Farmington Hills Mercy softball coach Corey Burras said he didn't mention the Marlins' recent postseason history against Allen Park to his players before they faced the Jaguars in Tuesday's Division 1 quarterfinal.
But judging by how the upperclassmen played in the 3-0 victory at Wayne State University, especially during the Marlins' seventh-inning rally, you could tell it was on their minds.
"Our whole team was going for redemption," said Alabama commit Kaitlyn Pallozzi, who struck out 17 batters and smacked the game-winning home run to advance Mercy to Thursday'sstate semifinal against Hudsonville at Michigan State University. "We lost to Allen Park my freshman year and then the year before that in the semifinals. I know it just feels amazing to be able to go out there and do that. It just feels amazing to us."
The Jaguars had no trouble winning big against Mercy during Pallozzi's freshman season. They earned an 11-3 victory before beating Hudsonville and Macomb Dakota in their next two games to win the 2022 state title.
This time, it was different.
This time, it was a pitcher's duel between Pallozzi, who leads the entire state, regardless of division, in strikeouts, and Lawrence Tech commitMelody Filipiak, who struck out eight before Mercy finally figured her out.
Kat Burras andMeg Kowalyk were robbed of home runs near thewarning track in the fourth inning because heavy winds were blowing toward home plate, which stunk because the Marlins had Charlie Lambert in scoring position.
But the wind wasn't an issue the next time around the lineup.
With the score still knotted at 0 entering the final inning, Evelyn Miller rocketed a line drive toward center field to get on base. One at-bat later, Pallozzi launched a two-run home run that landed in front of the scoreboard atGary L. Bryce Field and ensured the eventual victory.
But before the inning was over, Carmella Crane lasered a line drive down into left field to score pinch-runner Darla Sherry for an insurance run.
"It's been like this the whole year," Coach Burras said. "We know we can hit any pitcher in the state that we see. When we stick to our process and our hitting plan, good things will happen. You saw that today in the forth and fifth when we had our second time through (the batting lineup)."
Until giving up five hits in the final frame,Filipiak had been almost perfect, putting just two runners on base and not walking a single Marlin.
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On the other hand, Pallozzi showed why she's the No. 8 2025 recruit in the country, according to Perfect Game Softball, by giving up just two hits all night to Mallory Hool andMichigan commit Kiley Carr.
The Marlins, who are 38-1 overall and exited the regular season as the No. 1 team in the Michigan High School Softball Coaches Association rankings, proved how much they've grown over the past three seasons.
Losing to Allen Park two years in a row was heartbreaking, but so was losing to Hartland, the eventual state champions, during last year's regional tournament.
That's why Coach Burras beefed up the Marlins' schedule and played as many elite programs as possible. Their lone loss of the spring was a 4-3 nailbiter on April 9 to Gaylord, last year's D-2 state champion.
"We took our time earning our position back here (to the quarterfinal) by taking those tough losses and having a really tough schedule," the fourth-year coach said. "We played two years with a really tough schedule. Last year, it didn't matter. But this year we've gotten everybody's attention by playing all the competition we could, and we've done well. We've always been preparing for thisgame throughout the 39 games we've played this year."
Another benefit of playing a hard schedule? It prepared Mercy to grind out a close one like the quarterfinal.
"Against these high-quality teams, rarely was there a blowout," Coach Burras added. "We always had to find ways to make runs and make adjustments to the pitchers."
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Now, Mercy is just two wins away from winning its first state title since 2016 and just its second in program history.
Sure, beating Allen Park was about payback, but it also got them one step closer to winning it all. So the Marlins didn't let past memories of losing to the Jaguars get in their way of staying locked in, especially when the game was still scoreless entering the seventh inning.
"We knew these next three games (quarterfinals, state semifinal and championship) were going to be competitive and that we needed to put our best foot forward," Pallozzi said. "So this week we've been saying that we're doing this for the girls to our left and to our right. So just being able to go out there, do that and play for your teammates has been really helpful. ...
"In the dugout, we know that someone will always come through, so we're really good under pressure. We just know how to stay calm and not get nervous."
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on Twitter@folsombrandonj.
