FARMINGTON HILLS — Two Catholic League Intersectional Division foes met on the softball diamond for an incredible fifth time this season on Wednesday as Royal Oak Shrine and Allen Park Cabrini battled it out once more. This latest matchup was in the Catholic League’s inaugural St Anne Division championship game held at Farmington Hills Mercy.
It was largely a one-sided affair during the regular season with Cabrini winning each of the first four meetings by an average of a little more than nine runs per contest. It also had been a long time since either school was crowned Catholic League champions in softball.
Wednesday was the fourth title game appearance in the last five seasons for the former longtime perennial state powers from Cabrini, but they had not hoisted the trophy in over a decade. The same can be said for Shrine, whose last showing was in 2013, which also happens to be the program’s most recent CHSL title.
But much like they did in the prior head-to-head matchups, Cabrini was simply too much to handle as they needed just four innings to pick up a 20-5 victory over the Knights and claim their first CHSL title since 2010.
PHOTO GALLERY: Softball – Royal Oak Shrine Catholic vs Allen Park Cabrini
“First and foremost, you have to know they are going to be gunning for you, especially if you’ve seen them already four times,” Cabrini head coach Stephanie Plona said after the win. “And if you beat them already four times, it gets harder and harder to stay on your A-game.
“We did hold back a few things to make sure that was the first time (Shrine) saw it,” Plona added. “I thought that was really effective for us today.”
While it had been late April since the two teams met, the latest script for Cabrini drew similarities to their previous matchups with Shrine. In fact, Wednesday’s game was the fourth of five in which the Monarchs put up double-digits despite having fewer than 10 hits as a club.
That high scoring output with the abnormally low amount of balls put in play was thanks in large part to Cabrini reaching base safely on 17 walks and another four hit batsmen. And that level of plate discipline was on display from the beginning, even after falling behind before having a chance to bat.
Shrine came out aggressive in the top of the first, scoring three times while seeing just 11 Brianna Manning offerings. RBI extra-base hits from all-Catholic honoree Kate Zboril and all-league recipient Summer Smith along with an RBI groundout from Madeleine Doud put the Knights up early.
All Cabrini did in the home half of the frame was answer with 11 runs, nine of which came with two outs.
The Monarchs in that bottom of the first nearly batted around a full two times and recorded four of their eventual six team hits for the game. The big blow in the rally was a bases-clearing double off the bat of all-catholic performer Jodi Browning to break what was a 3-3 tie at the time.
“I thought they were super patient, and that was huge,” Plona said. “It can be easy to jump and swing at anything and get over on the front food. They instead stayed back and waited for their pitch. And when it came, they made something happen with it.”
Shrine chipped into their suddenly big deficit with a pair of runs in the top half of the third inning, courtesy of an RBI triple from Smith and an RBI groundout off the bat of Maris Graveline in consecutive at-bats to make it an 11-5 game.
That would be all that the Knights could muster offensively for the remainder of the game against the aforementioned Brianna Manning. The now two-time all-catholic honoree player for Cabrini not only pitched all four innings, she helped her own cause at the dish by going 2-for-3 with three runs batted in and two runs scored.
“She really settled in,” Plona said of Manning. “I also think she had a little bit of extra pop because she was so pumped for this game. She spends most of her time on the mound so she takes the most responsibility.
“There was a little something extra and it really paid off.”
After Shrine capped off their scoring in the top of the third, Cabrini in the bottom half countered with a five-spot before finishing things off with four more runs in the fourth.
In addition to Manning and Browning, Cabrini also got a two-hit game out of Madison Lewicki, who along with Manning and Lilah Bermudez-Lara each had three RBIs in the win. Browning paced all players with six runs batted in.
Shrine got adequate production from the top third of the order in Zboril, Smith, and the leadoff hitter Jenna Ruhle. That trio combined to go 4-for-7 with all four knocks going for extra bases while also scoring four of the five team’s runs.
The Knights used a combination of Ruhle, Zboril, and Graveline to get through their three plus innings on the mound.
Cabrini with the win improves to 20-2 overall after collecting just three victories a season ago and finding themselves bumped down to the Intersectional Division of the CHSL this spring.
Nonetheless, it has been a rapidly-quick turnaround for a Monarchs team that returned every player from that 2023 squad and it has culminated in the program’s first conference title in over a decade.
“This is absolutely huge,” Plona said. “We went from a team last year with no seniors to the same players returning with some additional freshmen. It speaks to the resilience of this team and their willingness to trust the process.
“They’ve learned to turn all of that into wins.”
UP NEXT
Both teams have just one final regular-season tune-up game before emarking on their respective runs through the Division 4 state playoffs next Saturday, June 1.
Shrine (14-13) will have a week of before returning home to host D1 foe Troy in a non-conference matchup on May 29. Cabrini (20-2) meanwhile turns right around on Thursday, May 23 to visit D4 No. 4 Plymouth Christian Academy, a team they could very well see come playoff time.
A hypothetical sixth meeting between the Knights and Monarchs would take place on Saturday, Jun 8 with a D4 regional title up for grabs.
