John Raffel
Sports Scene
Cheri Ritz came into the softball season as the coach of a Wayland Union team that boasted only three seniors and four juniors on a roster that was filled out by six sophomores and two freshmen.
The Wildcats more than held their own with a 38-3-1 record, which included an 11-1 victory over Belding in the quarterfinals. They finished the season by losing 4-2 to Livonia’s Ladywood High School, the eventual state champion, in the semifinal on June 15.
“This was beyond our expectations,” Ritz said. “I feel bad for our seniors. They were excited. They kept saying ‘bring it on.’ Last year we lost 5-3 to Ladywood. They were confident we could beat them.”
Trailing 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth, the Wildcats struck on Haley Obett’s two-run double.
Kayla Merice had two hits for Wayland, which had a 6-5 advantage in that category.
“We usually rely on our bunt game. We didn’t get bunts down in the early part of the game. They executed it, we didn’t,” Ritz said.
Ladywood starter Briana Combs sustained a knee injury with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, and Lauren Haynes came on in relief to get the save.
“I didn’t catch it until that last inning. She threw well. She shut us down,” Ritz said.
Mallory Teunissen took the pitching loss, giving up one walk and striking out four.
Ladywood scored three runs in the second inning to fuel the victory.
“Their pitcher, I knew she was an all-state pitcher and had to be pretty good,” Ritz said. “She did a nice job. We haven’t been shut down like that all year. Our losses have been 2-1 to St. Clair and to the defending state champs. She’s legit, she throws well.”
Ritz was asked if it might had made a difference if Wayland Union had scored first.
“I think it would have,” she said. “I told the girls if we score first and they’re down, then we have to the potential to win. They came back and did the same thing to us and they scored I think. That’s huge. I think it’s important to score first. They happened to be the team to score first.”
Wayland left two runners stranded in the first inning.
“We’re aggressive,” Ritz said. “We try to stretch for that extra base. That’s our style. We wanted to force them to force errors.”
Wayland Union won the state title in 2006.
“I feel great. Part of my lecture to the team is we’re back,” Ritz said. “We don’t like how it feels. But we’re a very young team.
“We have the twin sisters. They’ll learn from it. They’re good kids, freshmen. Those two will be back. She pitched a great game for a freshman. She pitched very well against what I think is a veteran team. They were here last year and seven were starters. Our young kids handled it very well.”
Ritz has an 18-year record of 709-198-1. Wayland was 14-0 in the O-K Gold.