GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — It might be hard for some people to tell, but the Chciuk sisters are not twins.
"We are sisters, which is obvious," Machayla Chciuk said. "If you look at her and I next to each other, we look stupidly alike, even though we are three-and-a-half year[s] apart."
They may look a like, but the Grand Haven softball battery does not act a like, at least between the lines.
"As a pitcher, my goodness, you've got to absolutely flatlined," seventh year Grand Haven softball coach John Hall said. "As a catcher, I want my catchers yelling, screaming, I want my catchers directing traffic, and they play that role very well."
A catcher's ability to handle a pitcher always plays into a team's success.
The Chciuk sisters take that to a new level.
"When I walk a girl, or I have really high balls, or just things I am not normally with, she comes out and goes 'I can either give you the happy Michayla or the mean Michayla,'" Lorelei Chciuk said. "I usually go with the happy first to see what she has to say. Most of the time, she is really understanding with what I talk about. The mean Michayla always puts me into place and have to say 'OK,' I need to get back within the game."
"We are sisters, you can hear it on the field, that we bicker at each other, but we get our jobs done," Michayla said. "We can read between our words for each other, and we know we mean instead of what is actually said."
The sisters have guided Grand Haven to a 27-win season and a third straight district title. Lorelei is already rewriting the school's record book.
Entering the season, the Buccaneers' single season strikeout record was 92. The career record was 179.
The freshman has struck out 248 and counting this season.
"I was not expecting to have this much success," Lorelei said. "I knew I was going to have the playing time, and be high up there, but I didn't feel like I was going to go as far as I did with my strikeouts or winning games."
Win or lose, the end of the season is in sight, and so is the Chciuks' time together on the diamond.
"Being a senior, being able to play with her has been probably the best thing ever," Michayla said. "It'll be the hardest thing I have to walk away from, especially if we lose this weekend. Being able to say I got to play with her my senior year has been absolutely amazing."
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