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Gladstone Girls Stun Gaylord, Win Saginaw Invite
 Click the thumbnails to for photos and videos, and post-game comments from Lauren Sundquist and Tia Schone. SAGINAW---The Gladstone High School softball team won three games on Saturday to take the championship of the Saginaw County Invite at Hoyt Park. And it was the last game of the day that was the most dramatic, and the most meaningful for the Braves. Gladstone beat the two-time defending state champion Gaylord Blue Devils, 4-3, and they did it against pitcher Aubrey Jones, who has signed with Oklahoma State University. Lauren Sundquist smacked a solo home run in the first inning after Gaylord had taken a 2-0 lead, and then, with the game tied at 3-3 in the fifth inning, Sundquist’s hard liner through the pitcher’s circle brought home the go-ahead run. Tia Schone did the rest from there with a 1-2-3 top of the sixth inning, and the Braves had their big victory. “It was very exciting,” Sundquist said of hitting a home run against Jones. “I was really glad that I got something high in the zone. I think it was a rise ball. I was just able to get around and square it up and get some momentum started for our team.” Schone earned the victory by throwing all six innings, after also throwing four innings each in the Braves’ wins over Oxford and Lapeer. Against Gaylord, Schone limited the Blue Devils to only two base hits and struck out eleven batters. “We just really tried to stick to our gameplan,” Schone said. “We knew they were going to be really tough hitters, one-through-nine, so we really had to prepare to be able to pitch one, through nine. It was a battle all day pitching against some really, really good hitters. We jusr toughed it out.” Alli Larson had a huge two-run single in the first inning after Sundquist hit her homer to put the Braves on top 3-2. Gaylord (17-3) tied it in the third inning, and it stayed that way until the fourth inning. That’s when Larson smoked a lead-off single to center field, Ava Goodman beat out a bunt single, and they both advanced on a wild pitch. That set up Sundquist’s hard hit that gave the Braves the late lead. The wins give the Braves some confidence as they get ready for a rematch against the state-ranked Escanaba Eskymos. Gladstone lost both ends of the doubleheader last Tuesday to the Eskymos, but are hoping to have a different result Tuesday evening in Escanaba. “It’s a momentum-builder for sure,” Sundquist said. “These were pretty competitive games today, and we know that we’re going to get a competitive team from Esky every single time. Just kind of seeing that grit and competitiveness on our side is really good to know that we can do this on Tuesday.” “A lot of our girls got good hits today, and so just that ‘you can do it’ attitude will help going into Tuesday,” Schone added. Earlier on Saturday, the Braves shut out Oxford, 4-0, with a big three-run fourth inning. Two of those runs came home on a sharply-hit single to center field by Emma Trombley. Sundquist followed with an RBI hit of her own, and that was plenty for Schone and Lauren Pere in the pitcher’s circle. They combined to throw a one-hitter with 12 strikeouts. Oxford fell to 7-18-1 on the season. In the second game of the day, Gladstone beat Lapeer, 12-3, scoring nine runs to break it open. Schone hit a home run, two doubles, and drove in four runs. Goodman contributed two hits and two runs batted in, and Sundquist had a pair of doubles and two RBI. Schone and Pare combined to limit the Lightning to five hits, striking out 12 Lapeer batters. Lapeer fell to 11-21 on the season. Gladstone enters the final week of the regular season with a 23-3 record heading into Tuesday’s showdown with Escanaba.  |
