LANSING — Avery Dunneback played a role in helping the Lansing Catholic softball team end a 32-year drought when it captured the title at the Greater Lansing Hall of Fame Softball Classic in 2025.
She helped make sure the Cougars didn’t have to wait long to once again hoist the championship trophy at the annual tournament.
Dunneback had a key home run and helped Division 3 No. 9-ranked Lansing Catholic achieve one of its missions Friday, May 22 when it held off Grand Ledge for a 7-6 win to repeat as the Softball Classic champion.
Lansing Catholic became the first repeat champion at the event since Eaton Rapids, which won the four Softball Classics that took place from 2017 to 2021.’
“I’m at a loss for words, I’m not going to lie,” Dunneback said. “I’m really speechless right now. It was just a really great team win against a very good and competitive Grand Ledge team. Winning it one time was hard, but winning it back-to-back — we knew what it took to get it done and we played as a team. We all fought for each other. One thing about this team is we never give up and we showed that in this game,
“They had a lot of momentum towards the end of the game but we stayed within ourselves, stayed composed. I believed in Zoey (Gruber) from the get-go and I knew we were going to come out on top.”
Dunneback, a senior and Grand Valley signee, played a big role in the championship victory, reaching base in all four at-bats. She went 2-for-2 with three runs scored and two walks and had a key three-run home run in the fourth inning that gave Lansing Catholic a 7-3 advantage, Dunneback also had a double in her first at-bat that was the 200th hit of her varsity career,
Taylor Dunneback and Gruber each went 3-for-4 with an RBI to help the Cougars build their early lead. Lansing Catholic didn’t score again after Avery Dunneback’s home run but fended off Grand Ledge as it made its push. The Division 1 honorable mention ranked Comets scored twice in the fifth and got a solo home run from Central Michigan signee Jade Queen in the sixth inning.
Gruber worked out of trouble in the circle in the sixth and seventh, forcing Grand Ledge to strand a pair of runners in each inning. The Comets had runners on first and second when Gruber got Queen to fly out to end the game.
“This feels incredible for this team,” Lansing Catholic coach Amy Poljan said. “In this tournament we had to play a game where we were behind and we had to come from behind (May 21) and today we had a lead and we had to battle to keep the lead. To stretch your team in that many different directions and dimensions at the same time is such a tribute to them.”
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on X @brian_calloway and Bluesky @briancalloway.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Classic repeat: Lansing Catholic fends off Grand Ledge to win Softball Classic
Reporting by Brian Calloway, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
