This has been a spring the Salem softball team has building a long time toward.
Head coach Bonnie Southerland, who has been in the program as an assistant and head coach for more than 40 years, said this year’s core group of seniors first started playing softball together when they were 10 years old.
When the group got to high school, they made the varsity team as freshmen with the hope special things could really be in store once they became seniors.
So far this year, that hope has become reality.
Salem is 25-4 on the season and was ranked No. 8 in Division 1 in last week’s state rankings, and hopes to do something Southerland said “hasn’t been done in a while,” which is make a long run in the state tournament.
“If there ever was going to be a year, this is the year,” Southerland said. “We certainly have the talent and the girls are peaking at the right time now.”
There aren’t many more talented two-players in the area than Salem senior Shannon McAuliffe, who has signed with Murray State.
In the circle, she has a 1.06 ERA and 292 strikeouts. At the plate, she is hitting .584 with 41 RBIs.
“No matter what, she’s always going to keep us in the game,” Southerland said.
Salem has other four-year varsity standouts in senior shortstop and leadoff hitter Taylor Bond (.450 batting average, leads team in walks), senior center fielder and No. 2 hitter Erin Torok (.444 BA) and senior infielder Charlie Lindstrom (.300 BA). Junior Mikayla Roberts (.549 BA), who has committed to Wayne State, also has played with that group a long time in the summer even though she’s a year younger.
Southerland said when the group was growing up playing travel ball in the community, people already were talking about them and pointing to when the players got to high school.
“We go and try and see the girls when we can in the summer,” Southerland said. “We knew about these girls before they came into high school. We had heard all the rumblings through our (school) district, especially with Shannon pitching. When you have a pitcher, everybody gets pretty excited. We knew how good she was ahead of time.”
Salem is the top seed in this week’s Kensington Lakes Activities Association tournament, where it will play Livonia Churchill in the first semifinal on Tuesday. The second semifinal is between Northville and Livonia Stevenson, with the winners meeting in the league championship game Wednesday.
Salem and Northville, ranked No. 3 in the state in Division 1, shared the KLAA West title in the regular season (Salem was the top seed for the tournament in the tiebreaker) and will have a state tournament showdown on May 30 in a district semifinal at Northville.
It could end up being the fourth matchup of the season between two of the area’s top pitchers, McAuliffe and Northville senior Mary Gugala, who Southerland said are travel ball teammates.
“It’s kind of a unique situation,” Southerland said. “They know each other very well. It should be a really great game.”
Southerland hopes this time the ball can bounce her team’s way and a heralded senior class can continue on past districts and beyond.
“From the time they came in as freshmen, we knew they would lead this team to great things,” Southerland said. “We have been very much looking forward to it.”
Keith Dunlap is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Senior-laden Salem softball team eyes deep postseason run
Reporting by Keith Dunlap, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
