HURON COUNTY PRESS SPORTS

Harbor Beach Falls - Ubly Takes on STS

2009-07-08T23:20:00.005-04:00

BAd Axe Drops a Close one 2-1 While Ubly Wins 7-5

2009-07-07T22:53:00.006-04:00

Summer action from Ubly

2009-06-26T07:41:00.004-04:00

Wednesday night Baseball action from Elkton & Pigeon

2009-06-24T22:31:00.006-04:00

The Bad Axe Boys of Summer

2009-06-16T22:00:00.003-04:00

Little League action frorn Pigeon

2009-06-16T09:59:00.003-04:00

Mission Accomplished

2009-06-14T00:33:00.006-04:00

Patriots win their third state title in four year

It was an amazing weekend for USA players and fans as the Patriots used a pair of 4-0 victories to win the division four state title. In the finals against Decauter, freshman Kelsey Schaus channeled Carly Treiber and went yard in the sixth inning to give her team a 1-0 lead. Much like Treiber's walkoff in the quarters, this was a no-doubter, a bomb to deep center field.

Schaus's drove in what turned out to be the winning run, her second game-winning RBI in two days, as she used an RBI double to get her team on the board against Rapid River in the semis.

Jillian Williamson didn't have her best stuff, but battled through it, racking up 11 more strikeouts. For the tournament, she went 7-0 with just seven hits allowed in 45 innings of work, she had 72 strikeouts or around 1.4 per inning. JW pitched a perfect game, two no-hitters and one combined no hitter in the playoffs.

Several records were set in this run to a championship or were extended over the last three weeks of postseason softball. We'll delve more into that in this Wednesday's paper. Until then, please enjoy these photos from the event.

USA semifinals post-game show...

2009-06-13T01:14:00.001-04:00

TSA members Chris Ogryski and Paul Adams dissect USA's win over Rapid River and what they need to do against Decauter to win a state title.
http://www.box.net/shared/5l5o7qjeql

Pictures from USA's win over Rapid River

2009-06-13T01:12:00.001-04:00

Chris here from the state finals, with your first images of the USA's 4-0 win over Rapid River to advance to the finals against Decauter. Jillian Williamson once again dominated with a no-hitter (listen to the audio to hear why it should have been a perfect game), striking out 11 and added a two-run dinger to put this one away.
Freshman Kelsey Schaus, who was hit for in her previous at-bat by Cami Valentine, responded in a big way with an RBI double in the sixth to give the team a 1-0 lead and from there the floodgates opened.
USA had a lot of baserunners on the day, but just failed to bring them home.
We'll have more photos later this weekend, I've got tons of photos from Steve Jias I haven't gone through yet, so until then...good luck Patriots.

Vintage USA

2009-06-11T09:27:00.003-04:00

More notes about USA

2009-06-11T00:13:00.000-04:00

Some more notes about the Patriots...
· USA has 27 shutouts in 39 games so far this season;
· They have eight straight shutouts heading into the finals and shutouts in 11 of the last 13 games overall;
· This season, the most points the Patriots allowed was seven points in a 23-7 win over Portage;
· They’ve allowed three runs four times, two runs once and one run seven times;
· USA has outscored opponents 49-0 in the postseason.

News and notes about Friday’s semifinals

2009-06-10T22:59:00.000-04:00

I’m getting some prep work, advance scouting and some notebook fodder ready for the stories that will be written for next week’s edition. Here is some information that should wet the taste buds for another day or so.
And while I’ve got your attention, check back on Friday evening/early, early Saturday morning (sometime after I get back from the movies) we’ll have photos up from the game and straight from the horse’s mouth, we’ll have audio clips with comments from coach Larry Houthoofd and likely some USA players as well.
BREAKING NEWS…
The Thumb Sportwriters Association announces they will have a post-semifinals audio show with the Huron County Press’s Chris Ogryski and the Tribune’s Paul Adams. Links for the audio will be put up later in the evening on Friday
THE FAB FIVE
Five members of this year’s USA softball team were four year players for the Patriots and part of their first state title softball team in 2006 (Carly Treiber, Dani Gremel, Katie Schaus, Minda Martinez and Jillian Williamson). Of those players, Treiber and Gremel were the only starters on the 2006 state title team, while all five started on the 2007 state championship team.
In addition, Brittany Gruehn, Jenny Williamson, Kiersten McBrayer and Estey Ruppal were all part of the 2007 state championship team, giving USA nine players with state title experience to rely on heading into the final two games of the year.
FRESHMAN FURY
USA faces 23-8 Rapid River on Friday at 3:30 p.m. (or at least that is what is being stated by the Rapid River’s paper the Daily Press), who beat Traverse City St. Francis in the quarters 4-0 to advance (insert snide comment about recruiting players here).
RR was led by freshman pitcher Heather Sanderson tossed a two-hitter and allowed just one walk, while striking out 15, which tied a season-high. According to quote from the Daily Press, RR coach Andy Schwartz said, “She pitched a lot better than she did in the last two games (back-to-back narrow victories over Gaylord St. Mary and Onaway in the regional tournament). That was her B game. Today, she had her A game. She worked her butt off out there and was a lot sharper.”
According to the article, there are at least three other freshman starting on that this time (I would know if there were more, but the MHSAA has not updated their game notes yet…
Dare I offer my opinion and say experience is a factor. My opinion, which has been pretty right on during the postseason so far is, Sanderson gets 8-10 strikeouts, but sandwiched in between the Ks she gets hit around for 6-8 runs.
ONE HECKUVA COACH
Since Larry Houthoofd (above) took over as coach, USA has averaged 38 wins per year in four seasons with a 153-15 mark through regionals this year. If he leads the Patriots to a state title, the team will finish with a 41-1 mark and a .976 win percent, just surpassing the 39-2 record and .951 win percent of the 2007 state championship team.
DID YOU KNOW?
With 14 home runs, USA’s Dani Gremel is just four away from tying the state record of 18, set by Melinda VanGillis from Pentwater in 1979. That same year, VanGillis set the state record for batting average in a season (.756) and is second all-time in runs batted in for a season (96).

More pictures from USA's win

2009-06-09T23:41:00.002-04:00

Chris here. Thanks to Steve for getting his photos up. We'll post some interesting tidbits, notes, etc. later in the week as we get closer to Friday's semifinals.

Treiber lifts USA to the Semis

2009-06-09T17:04:00.015-04:00

It took eight innings, but with one swing of the bat, Carly Treiber and the Lady Patriots advances to the State semi finals as they defeated Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart 1-0. Treiber's shot cleared the park and the Pine trees that stood 20 feet above the fence to earn them a trip to Battle Creek on Friday.

The Treiber Trot

Gremel was all smiles as she watched Treiber

Getting all of it...........this one's gone. The Sacred Heart coach new it.

This week's cover of the Huron County Press sports page...GO PATRIOTS!!!

2009-06-08T18:55:00.001-04:00

Battle Creek or Bust...

2009-06-07T11:22:00.007-04:00

That has been the mantra of the USA softball team all this season...essentially, anything less than a state title will be a disappointment for the team...a lost season so to speak.
The Patriots took an important step to achieving that goal as they beat defending state champion BCAS 4-0 and Deckerville 9-0 to win the regional title in Bay City.
Jillian Williamson was stellar, with 14 K's in a two hitter in game one and struck out 17 in a perfect game against the Eagles.
It wasn't nearly as successful of a day for other Thumb area teams as North Huronn's perfect season was ended by BCAS 7-1. The host Cougars beat Ubly 8-0 in the finals. The Bearcats advanced with a 6-2 win over Hale in the semis.

End of the line for Lady Hatchets as they fall to Saginaw Nouvel 4-0

2009-06-03T21:04:00.005-04:00

A view from the State Finals

2009-05-31T09:49:00.012-04:00

A great day 0f action at the D4 State Finals at Forrest Hills Eastern yesterday. Per what seems to be tradition, there was some rain and a short delay...but this time it wasn't for inclimate weather, it was for a swarm of bees (see the picture below).
Overall, three area athletes won state titles: USA's Carly Treiber in discus, Ubly's Eric LaBuhn in shot put and North Huron's Megan Heffner in the 300 low hurdles.

More from State Finals

2009-05-30T12:04:00.002-04:00

Here are some photos from prelims. Semis currently underway.

Live from the state finals

2009-05-30T11:04:00.002-04:00

Prelims are just finishing up and several area athletes have qualified for the semifinals. The 3,200 relasy is coming up soon and throwing events are underway. Look for some pictures later during the lunch break.
My preliminary thoughts are that the USA girls could be the top area team this year, as far as who will fair the best in the finals.

North Huron, USA advance

2009-05-30T00:18:00.011-04:00

I have all these creative, insightful thoughts and observations I could offer on the North Huron baseball and USA softball teams winning their respective Division 4 District titles on Friday, but unfortanaetly I'm going to be on the road in less than five hours to head to the State Track finals, so you'll have to settle for a column in this week's paper.

But to make up for it, here are over 30 pics from yesterday's action.

District Action from Bad Axe

2009-05-29T23:39:00.004-04:00

Lots going on in the world of high school sports

2009-05-29T12:21:00.003-04:00

Big day today with baseball and softball districts going on. We'll have photos and info on here tonight and we're toying with the possibly of doing some updates live from the track finals, if there is wireless available or if our mobile card works.
If not we might send in mobile updates to this site or to our page on facebook, so look around and we'll try to get some kind of updates throughout the day...

Hatchets squeak by Harbor Beach

2009-05-28T21:28:00.002-04:00

Lakers Advance to District Finals

2009-05-28T19:35:00.001-04:00