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REGIONAL CHAMPIONS! Braves On To Elite Eight
 Click the thumbnails to hear post-game interviews. ELK RAPIDS, Mich,---The Gladstone High School softball team scored six runs with two out in the fourth inning to break a scoreless tie, and the Braves pulled past the Elk Rapids Elks, 9-3, in the MHSAA Division Three regional championship game Saturday afternoon. Coupled with the team's 6-1 win over the Negaunee Miners in the semifinals, the Braves won a regional championship and will head to Gaylord for a state quarterfinal match-up on Tuesday evening against the Standish-Sterling Pioneers. "These girls work really hard," Gladstone Manager Rick Pepin said. "We spend a lot of time on the fundamentals. They're pretty driven. They keep us extra long at pracfice sometimes. They deserve to have this opportunity."  "I felt good about today." Schone said. "Our team played against a lot of top teams all of the season. I think that's one of the reasons why we are able to do what we do. I've been pitching a lot lately, and I've been able to work on being strong for the whole seven innings. I've got really used to it, and that was a big help today." Fellow sophomore Lauren Sundquist was happy about keeping the season going. "We're really, really molded together," Sundquist said. "This is a great team. We're all good friends. We all work together, and if one of us makes a mistake, we just kind of forget about it. Our team goal was to win regionals, and we've done that, and now I can't wait to see what else we can do." The Braves were unable to take advantage of walks and singles against Elks pitcher Rhielynn Skrocki in the first three innings, but in the fourth inning, things changed in a big way. With two out and two on base, Sundquist smacked a hard base hit to the left side, bringing home Sammy Drielick, wo had walked to start the inning. That brought in Gladstone's first run, and started the train rolling. Addie Trombley followed with a line drive base hit to center field, bringing home two runs, making it a 3-0 game. Tia Schone added an RBI single to make it 4-0, Montgomery Pepin and Reese Herioux both got run-scoring hits, and all of a sudden, it was a 6-0 Gladstone lead. "We had to come here today and be aggressive at the plate and put the ball in play," Coach Pepin said. "Early on, in this game (against Elk Rapids), we hit the ball hard right at them. I knew it was just a matter of time before we found a hole." It stayed that way until the top of the sixth inning, when Pepin had an RBI single to left field, Schone scored on a passed ball, and Drielick lifted a sacrifice fly to bring in Pepin. It was 9-0 until two out in the bottom of the seventh inning, when the Elks got on the board on a long three-run homer by Brooke Fluty. Elk Rapids finished a great season with a 28-9 record. But the Braves had plenty of runs, and earned their way to another downstate trip on Tuesday, with hopes of making it to the state finals at MSU. In the semifinal game, the Braves pitcher, Schone, allowed only one hit over the first five innings. She ended up striking ot 12 batters in the seven innings. Grace Nardi took the loss for Negaunee, which finished its season with a 22-12 overall record. One downer was Sanara Sanville rolling her ankle in the first game. She left that contest and did not play in the championship game. "Well, optimistically speaking, we hope she's going to be OK," Pepin said. "When she rolled her ankle, we kind of played it safe. We didn't want to force the issue. I'm optimistic that she'll be ready to go. She's a tough kid." Gladstone (24-8) faces Standish-Sterling (35-7) in the state quarterfinals on Tuesday. The Panthers beat top-ranked Evart, 10-6, and turned back Kingsley, 13-3, to win their regional on Saturday. Tuesday's game starts at 5:30 in Gaylord and will be broadcast live on FM-93.5, AM-600, and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.  |
