EAST LANSING — No bee stings, no violent collisions, no mercy this time.
Just a good old-fashioned convincing victory.
Gaylord took care of business Thursday, winning a 9-0 decision against Milan that never really seemed in doubt in a Division 2 softball state semifinal at Secchia Stadium on the campus of Michigan State University.
Any remaining doubts are something the Blue Devils aim to erase.
“That’s what the girls’ motto was going into the playoffs: Leave no doubt,” first-year head coach Ron Moeggenberg said. “It’s no disrespect to teams down here, but everybody forgets northern Michigan sometimes, and we want to make them remember.”
Gaylord has outscored its playoff opponents 79-7 in six games.
“Last year, this game was a lot closer,” said Aubrey Jones, who was 2-for-3 with a home run, three RBI and two runs. “It was 2-1. This year, we’re trying to leave no doubt. I think we did a pretty good job of that today.”
Two days after Jones was stung near her right eye in the third inning of a four-inning mercy and proceeded to hit a home run and strike out the side with basically one eye against Muskegon Oakridge, the Blue Devils avoided any pitfalls this time around.
Coincidentally, Michigan State University had bee traps in both the baseball and softball dugouts.
No. 1-ranked Gaylord (37-4) plays No. 4 Vicksburg for the state championship Saturday at 12:30 p.m. in a rematch of last year’s title game won by the Devils, 8-3.
Jayden Jones threw a shutout, striking out four and scattering six hits over seven innings on 99 pitches after missing last year’s championship run with a broken wrist.
“Just being able to come out here and compete and give it all I had for my team felt great,” the senior and Virginia Tech commit said. “I was able to come up big, but my team had my back I didn’t have to do at all. It wasn’t on my shoulders. So just really thankful that my team was there for me.”
Aubrey Jones drove in Alexis Shepherd with a RBI single to center in the first. Milan put two on in the first, but the Blue Devils erased them with a 4-6-3 double play and a popout.
Kennedy Wangler cracked a bases-clearing double to the center field wall with two outs to give Gaylord a 4-0 lead midway through the third.
Gaylord added two runs in the fourth on a Shepherd RBI double and Jayden Jones’ RBI single up the middle, both hits coming with two out.
After scoring 17 of 18 runs with two outs in their 18-1 quarterfinal win over Muskegon Oakridge, the Blue Devils kept that up, scoring their first six runs with two outs and eight of nine.
The hand signal for “two outs” is rather similar to the gesture for devil horns, after all.
“That’s just what we’ve done all year,” Moeggenberg said. “The players bat with two outs the same as we do with no outs. Our approach stays the same and we don’t tighten up — we just keep going.”
Sophomore third baseman Nora Bethuy belted a triple to lead off the sixth and scored on a passed ball, and Aubrey Jones hit a two-out, two-run home run to center field for a 9-0 advantage. That’s her 26th of the year and sixth this postseason, giving the team 72 on the season to tie the state record for homers in a season the Blue Devils set last year.
Moeggenberg said Jones didn’t even get all of it on a high homer that easily cleared the centerfield fence.
“I’ve had several this year that I missed a little bit, but thankfully I have enough power that it still went over the fence a little bit,” Aubrey Jones said. “And the wind helped me, too, today.”
The Blue Devils aim to be the first repeat champs in Division 2 since Escanaba won in 2018 and 2019.
Leading 9-0 and with thunderstorms looming in the forecast, Moeggenberg went to the mound after Jayden Jones issued a one-out walk.
The Devils weren’t concerned with the Big Reds. The message was clearer than the weather: “Let’s get out of here before the rain.”
“He didn’t say anything about my pitching,” Jayden Jones said. “He just said, ‘Let’s get this done. Let’s work ahead because there could be lightning, and I don’t want to get into a delay.’”
“It was a quick visit,” Moeggenberg said. “We want to get this game in, we don’t want to be delayed. Let’s go eat. That’s really what it was.”
Soon after the game completed, ground crews put tarps on the field ahead of a storm cell approaching East Lansing that largely missed the MSU campus.
Both Joneses, Addison Wangler and Bethuy each had two hits.
Bethuy was 2-for-4 with a double and triple only two days after a scary collision with catcher Taylor Moeggenberg that left her with cuts on her face.
“Nora is amazing,” Moeggenberg said. “She was ready to go.”
Vicksburg (37-7) defeated North Branch, 4-0, to earn another shot at Gaylord, which looks just as dangerous as ever.
“We’ve been working for this since day one of the season,” Jayden Jones said. “We’ve talked about it. We knew this was our goal. We knew we were going to do it. There’s no doubt in my mind we’re ready.”