Grass Lake Knocks Off Undefeated Evart; Advances to Second Straight State Final

Maddie Busch (3), Grass Lake vs Evart D3 Softball State Semifinal. Photos by Hannah Tacy, JTV Sports

Trey Richmond & David Rice | JTV Sports

Friday June 12th, 2026

(6-12-2026, 1:30PM): Grass Lake softball advanced to MHSAA Division 3 state title game in back to back years with 3-2 win over Evart on Friday.

This semifinal game between the Warriors of Grass Lake and the undefeated (42-0) Evart Wildcats was tightly contested throughout. The first two innings were scoreless despite the Warriors loading the bases in the first.

Grass Lake was the first to put a run on the board. Morgan Conrad hit a grounder and beat the throw to first for a single. After Ava Hamp got into scoring position by stealing second, Mikayla Jurek launched one deep into left field, landing in the track to record an RBI double and take the 1-0 lead. Evart’s Kyrah Gray matched the Warriors third inning on her own. She sent a missile, on a rope, over the left field wall to tie the game at 1.

During the fifth inning, the Warrior bats caught fire. Leilah Smith started it off with a fly ball into shallow right-center field and advanced to third on Conrad’s single into right field. Hamp took over for Conrad and stole second again, with a runner on third. After a Jurek single, the Warriors had the bases loaded once again, this time they cashed in. Chloe Hollifield had a chopper single over the pitching circle and bounced over second base as well allowing Smith and Hamp to make it home to take the 3-1 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Gray was intentionally walked following her homerun in her previous at-bat. With the runner on, Kiera Elder delivered the ball into right field for an RBI double to bring the Wildcats within one run, Grass Lake led 3-2.

In the bottom of the seventh, Evart’s Callie Smith hit a grounder to shortstop, McKenzie Hilberer, but beat the throw to first. Then, Gray was intentionally walked for a second straight at-bat. With two outs Mattisen Tiedt grounded another ball to the shortstop right next to the second base bag. Hilberer fielded the grounder and tagged the bag for the force out to hand Evart their first loss of the season and to send Grass Lake their second straight state title game, winning 3-2.

Grass Lake’s Morgan Conrad got on base three of four at-bats and had three strikeouts in the circle. Evart’s Kyrah Gray got on base three of four at-bats including her home run and two intentional walks. She also had 7 strikeouts from the circle. Mikayla Jurek’s RBI double and Chloe Hollifield’s 2-RBI single accounted for all three Grass Lake runs. Ava Hamp scored twice and Leilah Smith scored once.

Grass Lake will face the winner of Ravenna/New Lothrop in the Division 3 state final, the game will be back at MSU’s Secchia Stadium on Saturday at 3pm.