Pitchers Gugala, McAuliffe show why Northville, Salem are KLAA's best
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Salem 4-0, Northville 3-0.
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For everyone without a rooting interest, that split is exactly how we expected the Kensington Lakes Activities Association-West softball doubleheader to play out April 27.
Both teams entered ranked in the Michigan High School Softball Coaches Association’s most recent top-10 poll. Both were undefeated in the division. Both left tied for first place in the league standings.
And the best part? They’ll meet again in the Division 1 district semifinal on May 30 and might see each other in the KLAA playoffs, too. If the standings don’t change, Salem would be the No. 1 seed, holding a one-run tiebreaker over Northville, while the Mustangs would be No. 2. If both win their Round 1 games, we’d get a rematch of the 2025 KLAA championship game, when the Mustangs edged Salem to win back-to-back league titles for the first time in program history.
Yeah, we’re still a month from the postseason, but third-ranked Northville (15-2, 7-1) and No. 8 Salem (13-3, 7-1) are already giving fans that win-or-go-home excitement.
“This is what you coach for,” Mustangs coach Scott DeBoer said. “These are the types of games you want to be in. This is how the kids can develop — by playing under these types of pressures. Everybody — the players, fans and umpires — like playing in these kinds of games.”
In Game 1, Salem mustered enough offense to get past Wayne State commit Mary Gugala, who struck out 12 and allowed just five hits.
In the bottom of the third, Erin Torok drove in the winning run. Then Mikayla Roberts, another WSU commit who tossed the game-winning touchdown pass against Northville in a flag football game the day before, hit a bloop single to score another run.
Two innings later, Joslyn Dawley smacked a solo home run, while Murray State signee Shannon McAuliffe backed up another stellar outing in the circle by driving in a run.
McAuliffe went toe-to-toe with Gugala, striking out 11 while allowing only two hits and one walk.
“We knew this was a really important game, and we knew how we performed today was really going to tell the tale of how the season was going to finish up,” longtime Rocks coach Bonnie Southerland said. “The good news is that we won by four runs in the first, so that puts us a little bit ahead for the tiebreaker. But we have several other Wednesday doubleheaders that we have to get through, play hard and win before we can get to the conference tournament.”
One decision likely decided Game 2, with Southerland electing to start sophomore Theresa DiStefano to give McAuliffe some rest.
DiStefano started strong, pitching two solid innings and striking out two before the Mustangs finally timed her up the second time through the lineup.
In the third, Ohio State commit Kennedi Adams smacked a line drive past second base that scored Avay Yaldou from third for Northville's winning run.
One at-bat later, Kendall Heron doubled to the fence in left field to bring Adams home and force Southerland to move McAuliffe from first base back to the pitcher’s circle.
Without much of a warmup, McAuliffe gave up a run to Abby Parrinello on a sacrifice fly that saw pinch runner Ella Ross beat the throw home for the final run of the game.
McAuliffe struck out seven, walked three and hit three batters.
“We just throught Theresa could handle it a little bit and give Shannon a little bit of a break because Shannon can’t pitch everything,” Southerland said. “I would’ve started her, and she was ready. Maybe making a little bit of an earlier substitution (would’ve been better) after she gotten throughout the lineup once might have made a bit of a difference. But we were pleased with the performance as far as Shannon goes and Theresa goes.”
Truly, DiStefano performed well and complemented McAuliffe. It took Northville playing small ball to push one run across the plate.
No, the 3-0 loss speaks more to Gugala’s effort in the circle than Salem’s pitching. The Rocks’ defense kept them in the game. Gugala just didn’t give them much to work with.
She struck out seven Rocks while allowing only three hits and one walk.
“Obviously, Shannon and Mary are both, in my mind, all-state pitchers,” DeBoer said. “There’s no doubt about it. They both can control a game. I’m proud of my kids because after you have someone dominate like Shannon did in the first game, and our kids didn’t say that they were done. They came back tough and showed that they can be better the second time though.”
And the third meeting should be even closer.
“It could be,” Southerland said. “It’s two really competitive teams, two great pitchers. Mary’s obviously a great pitcher, and Shannon is phenomenal, too. It’s always a good battle and a good, tough competition. What I told our kids is that you’ve just got to keep plugging away and winning the rest of these (KLAA) doubleheaders because the (division) is now yours to lose.”
Right now, rivals Livonia Churchill, Franklin and Stevenson are battling for the top two seeds in the KLAA-East, which will be sorted out when the three square off during the annual City championship in May at Madonna University.
So, likely only two wins over Livonia teams stand in the way of Northville and Salem meeting once more in the KLAA championship before districts.
Considering McAuliffe recently recorded her 1,000th career strikeout and Gugala reached No. 600 last week, no one is going to complain about a couple more rematches.
Expect both teams to be ready to meet two more times.
“Our motto is fear none, challenge all and embrace hard,” DeBoer said. “You have to embrace hard when you play against Salem. You’re not going to get a lot of chances with either of these teams, and that’s the beauty. It’s just good, solid softball.”
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on his new X.com account at @folsomwrites
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: Salem, Northville splt KLAA softball doubleheader, 4-0 and 3-0