EAST LANSING, Mich -- Calvin Christian scored three times in the bottom of the sixth inning Friday and held on to beat Millington (41-3) in a division 3 softball state semifinal at Michigan State University.
The Squires trailed 2-1 entering the bottom of the sixth, Kennedy Stevens run-scoring single tied the game and Marissa VanDenBerg put them up with a two-run triple to center field.
"It comes off the bat like oh my gosh I just hit the ball really hard" VanDenBerg said, "you think she's going to catch it and then it just goes behind and everybody is just running, it's a great feeling, it's awesome."
"I'm not surprised, I think we've had three comeback wins it our last two at bats in the tournament" Calvin Christian head coach Mike Gruppen said, "we've been resilient all year that is kind of normal for us."
Calvin Christian (33-10) received a tremendous effort in the circle from Kaleigh Whitcomb who allowed just one earned run in a complete game effort while striking out nine.
"Just getting here was great" Gruppen said, but this is just icing on the cake right now."
The Squires team, which consists of two seniors, two juniors and ten sophomores, now advances to Saturday's state championship game against the winner of Gladstone and Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central.
"I can tell you that none of us thought we were going to be here, we didn't think we'd make it past the first game of districts and we come here and it's amazing" VanDenBerg said, "tomorrow we are just going to go out there and have a a lot of fun, if we win or lose, we made it to states."
