She's only a freshman, but Ashley Holz finds herself in the Wisconsin record books after Oakfield (29-1) ended the season in Division 4 with a 4-0 championship game victory over Thorp.
Holz threw the first perfect game and sixth no-hitter in any division of state tournament history as Oakfield won its second state title and first since 1997.
Holz faced the minimum 21 batters and had three strikeouts. Defensively, she also had five putouts.
Nicole Nolan had a run-scoring single in the third. Oakfield had three runs on four errors in the fifth.
After the game, Holz gave credit to the team's seven seniors — Bethanee Dix, Jamie Nolan, Nichole Nolan, Nikki Nelson, Patti Bovee, Ashley Haller and Cindel Erdmann — who led the team to a 53-2 record over the last two seasons.
Division 3
She's perfect. So is her team.
Grantsburg's Michelle Lund, a junior hurled her team to a 3-0 victory over Laconia in the Division 3 softball state championship game for Wisconsin on Saturday at Goodman Diamond in Madison. As a result Lund, whose team finished at 27-0, ended her own season with a 25-0 mark and 0.43 ERA.
Lund also wound up as one of her team's top hitters at .481. She had two hits and two RBI in the title game. Heather Davison had a base hit and the team's other RBI.
In the pitcher's circle, Lund had a two-hitter while allowing only one walk.
“She's got good movement on the ball and a nice knuckleball changeup,” Grantsburg coach Don Bjelland said. “She keeps the batters off balance. She has a lot of experience and knows her spots well. She also has a good team behind her.”
“We're really loose as a team,” Lund said. “We're always there for each other. We're good all-around. Five different girls hit home runs over the fence. Our outfield is really strong.”
Lund, a junior, also is heavy into summer softball.
“This was a really good season for us,” Lund said. “I was hoping for the best and that's what I got. It takes a lot of practice and being able to adjust to different pitchers.”
First baseman Annie Palmquist, a junior, batted .427 on the season.
“She (Palmquist) worked really hard on her swing,” Bjelland said. “When she's on, she can hit anything. If she gets into a slump, she'll work hard to get out of it. Her drive to be successful is similar to Michelle's.”
“Our key was our team chemistry and how we've played together since we were little,” Palmquist said. “We've all worked hard and that was our goal for the whole year.”
“It boils down a little bit to luck,” Bjelland said about the state title effort. “Our past track record is that we usually win most of our games during the regular season but then we lost in the sectionals. We figured we'd go as far as we can. We graduated six seniors last year. We lost in the sectional finals last year to Parks Falls 12-0 in six innings. We beat them in our sectionals this year 10-1.”
It was Grantsburg's first state title since 2006.
“We're only losing one senior this year,” Lund said. “Hopefully we can go for it again.”
Division 1
Stevens Point and coach Tom Drohner has now won state championships six times in the last 12 seasons.
On Saturday, Stevens Point scored six runs in the top of the ninth inning to take the Division 1 title over Chippewa Falls 6-0. Stevens Point had a 10-2 hits advantage over Chippewa Falls, but the losing team was especially burned with five errors.
Stacey Tuskowski and Kelly Franks, the dynamic one-two-pitching punch for Stevens Point, combined for the shutout in the title game. Stevens Point ended the season at 27-3.
“We were 26-0 last year and returned seven of our nine starters. We had an idea that we had a pretty good shot,” Drohner said. “We put together a tough schedule this year. We competed very well in that schedule. Three-quarters into the season, I thought we had a legitimate shot the way we were playing.”
Stevens Point also won the title 2001 through 2004 and then again in 2008. The school was state runner-up in 2000.
“We have great athletes and a tremendous summer program in our area that allows our kids to have exposure playing softball and play it at a high level."
Tuskowski was 14-3 with a 0.99 ERA while Franks was 13-0 with a 0.49 ERA.
Leading the state champs in hitting was junior Brooke Piotrowski, a lefty slapper, at .422.
Katie Krueger batted .393 with 29 RBI.
Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco ended the season 18-12 as state champions in Division 2 with a 4-1 win over Monroe in the title game. Steffi Kinnard had two hits and two RBI for the winners. Danielle Deterville was the winning pitcher, scattering four hits.
