The season for great softball

Members of Alma and Mt. Pleasant's softball teams congratulate one another after the district final game.

I enjoy this time of year for many reasons, but one is the chance to watch a lot of great high school baseball and softball. Living in the center of Michigan, we are surrounded by great ball teams. In fact, right in our area, we had four of the top seven ranked Division IV softball teams, Coleman, Sacred Heart, Vestaburg, and Beal City (listed in order of elimination) in ONE district — hosted by Coleman, who won. Incidentally, they were the lowest ranked of the four teams ... Mt. Pleasant is always a tough softball or baseball town. I coach a team at Central Montcalm and we struggled this season, but we played several teams that won 30 games. Our of our league, the Central State Activities Association, we had two district champions: Reed City and Morley Stanwood. Reed City beat out Big Rapids to advance. Big Rapids won our league. Teams also winning during the tournament included Lakeview. Chippewa Hills bowed out against Mt. Pleasant.

One of my daughters played third base for Central Montcalm, but the other daughter plays third base for Alma High School. She decided to go to school with her mom at Alma at the beginning of her freshman year last fall. She played varsity ball most of the season, but recently hasn't been doing much more than pinch running because she suffered a broken finger on defense at third base.



Anyway, Mt. Pleasant was the favored team in the districts, coming in at 32–3. They were expected to play Alma in the finals, and they did. However, Alma prevailed in a great game, 5–1. The game was scoreless through four innings.