SCHOOLCRAFT, Mich,---The Gladstone Major Little League All-Star softball team (age 10-12) easily won their state quarterfinal game on Sunday, 15-0, over a shorthanded Edwardsburg team. It was a game that saw Gladstone pitchers throw their fourth consecutive no-hitter, and saw them score five runs in the first inning to take control.
But it was just a means to an end, because looming on Championship Monday are the two groups of girls that eliminated Gladstone in the state tournament in each of the last two summers: Hudsonville, and, possibly, Grosse Pointe.
“The girls are ready,” Gladstone Manager Kelly Carter said. “They've been talking about this for two years. We're having a full-on batting practice tonight. We brought the pitching machine (to ramp up the speed). It's hard when you go from the pitching that we've seen the last four games to Hudsonville. There's no doubt about that.”
Gladstone lost to Hudsonville and pitcher Lucy Baker, 8-2, in the Minor Softball state semifinals in 2023, ironically, just 17 miles from here in Mattawan. And in the 11u Softball State tournament last summer, Grosse Poimte knocked out Gladstone, 7-4, in the semifinals, despite Gladstone being the top seed heading into the final four.
Gladstone pitcher Reese Lovell hasn't forgotten the pain of those losses.
“I think that we need to be humble, and take every pitch like it's our last,” Lovell said. “We're going to take it pitch-by-pitch, no matter what happens. We've been waiting for this for two years to get back at these two teams, and we can't wait.”
Sunday's win over the local district champion, Edwardsburg, was not in doubt, with Gladstone scoring five runs in the first inning. Kamryn Ayotte continued her hot hitting with a two-run single (she also had another RBI hit later in the game). And Rylie St. Vincent had her biggest hit of the tournament, driving in two more runs.
“I just seen her warming up, and I was timing her up,” St. Vincent said. “The first pitch looked good, so I swung at it. It felt really good knowing that I can actually hit now. I wasn't hitting the best as I could the last couple of days, so feeling that hit actually made my confidence up more.”
Edwardsburg, a league located on the Michigan-Indiana border, had to play with only nine players because three of its top players skipped the game to instead compete in a travel ball tournament. That meant that the District 15 champions was thin on pitching, using the same girl for two different pitching appearances.
In the end, it probably didn't matter, as a trio of Gladstone pitchers each tossed one inning of shutout, no-hit ball, as the game ended on the 15-run “super mercy” rule.
Knowing that Hudsonville had already dusted off Taylor North, 13-2, in a morning quarterfinal, left the Gladstone girls thinking of revenge even as they took the field against Edwardsburg.
“We've been in this position before,” Gladstone's Emmersyn Whitney said. “Two years ago when we came downstate, we played all the easy teams and had to play Hudsonville in the semifinals, and that's what we're doing this year, too. We just have to come back and beat them now. I think we just need to get our bats going and play good like I know we can.”
If Gladstone can win the 3:00 semifinal game, they would likely come up against Grosse Pointe in the state championship game. Grosse Pointe easily beat Rogers City, 12-0, on Sunday, and they will play Kimball Township at the same time Gladstone and Hudsonville meet up on Monday. Kimball eliminated Clare, 8-4, on Sunday.
“We're going to take care of our business,” Lovell said.
Catch all of Gladstone's action on Monday on WCHT-FM/AM (93.5/600) and on-line at www.rrnsports.com. Coverage starts at 2:45 ET.
