PREP SOFTBALL: Lakeland the one left standing at all-star regional
Romeo stuns No. 2 Clarkston; Athens eliminated
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
HARTLAND — There is one thing that Joe Alsup really enjoys about winning regional championships.
“It never gets old,” smiled Alsup, White Lake Lakeland’s veteran softball coach.
Sixth-ranked Lakeland downed Romeo, 3-0, Saturday in a Division 1 regional final at Hartland to advance to the state quarterfinals Tuesday at Madison Heights Bishop Foley against Sterling Heights Stevenson.
“We have been to the regional finals 12 times and we’ve won all of them,” smiled Alsup, who still has players from his 2010 team that won a regional and eventually finished as the state runner-up that season. “But for a lot of these girls, this is their first experience at this. Every group is different.”
Sierra Burke plated Kelly Merkle with an RBI double in the first to give the Eagles 1-0 cushion.
AROUND THE WAY: Clarkston's Megan Hastings rounds second base and heads towards third during the Wolves' Division 1 regional semifinal Saturday against Romeo. Staff Photo | Dan Stickradt
In the fourth, the Eagles strung together three straight singles and Morgan Craft blooped a bunt that drove in what proved to be two insurance runs.
Selena Hicks was a wizard on the mound, surrendering only two hits from the circle.
“(I keep) them off balance and mix in my change-ups. That’s all I do,” said Hicks, who more than baffled hitters Saturday, including a 5-0 win over Troy Athens in the first semifinal.
Romeo rallied past second-ranked Clarkston, 7-4, in eight innings in the second semifinal.
The regional featured four teams that captured league championships during the regular season and all four were ranked in the coaches association poll headed into the postseason.
“This was a very tough regional. We knew that coming in that there would be some good games,” said Alsup. “And it won’t get easier. We’ll face Sterling Heights Stevenson in the quarterfinals and they are tough and we’ll probably see a team like Hudsonville in the semifinals if we make it that far. It’s going to be a tough road if we are to get to the state finals.”
THE SCOOP: Clarkston's Rachel Alli prepares to field an approaching ground ball during Saturday's regional contest with Romeo. Staff Photo
Romeo coach Dave McIntrye felt that Hicks’ effectiveness was the difference in the game.
“We just struggled to hit her, find any type of rhythm against her,” said McIntyre. “I thought she was the difference. She has that change up that had us guessing all afternoon.”
ROMEO 7, CLARKSTON 4 (8 innings): Tenth-ranked Romeo took advantage of a throwing error in the sixth inning to tie the game at 4-4, then broke open the contest in the top of the eighth with three more runs to steal the upset.
Clarkston, which had not lost a game in nearly a month, finished 36-5 — a school record for wins.
“It hurts because we were a play away from winning this game,” said Clarkston coach Don Peters. “We had a couple of errors or we had situations where if we could have just got one more hit it would have made a big difference.
“Every team in this regional was a good so there wasn’t any room for error,” added Peters. “If just wasn’t our day.”
Romeo sophomore hurler Taylor Weaver shut the door on the Wolves the rest of the way. She allowed only two baserunners in the final five innings and only one baserunner in the bottom of the eighth, getting Sydney Hasselbach out on strikes after 10 pitches to end the game.
Weaver fanned seven while giving up just five hits against a potent Clarkston lineup.
Freshman Madeline Maday suffered the loss for Clarkston, giving up seven hits with seven strikeouts.
Romeo raced out to a 3-0 lead in the second, when Rachael Gabrielson laced an RBI single up the middle and Kayla Noch followed with a two-run single.
Clarkston rallied in the third behind RBI singles from Rachel Alli and Megan Hastings. Hasselbach put Clarkston in the lead at 4-3 when she delivered a two-run double.
Romeo took advantage in the sixth when Geordin Craun singled and later scored on an error, which tied the game at 4-4 and set the stage for extra innings.
In the eighth, five straight baserunners, four hits and a hit batsmen, provided the Bulldogs with a three-run cushion. Craun had a two-run double and Gabrielson followed with a single up the middle that scored the final run.
WHITE LAKE LAKELAND 5, TROY ATHENS 0: It took Troy Athens 15 years to earn a return trip to the regional round of the postseason. The Red Hawks’ stay was a short one, as the Eagles posted this shutout Saturday morning in the Division 1 regional semifinals.
Four of Lakeland’s five runs were unearned.
FIELDER'S CHOICE:Troy Athens' Melissa Palmer scoop sup this grounder and prepare to fire the ball towards first base during the Red Hawks' Division 1 regional semifinal Saturday against White Lake Lakeland. Staff Photo | Dan Stickradt
“They have a good pitcher and we just didn’t do anything,” said veteran Athens coach Dave Marr, whose program was making their first appearance in the regionals since 1997. “The story line was four errors. I think (they had) four unearned runs.”
In the first, Lakeland plated a run when pinch runner Lauren Ziegler scored on a fielder’s choice.
The Eagles tacked on two more runs in the third, when Lauren Brouillard singled and later scored on another fielder’s choice. Morgan Craft also singled and pinch-runner Miranda Dearing crossed the plate on another fielder’s choice.
In the fifth, Kelly Merkle led off the frame with a single and pinch runner Ziegler plated on an RBI by Sierra Burke, who reached on a double. Burks also scored the fifth run on an RBI single by Hannah Szajner.
Selena Hicks fired a three-hitter and allowed three walks against 11 strikeouts.
Haley Zemmer took the loss for Athens, which finished 31-7-1. Zemmer scattered six hits with two strikeouts.
“We were tight,” sighed Marr. “We talked about it all week long about not being tight. We talked about what we you do if we were facing adversity and what would we do if we were falling behind. Later in the game I thought we did have chances. I thought if we could have got back to the heart of our order, we would have a chance. But they are a very good team and they didn’t allow us to come back.”
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