By John Raffel
MaxPreps.com
Garden City won its first softball championship Saturday at Battle Creek and did so in dramatic fashion.
Hallie Minch was the winning pitcher and also had three hits and both RBI in her team's 2-1 victory over Alpena on Saturday at Bailey Park for the Division 1 state championship.
Rachel Brown drove home a run in the bottom of the fourth for Alpena. Minch tied the game with an RBI single in the top of the sixth and doubled home the game winner the top of the 14th. But she had to pitch out of trouble when Alpena loaded the bases the bottom of the 14th to preserve Garden City's title.
“I'm confident in my hitting. I love hitting,” Minch said. “I was really excited to be up there. I just wanted to hit off of her.”
Both teams had eight hits. Leah Cox and Aubrey Kowalski had two hits apiece for Alpena. Rachel Gebauer was the losing pitcher.
“We have eight seniors on the team. We were looking forward to this all season,” Minch said.
“For our town, this is an incredible thing,” said Garden City coach Barry Patterson, who has a 22-year coaching record of 512-208. “We had so many people who followed us that the girls don't realize how big of a thing this is. People were driving past the practice field this week honking their horns and giving us thumbs up.
“Garden City is not a very big town. It's sandwiched into the metropolitan Detroit area. To me, it's still small town America. I feel great for the city. It's something for them to hang their hats on and be proud of.”
Garden City's season ended at 32-6, while Alpena was 34-6.
“Fourteen innings is a long time. I wasn't expecting that,” Minch said. “I felt good on the mound. Once we got that run, I was even more excited. I wasn't worried about them scoring. I was confident in my defense. I was a little nervous when they got their two leadoff runners on (in the bottom of the 14th). Once we got some outs, I felt more confident.”
“Minch has been a rock for us all season long,” Patterson said. “She's been what we built around the last three years.”
Division 2
Tecumseh celebrated its second straight Division 2 title, but it was far from easy this time against Wyoming Rogers in a 4-3, extra-innings victory Saturday in the Division 2 state softball championship game at Battle Creek's Bailey Park.
Trailing 3-0 after five innings with two innings to play in regulation, Tecumseh got one run back in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double by Whitney Hastings. In the bottom of the seventh, Tecumseh was down to its last out with two runners on base and two runs down.
Catcher Stayci Cook, who wound up with three hits for the game, stroked her biggest of the season with a two-run double to tie the game and send it to extra innings.
In the bottom of the ninth, center fielder Nikki Hughes, who had three hits, singled to center field and Chelsea Gonzalez scored from second base to clinch the championship.
“We stayed pretty calm when we fell behind. We knew there was a lot of game left,” Gonzalez said. “We said we knew we could do this.”
When her team got the game-tying hit, “It felt great,” Gonzalez said. “We were back in the game and we knew we could do it. We knew it was a matter of time before someone got a hit.”
When she scored, “I ran for my life to get to home,” Gonzalez said. “I said 'we need this run and we need it to win.' That's what I did.”
The season ends at 37-8 for Tecumseh and at 36-6-1 for Wyoming Rogers.
Catie Kaliszuk was the winning pitcher for Tecumseh. Kelsey Bandstra, who had two hits and two RBI for Rogers, was the losing pitcher.
“We have bands on our left arm,” said Tecumseh coach Kristalyn Smith, who has a coaching record of 139-25. “We're playing for two dads who couldn't watch the game from the stands for us. It gave us some extra momentum.”
Division 3
Allen Park Cabrini's bid for a third-straight state championship was thwarted by Galesburg-Augusta and its pitcher, Jacki Bowe, who threw a one-hit shutout in a 5-0 victory. Bowe retired the first 20 batters and was one out shy of a perfect game. But Amanda Chidester had a single to spoil Bowe's bid for a perfect game and a no-hitter.
Bowe struck out 18 batters and walked none in pitching to 22 batters over seven innings. Galesburg-Augusta got one run in the second inning and three in the third plus one in the fourth. All three runs in the second frame came on first baseman Ali Dawson's three-run double.
Galesburg-Augusta, which ended its season at 40-3, got singles from Bowe, Dawson, Nicole Born, Alyssa Foy and Mallory Schug.
Allen Park Cabrini, at 37-3-1, moved up to Division 3 for this season after winning the Division 4 titles in 2006 and 2007. Cabrini won its second-straight Division 4 title last year with a 35-0 record. It was 39-0 in winning the 2006 state championship. But its two-year winning streak came to an end during the regular season.
It's Galesburg-Augusta's first state title in softball.
Division 4
Earlier on Saturday, Bay City All Saints' baseball team won the Division 4 title. Later in the day, the softball team did the trick with a 4-0 victory over Homer.
All Saints scored all four of its runs in the fifth inning. Catcher Becca DeWyse had a two-run double to spark the fifth inning for the winners.
Melanie Sobczak and Stephanie Herman both had two hits and an RBI for the Bay City team, which ended its season at 35-7-1.
Homer, which ended at 21-15, had only two hits. Pitcher Louise Rezmer took the win for the All Saints and also had two hits at the plate.
“(DeWyse) got the big hit in districts to get us going,” All Saints coach Brad Walraven said. “She's just a born leader.”