POWER OUTAGE: Richmond Shuts Down Eskymos

Click the thumbnails to see video highlights and click the AUDIO buttons to hear post-game comments from Coach Andy Fields, as well as player spotlight interviews with Harlee Coolman and Katey Lamb.

EAST LANSING---The margin between an exhilarating victory and a crushing loss can be razor thin in softball. And that was on full display Thursday afternoon at Michigan State University as the Escanaba Eskymos and Richmond Blue Devils played in a tense MHSAA Division Two state semifinal game.

In a pitcher’s dual that came down to two plays, the Blue Devils ended Escanaba’s season, 2-0, at Secchia Stadium. It’s the third time in the last decade that the Escanaba has lost to Richmond at MSU.

“It’s never easy when you get to this mark,” Escanaba Manager Andy Fields said. “We’re graduating six outstanding seniors. Just to lose the way we did, it’s going to hurt for a while.”

So, how did the Eskymos lose? Especially when Grayson LaMarche struck out 13 batters and allowed only three base hits? Well, it all came down to the top of the sixth inning when Richmond scored the only two runs of the game on what turned out to be the only error of the game.

It started with Katie Teltrow striking out to start the inning, but the rise ball sailed all the way to the backstop and Teltrow reached base. Then Kendall Nader put down a perfect bunt on the third base line, just a few feet from the plate, and there were two runners for the Blue Devils.

Then “the play”. With runners at second and third, Ashley Stafford hit a ground ball to first base. McKenzie Engebretsen tagged Stafford, then noticed that the runner was well off third base. Her throw across the diamond was off-target, and as third baseman Katey Lamb went for the ball, there was a collision with Teltrow.

The ball sailed away into foul territory, and no obstruction was called. Both runners scored, giving Richmond a 2-0 lead without even hitting the ball to the outfield.

“It’s a cruel game,” Fields said, almost at a loss for words. “It can be a cruel game. It can be a rewarding game. Today, for us, it was a cruel game. But really, at the end of the day, we just didn’t put enough hits together, we didn’t get the baserunners we needed to scratch across something. Grayson threw another gem, and we just didn’t give her the run support that we needed.”

Indeed. The Eskymos, who won a school record 40 games this season, often with home runs and multiple-hit games, just could not do anything against the Richmond pitcher, Katie Shuboy. She, by the way, is the cousin of another Shuboy who shut down the Eskymos way back in 2017 in a state semifinal game.

This Shuboy allowed only two baserunners the whole game, and when the Eskymos did hit the ball hard, the Blue Devil outfielders made it look easy as they recovered the outs.

Escanaba’s first baserunner was a one-out walk to Clara Braun in the bottom of the first inning. But Shuboy, who will attend Ferris State University this fall, struck out Lamb and got Carly Bowden to pop up.

The only other baserunner was in the bottom of the fifth inning when Engebretsen smoked a shot up the middle for a base hit. Freshman Abby Derkos was brought in as a pinch runner, and before the Eskymos could set up a possible bunt play, Derkos got picked off of first base.

The Eskymos never came close to getting another baserunner as Shuboy struck out twelve batters. She needed just 83 pitches to get the win.

LaMarche closed her Eskymo career with another great outing, striking out 13 batters, allowing only three base hits, three walks, and no earned runs. She will attend the University of Michigan this fall.

Richmond (30-7) will face Paw Paw in the state championship game Saturday morning. As for the Eskymos, they boarded their bus, and after a team meal in East Lansing, headed home. Two days early.

“We’re not done,” Fields said. “We’ll be back here. I know it. We have so many great players. It’s a hard day today, but tomorrow, we’ll get back to work.”