Vicksburg Sends Finals Rematch to Extra Inning, but Gaylord Locks Down Repeat

By Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com

June 15, 2024

EAST LANSING – Gaylord junior pitcher Aubrey Jones was given a second opportunity to close out Saturday’s Division 2 championship game and help her team repeat.

She had her older sister Jayden Jones to thank for it.

Jayden helped bring home the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth inning to give Gaylord a dramatic 3-2 win over Vicksburg at Secchia Stadium.

Vicksburg had evened the score in the bottom of the seventh inning, extending the game. But after Gaylord retook the lead, Aubrey Jones retook the pitching circle and shut the door with a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth.

“It was definitely stressful because  the whole postseason we hadn't been this close with a team,” Aubrey Jones said. “I was a little upset with myself because I let a pitch hang (in the seventh), but I’m super proud of my sister because we wouldn’t have scored that run without her, and I’m proud of her for being in that pressure situation and coming through for our team.

The Blue Devils begin their celebration.“This is super special for us because we’ve been playing together since we were 5 years old and the goal was to go out on top one more time, and we accomplished our goal.”

It was a rematch of last year’s Division 2 Final, but this ending was much different as Vicksburg rallied to tie it in the bottom of the seventh inning.

“The heart rate was up a little bit, but we couldn't show too much emotion because we didn't want the girls to feel that,” Gaylord coach Ron Moeggenberg said. “We talked to them before the playoff run started that at some point in this tournament we are going to have a close game and that was today, and they came through when they needed to.”

Down to their last strike in the seventh inning, Vicksburg delivered a stunning comeback.

Back-to-back singles with two outs by Maddison Diekman and Emily Zemitans and a Gaylord error evened the score at 2-2 and sent the game to extra innings.

“It hurts,” Bulldogs coach Paul Gephart said. “Very proud of the girls because they never give up and they fought to the end. Two strikes, two outs, and they still put it into that extra inning. 

“They will get past the hurt and have a special memory. First class at our school to do that back-to-back, so I’m very proud of them.

In the top of the eighth inning, Alexis Shepherd singled with one out and then Jayden Jones knocked a single to right field. Shepherd raced home on a throwing error at third base, and the Blue Devils retook the lead.

Aubrey Jones then got a pair of flyouts with a strikeout in between to end the game. She finished with five strikeouts and allowed just one walk over eight innings.

Vicksburg’s Peyton Smith and Maddison Diekman (10) enjoy a moment in the field.“This team has overcome a lot, and I’ve had to overcome a lot,” Jayden Jones said. “I was out last year (with a broken wrist), so being in this moment one more time with my team meant a lot to me. I had an opportunity to come through for my team and get the job done, and I was able to do that.”

The sisters combined for five of Gaylord’s 10 hits.

“They’ve come up big for us for the last four years, and we are going to miss Jayden,” Moeggenberg said. “It was special for us to do this again, and we knew that Vicksburg was going to be ready for us. Their pitcher was great today.”

Gaylord (38-4) took an early 2-0 lead with runs in each of the first two innings before Vicksburg trimmed the deficit in the bottom of the second with an RBI double from Ella Luegge.

Vicksburg senior pitcher Delaney Monroe was stellar again as she struck out six and didn’t allow a walk.

“She was keeping them off balance with her change-up, and she’s been so strong physically and mentally,” Gephart said. “She’s done a great job, and we couldn’t ask for anything more. That’s the No. 1 team in the state all year, and we were right there with them.”

Brooklynn Ringler and Audrie Dugan had two hits apiece for the Bulldogs (37-8).

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS (Top) Gaylord’s Alexis Shepherd sprints toward second base; she scored the game-winning run in Saturday’s Division 2 Final. (Middle) The Blue Devils begin their celebration. (Below) Vicksburg’s Peyton Smith and Maddison Diekman (10) enjoy a moment in the field.

Game May Change, But Success Continues as Wilson Nears 800 Coaching Wins

By Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com

April 16, 2024

SOUTH HAVEN — No dugouts, no outfield fences, $25 bats.

Southwest CorridorThings have come a long way since Wilma Wilson took over the coaching reins at her alma mater 35 years ago.

“When I played, we didn’t have fences, we didn’t have dugouts; we had benches,” the South Haven softball coach said. “If you hit a home run, it had to be an in-the-park home run because there were hardly any parks that had any fences.

“It’s come a long way. Now you go to fields that are turfed. I love it. I’m glad to see the change for the girls and to see more emphasis on them playing and being involved.”

With a 791-406 record over her 35 years coaching the Rams softball team, Wilson is closing in on 800 career wins. Her current record puts her 19th among MHSAA coaches and just 16 victories behind former Monroe coach Vince Rossi’s 807 victories.

The Rams are 2-2 on the young season, but started off with a bang — actually three bangs over the right field fence in a one-run squeaker against Paw Paw on March 26.

Although the team has just 11 players, it is stacked with experience. Nine players saw action last season, and the five seniors have three or four years of varsity time.

Those seniors include twins Kamryn and Taylor Holland.

Against Paw Paw, Kamryn hit her first grand slam, a walk-off homer in a 12-11 win.

The Rams enjoy watching Marlee Wilson’s Broncos this season. “I knew it was going to be close as soon as I saw it,” the third baseman said. “I just kept running and started jumping up and down when I saw it go over.”

She was one of the veterans instrumental in the team’s postseason play last year, as South Haven reached its Division 2 District Final before losing 6-2 to Hamilton.

The Rams are focused on a longer run this year.

“A lot of the girls have been on the same team, and we’ve played together the past three years,” Kamryn said. “We know enough about each other and work good together. Everything clicks.”

Her sister, a shortstop/pitcher, agrees she and her teammates already have solid connections and said Wilson is a big reason.

“I love how much she pushes me,” Taylor Holland said. “She’s always there when you need her. She’ll take you aside if you need anything and always wants us to be our best. I just love that about her, because she loves us on and off the field.”

Wilson does more than work on softball with the players.

“(Last week) I sat down with the girls and had a good heart-to-heart, working through frustrations, trying to help kids maneuver through things in life, whether at school, at home, in the game,” she said. 

“That’s a huge part of coaching and what keeps me in it, knowing I can make a difference helping these kids manage life a little bit.”

Continuing the legacy

One of Wilson’s former players who is still very involved in the sport is her daughter, Marlee Wilson, in her first season as Western Michigan University’s head softball coach.

The Broncos won their 20th game of the season Sunday, making Wilson WMU’s winningest first-year softball coach. 

Wilson, right, joins daughter Marlee to form an accomplished mother-daughter coaching tree. “I coached her when she was small, coached her through high school, coached her in travel ball,” Wilma Wilson said. “She’s a very competitive kid, plays really hard. She has that same love for the game that I do, same drive.”

Marlee Wilson said one important thing she learned from her mom was to make softball fun.

“Practices in high school were always really fun,” she remembered. “It was the best part of the day. I couldn’t imagine it being any other way. (I want to) continue that and also develop the student athletes as people.

“There’s not a huge career in softball like there is in baseball and other sports, so you’re going to play four or five years in college then hopefully be prepared for life after sports, which (Mom) did a really good job with me.”

When she has a chance to talk with high school athletes, Marlee Wilson tells them to have fun and learn the basics of the game.

“That’s huge in high school,” she said. “At the college level, we can tell players who went through really good high school programs or travel programs that have those really good fundamentals or softball IQ.

“(Mom) does a really good job of developing players as a whole so when they get to that level, they understand that part of the game.”

Wilson played softball at WMU from 2014-18 and was a three-time academic all-Mid-American Conference honoree, a 2017 MAC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete and a four-time NFCA All-American Scholar.

Sparking like Sparky

Although Wilma Wilson calls him a “co-coach,” Dave Gumpert considers himself her assistant the last 11 years.

“I respect her many years as being a coach,” he said. “We talk things over, but she makes the final decisions.

“It’s been a really good relationship. She bounces things off me, I bounce things off her. It’s been a good run so far.”

Gumpert, who had a seven-year stint as a major league pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals, is the one who good-naturedly calls Wilson “Sparky” and not because of her sparkling personality.

Myraql McGee settles in under a fly ball. “She pretty much lets me run practice, and she walks around,” he said, smiling. “I played for (Tigers manager) Sparky Anderson and that’s what he did. He walked around the outfield, just talking to people and doing all the PR stuff while all the other coaches were getting the work done. So I like to tease her.”

Equipment has been another area of change during Wilson’s tenure.

“The equipment has gone crazy from the technology of bats,” she said. “A bat back in the day would be $20, $25. Now they’re $400. 

“If take my school budget and buy balls for the season for both our (varsity and JV) teams and a bat, I’ve used two-thirds of my budget.”

But South Haven is making those bats work. Senior centerfielder Myraql McGee said hitting is among the team’s most noticeable improvements from a year ago.

“Our whole lineup is good power hitters. It doesn’t matter where you are, our lineup is pretty stacked,” said McGee, who will continue her career next season at Missouri Valley College.

“Fielding-wise, we could work on a couple things, but we don’t make as many errors at routine plays as many other teams.”

Other seniors are Sam Beeney and Kayley Gorham, and juniors are Madi Dotson, Grace Strebeck and Molly Verseput. Sophomores are Addison Dekoning and Erin Bos, and they are joined by freshman Ly’Nique Cunningham.

Gumpert was with Wilson when the Rams reached but lost in the Division 2 Final in 2018 and sees some similarities between that and this year’s team.

“Offensively, we had a good team, but I would dare to say this team is as good offensively as that team was,” he said. “It’s going to boil down to how well our pitching does, how well our pitchers progress. If we have the pitching I think we can develop into, I think we’ll be competitive with anybody.”

Pam ShebestPam 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) South Haven softball coach Wilma Wilson, right, welcomes home Kamryn Holland after Holland’s grand slam March 26. (2) The Rams enjoy watching Marlee Wilson’s Western Michigan Broncos this season. (2) Wilson, right, joins daughter Marlee to form an accomplished mother-daughter coaching tree. (4) South Haven senior Myraql McGee settles in under a fly ball. (Top and WMU photos provided by Wilma Wilson, family photo by Pam Shebest, and McGee action photo provided by McGee.)