L’Anse Creuse North senior Hailee Lane has spent her entire softball career competing against many of the area’s best players, whether in the Macomb Area Conference or on the travel circuit.
On Tuesday, June 23, at Oakland Softball Field in Rochester, she finally got to play alongside them, in the all-star game between the MAC and the Oakland Activities Association.
She made the most of it.
Lane went 1-for-1 with two walks and a stolen base. Her lone ball in play was the biggest hit of the game, a bases-loaded triple that drove in the first three runs and sparked the MAC to a 15-3 victory. It also earned her team MVP honors.
“I was just hunting that outside pitch,” said Lane, LCN’s valedictorian who will pass up a college softball career to attend Central Michigan this fall. “So when it came, it was just easy to attack. It felt good to get the first runs on the board for my team.”
The MAC scored four runs in the second inning, two in the third, six in the fourth and two more in the fifth before the OAA finally answered with three runs in the seventh.
By then, the damage was done.
Leading the MAC were New Baltimore Anchor Bay’s Hailey McDonald, Gianna Peiffer and Ashley Davidson; Grosse Pointe South’s Vivi Ostrowski; St. Clair’s Madisyn Treat; Utica Ford’s Jordyn Szpytek; Marine City’s Julia Letson and Reese Atkinson; and Macomb Dakota’s Chloe Dunn.
McDonald went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs. Peiffer finished 3-for-3 with three RBIs, including a two-run single in the fourth. Davidson added an RBI double to deep left field.
Ostrowski went 2-for-3 with two stolen bases and two RBIs.
Treat had two stolen bases and an RBI single that helped keep the six-run fourth inning rolling.
Szpytek drove in Letson with a single, while Atkinson tripled home Romeo’s Maegan Myers in the seventh.
Letson and Dunn each went 2-for-2. Dunn also drew a walk, while Letson scored twice.
St. Clair’s Hayley McFarlane, Romeo’s Katie Murphy and Utica’s Violet Smith shared pitching duties, each striking out one batter. Fraser’s Camilla Dawood closed out the exhibition by striking out three over the final two frames.
“Just playing with all these girls I’ve been playing with since I was little, [it felt good],” Lane said. “Five of them I played travel with, but I’ve been playing against them my whole life. … It feels really good because I really wanted to come out and play for my team today.”
Farmington senior Autumn Marok was caught off guard when she heard her name announced as the OAA’s MVP.
The Lansing Community College commit went 0-for-2 but drove in a run with a sacrifice fly that scored Falcons teammate Kylie Greene in the seventh.
But her defense earned the honor.
Marok made several strong plays at first base, a position she had never played before, including a bang-bang out on a throw from Greene at third that saw Marok do the splits.
But her biggest impact came behind the plate.
The OAA surrendered 15 runs, but it could have been worse.
Lake Orion pitcher Claire McGuire struggled through a rough fourth inning, allowing six runs on six hits and three walks. Marok helped settle her down, and McGuire allowed only two more runs over the next two innings.
“I just wanted her to calm down,” Marok said. “I was calling pitches she was more comfortable with throwing, just keeping the ball in front of me. It was a tough situation for that.”
Marok said building chemistry with a new pitcher isn’t easy.
She spent the spring catching Farmington junior Sophia Porterfield as the Falcons won a Division 1 district title and advanced to the regional final before losing to eventual state champion Walled Lake Northern.
“I’ve been catching for my school pitcher, Sophia Porterfield, the whole entire season, and I’m playing travel with her soon, too,” Marok said. “To switch and get a different pitcher, it’s really difficult, but I think I adjust well to a lot of changes, especially when I play first base. I had never played first base before today, but I figured it out.”
The OAA finally broke through in the seventh.
Rochester’s Taylor Parsons put her team on the board with an RBI single that scored Rochester Adams’ Alexis Contreraz. After Marok’s sacrifice fly, Adams’ Olivia Viazanko added an RBI single.
The rally came too late.
“I just wanted to play with heart,” Marok said of being named OAA MVP. “My dad always tells me before each and every game to play with heart, and I told the girls that. I think we gave it our all, but they ended up swinging the bats like crazy.”
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life and the Detroit Free Press. Follow him on X at @folsomwrites.
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: Hailee Lane shines in MAC vs. OAA all-star softball game
Reporting by Brandon Folsom, Hometownlife.com / Hometownlife.com
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By Brandon Folsom, Hometownlife.com | USA TODAY Network
