The day after his team swept a doubleheader with Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart to finish alone atop the Mid-State Activities Conference standings, Coleman softball coach Chad Klopf was wrestling with who to put up for All-Conference honors.
Talk about a good problem to have.
“I was going over the stats to pick our nominations and we can only have six,” Klopf said. “I couldn’t figure it out because all of them are deserving.
“With our starting lineup, when one of them is down, the other eight pick her up. These girls take care of each other.”
They take pretty good care of the competition, too.
After starting the season with a perfect 26-0 record, Coleman had a run differential of 345-31 and was ranked No. 1 in the state’s Division 4 polls.
“At the beginning of the year, we scored 200 runs before we gave up 10,” said Klopf. “All of the girls can hit, even down to 7-8-9 in the order, and our team ERA has been hanging around 1.0 all year.”
Coleman rolled to league, district and regional championships last season before checking out of the state tournament with a 4-2 loss to Holton in the quarterfinals. Holton went on to lose to Unionville Sebewaing in the state title game.
The track was laid for a big 2016, but 26-0 was even bigger than expected.
“We lost one pitcher and our center fielder and we knew we had five returning seniors with one returning junior and a sophomore pitcher to help us out,” said Klopf. “We’ve had some success with this group, but not this kind of winning streak.”
The extra pop has a lot to do with the infusion of three freshman phenoms.
“We got lucky,” said Klopf. “We needed speed and had a couple of holes to fill and we added three freshmen who have stepped into the mix and helped us out a lot.”
In a lineup that reads like a softball who’s who, the biggest name might be senior second baseman Cassidy Tucker, who leads the team with a .578 batting average.
That’s not the half of it.
Tucker has blasted 11 home runs, along with six doubles and seven triples for a stratospheric 1.166 slugging percentage. She has knocked in 43 runs.
“Cassidy is seeing the ball really well,” Klopf said. “She is quiet and she doesn’t get emotional about it, but she hits the ball hard.”
She also sees more decent pitches than the typical slugger, as there are four teammates hitting at least .500 and a few more in the .400 range.
“Cassidy has people in front of her and behind her in the order,” said Klopf. “If they try to throw around her, they get into trouble.”
Senior shortstop Grace Staley was also batting .578 after the first 26 games and she had 36 RBI. Senior third baseman Carley Starnes was at .562 with 37 RBI. Senior catcher/outfielder Kaylie Scott had a .506 average with 33 ribbies and junior catcher/outfielder Liz Dana was at .500 with 29 RBI.
Scott plays a major role, whether she is behind the plate or not.
“She’s like an extra coach,” said Klopf. “Whether she is in the game or sitting on a bucket next to the dugout, she is calling the pitches. She works with the girls every day and she really knows the game.”
The ace of the pitching staff is senior Laken Berthume. She got off to a 13-0 start with six shutouts and 86 strikeouts with a 1.32 earned run average. In the “helping-your-own-cause” dsepartment, she bats .451 with three homers and 44 RBI.
“As the year has gone on, she has gotten tougher and tougher to hit,” said Klopf. “Her mindset is that she is going to beat you, no matter what it takes.”
Sophomore Faith Barden has also been reliable in the circle with a 10-0 record and 1.30 E.R.A. She racked up 66 strikeouts.
Juniors Grace Cozat and Allison Lovejoy have each made their contributions and the impactful freshmen are Jaden Berthume, Kenzie Miller and Makailyn Monson.
With the league title in the bag, the Comets planned to close the regular season with some tough games to tune up for a run at the state tourney.
“Our goal is to win the state championship, but there is a long way to go,” Klopf said. “Our motto all season has been ‘Win the day,’ and we’re going to focus on that, whether we have a game to play, or just some work to do in practice.”