. We got all of our awards, and parents told us how proud they were of us.”
Of course, Vicksburg was disappointed to end the Cinderella season with a loss. But being one of two Division 2 teams standing at the end was special.
“You never want to lose,” Kudary said. “We have to look at it from a better perspective and realize we were the second team in the state to get there.
And yet, “We have to keep our focus and keep working hard at practice. We can’t let last year’s season interfere with this year’s season.”
The other junior on the team is third baseman/outfield Lauren Goertler.
The lone sophomore is pitcher/infielder Kali Yant, and other freshmen are catcher/outfielder Camille Wadley and third baseman/pitcher Rylie Richter.
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Vicksburg pitcher Avery Slancik warms up before an inning during last season’s Division 2 Final at Michigan State’s Secchia Stadium. (Middle top) From left: Carlie Kudary, Avery Slancik, Shaidan Knapp. (Middle below) Vicksburg’s Grace Stock, last season catching the championship game and also as a child catching with her eyes closed. (Below) From left: Bulldogs head coach Paul Gephart and assistant Ed Knapp. (Middle photo provided by Grace Stock.)
Flashback 1982: Diamond Finals Dominated by 1-Run Title Deciders
By
Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
June 6, 2022
Heavy downpours earlier in the week, combined with all-night rain on Friday, meant the title games in both baseball and softball were postponed from Saturday, June 19 to the following Monday.
BASEBALL
Those baseball fans making the trip to Central Michigan University’s Alumni Field for the 1982 MHSAA Baseball Finals saw five of the Detroit Free Press’ 11-member Dream team – Rick Leppien of Midland, Bill Hanis from Plymouth Canton, Paul Ouillette from Bay City Handy, Frank Kendall of Mesick and Ron Fillmore from Sanford Meridian (a rare all-stater in three sports).
Runner-up in Class D in 1981, Mesick brought home a state title in ’82, posting a 30-0-1 record, capped by a thrilling – and for some, controversial – 3-2 win over Colon before an opening game crowd of 500.
Colon grabbed a 2-1 advantage in the third inning and had multiple opportunities to up its lead, loading the bases in both the fourth and again in the top of the sixth innings. But the Magi were unable to capitalize. In the bottom of the sixth with one out, Mesick’s Monty Geiger ripped an opposite-field double within inches of the rightfield foul line, scoring Chuck Hockey to knot the game at 2-2, setting the stage for a thrilling finish.
In the seventh, with Mesick runners at second and third and nobody out, Colon coach Mike Sowles ordered an intentional walk to Bulldogs star Frank Kendall. With the bases loaded, a grounder to short was tossed to home plate for the inning’s first out. Another near-identical shot, again to the shortstop, followed. The throw to the plate was accurate and beat the sliding runner, Ken LeFountain. However, the umpire ruled the catcher had been pulled off the plate by the throw, allowing Mesick to score the game winner.
“Our clutch hitting didn’t come through for the first time in a long time,” said Sowles to the Battle Creek Enquirer. His team had stranded 13 runners on the morning. “We just didn’t get the key hits to put them away.”
"Most observers in the press box located directly behind home plate, thought the umpire was right,” stated Steve Morse, staff writer at the Enquirer, who had covered the game.
While Sowles disagreed with the game-ending call, he added, “You’ve got to give credit to Mesick. They pitched out of those jams time and time again.”
Also named all-state in football and basketball, Sanford Meridian’s Ron Fillmore doubled off the centerfield fence, then scored what proved to be the winning run in the fifth inning following a two-out single by catcher Brian Garner as the Mustangs downed Buchanan 6-4 to earn the Class C baseball crown. It was the second consecutive runner-up finish for the Bucks, who finished the year at 25-6.
Beaten only once, at a tournament during the regular season by eventual Class A champion Midland, Sanford Meridian (29-1) banged out 13 hits and opened the scoring in the top of the first when Dave Ehlert scored on a double steal. The Mustangs then added runs in the second, and a pair in the third inning, for a 4-1 lead.
Buchanan knotted the game in the fourth inning.
Fillmore, who was headed back to Central Michigan University in the fall on a football scholarship, tripled, scored twice, and added an RBI on the day. Garner drove in three runs on a double and a pair of singles, while Jim Bailey and Kirk Shauger also added two singles. The Mustangs had added an insurance run in the sixth following a Dennis Ladlow sacrifice fly.
“Fillmore concluded an outstanding athletic career at Sanford-Meridian with his performance in the title contest,” wrote Jack Walkden in the St. Joseph Herald-Palladium. “Three times he bailed starter Dave Walter (12-0) out of tight jams. And the senior righthander closed out the game with a flourish striking out Buchanan’s 1-2-3 batters. He worked 2 2/3 innings in all, yielding no runs, no hits, striking out five, and walking just two.”
“Sanford-Meridian got some other good news Monday,” added Walkden. “The baseball program had been dropped for 1983 as part of budget cuts at the school.
“‘But it’s about 80 percent sure that it will be reinstated through outside funding,’ Sanford-Meridian Athletic Director Steve Digsby said.”
Bob Podschline drove home the tying run with a two-run double in the Class B contest, scored the winning run on a Carl Novick two-run double in the third inning, then racked up 10 strikeouts as Southgate Aquinas topped Bay City Handy, 6-2. The Raiders southpaw allowed just two hits across six innings. Novak added a fifth-inning home run, and Gary Lizanich tossed a hitless seventh to seal the win. Aquinas ended the season with a 22-10 mark, while Handy closed out the year 30-9.
In the day’s final contest, Midland’s Chemics downed Plymouth Canton, 5-4, in Class A. Rick Leppien smacked a 385-foot two-run homer over the left-centerfield fence in the top of the second inning to open the scoring. It was his eighth round-tripper of the year. He scored again on a double steal to up the score to 3-0 in the fourth.
“The Chemics increased their lead to 5-0 with two more runs in the top of the fifth,” stated Don Winger in the Midland Daily News. “Bryan Kuehne doubled, moved to third on a ground out by Chris Carter, and scored when (Canton) shortstop Don Dombey threw wild to first on Mark Sayad’s grounder. Sayad raced all the way to third on the play and pitcher (Greg) Money promptly doubled him home.”
Victory, however, would not come easy.
Leppien, the ace of the Midland pitching staff with a 16-1 record, was limited to a relief role in the championship contest because of a “30 outs rule in effect for the semifinal and final games.” Hence, Midland coach Frank Altimore was forced into juggling pitching duties across four members of the staff.
A series of walks, a passed ball, and a timely single – Canton’s lone hit on the day – cut the margin to 5-3 in the fifth inning. Additional issues in the sixth led to another run, setting the stage for an exciting finish.
In the bottom of the seventh, Altimore moved pitchers in and out like chess pieces. The Chiefs had the winning run at third base when Money returned to the mound for the fourth time, and “blew a 3-2 pitch” past Canton’s batter to end the game for the final out.
“It was dark, and I told them to just come in with heat. They did, and we won. It was a great ballgame,” said Altimore.
Moments later, “a heavy downpour inundated the playing field,” concluded Winger. “But, by that time the Chemics were celebrating their second state title in 10 years, and they were oblivious to the raindrops.”
Money, the starter, was credited with both the win and the save for Midland, which finished with a 35-5 mark. Canton ended the season at 25-5.
“They were on a vision quest,” their coach would recall in 2007 when the team was honored with induction into the Midland County Sports Hall of Fame. “We had an incredibly talented team in 1981, senior-loaded. They went to the regional finals, where they got beat by a very poor team from Jackson with a great pitcher.”
In total, over 3,100 attended Monday’s baseball games.
SOFTBALL
Three one-run games kept softball fans on the edge of their seats at Lansing’s Ranney Park.
Paula DeFord and Jean Sullivan each drove in three runs as Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard rolled over Gaylord St. Mary, 9-2, for the Class D title. Senior Ann O’Sullivan held St. Mary to just two hits in the day’s opening game. Rain also had pushed the Softball Finals to Monday.
The Irish, focused on aggressive baserunning, stole 10 bases and took advantage of six errors by the young Gaylord squad. Up 2-0 after the first, and 4-2 after three innings, Gabriel Richard pushed across four more runs in the fourth. The Irish ended the campaign with a 30-6 mark, with O’Sullivan finishing her senior year with 16 wins against four defeats.
“New Lothrop’s first batter of the game, Kelly Fisher, crossed the plate with the game’s only score,” stated Bill Khan of the Flint Journal in his article covering the Hornets’ 1-0 win over Pontiac Catholic in the Class C Final. According to Khan, the “lone run couldn’t have been planned much better.
“Fisher led off the Hornets’ half of the first inning with a walk, then proceeded to swipe her 71st base of the season.”
The thefts marked the top season total recorded in Michigan, as well as the nation, at the time.
Fisher advanced to third on a groundout. A squeeze that went back to the mound initially held her at third, but the toss by the pitcher to first for the out opened an opportunity.
“… Fisher came streaking down the line and made a headfirst slide into home,” just under the tag of the relay to the plate, scoring the game’s only run.
Pontiac Catholic junior Vicki Morrow, who would later earn the Big Ten Softball Player of the Year honor at the University of Michigan in 1987 and was later selected to the Big Ten All-Decade Team, struck out five and allowed only four hits, while New Lothrop pitcher Sandy Deneen limited Pontiac’s offense to just five scattered hits and two walks across seven innings. New Lothrop ended the year with a 29-4 record, while the Titans finished at 30-3.
In Class B, Chelsea topped West Branch Ogemaw Heights, 3-2 in 13 innings. Senior Amy Unterbrink allowed just four hits on the day. Lisa Beeman scored the game winner following a single by Amy Hume.
Ogemaw Heights held a 2-0 lead entering the seventh, but a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning by the Bulldogs pushed the game to extra innings. It was the third straight “cliffhanger” for Chelsea, which ended the year with an impressive 33-2 record – tops in school history.
“In the regional final, they scored four runs with two outs in the seventh inning to trip Dearborn Divine Child, 4-2,” according to Rob Allstetter of the Ann Arbor News, “and they needed an Unterbrink double in the bottom of the eighth inning to turn back Richmond in the semifinals, 4-3.”
Royal Oak Kimball topped Grandville 1-0 in a Class A showdown featuring two of the state’s top pitchers, Kimball senior Julie Bishop and Grandville junior Kathy VanDerMolen.
A leadoff single in the seventh was the only hit allowed by Bishop, who upped her career mark to 46-5 with the win.
Kimball’s Lisa Bean, who had walked earlier in the inning, scored the game’s only run in the third when Mary Pike smashed a two-out double over the left fielder’s head. It was one of only two hits allowed by VanDerMolen.
Bean, Pike, and VanDerMolen, Chelsea’s Unterbrink, the Ogemaw Heights battery of pitcher Pam Czach and catcher Sue Pauley, Morrow and Pontiac Catholic teammates Mary Hashinger and Bridget Syron, Gabriel Richard’s O’Sullivan, her catcher Martha Rogers, and infielder Alicia Seegert, as well as Gaylord St. Mary junior Kristin Fosdick all were among postseason all-state first-team selections named by the Michigan High School Softball Coaches Association in mid-July.
Ron Pesch has taken an active role in researching the history of MHSAA events since 1985 and began writing for MHSAA Finals programs in 1986, adding additional features and "flashbacks" in 1992. He inherited the title of MHSAA historian from the late Dick Kishpaugh following the 1993-94 school year, and resides in Muskegon. Contact him at [email protected] with ideas for historical articles.
PHOTOS (Top) New Lothrop’s softball team celebrated the 1982 Class C championship with a 1-0 win over Pontiac Catholic. (2) Mesick won the Class D baseball title that spring. (3) Sanford Meridian’s Ron Fillmore would go on to play football at Central Michigan. (4) Kimball’s Lisa Bean would score the only run of the 1982 Class A Final. (Photos gathered by Ron Pesch. CMU football photo courtesy of the CMU Athletics Organizational Records.)