Ingram Hurls Northwest to State Softball Quarterfinal

Nevaeh Ingram struck out 25 batters in two regional wins for Northwest High School on Saturday at the MHSAA Division 2 regional tournament at Chelsea. 

By Jeff Steers
JTV Sports

(June 11, 2022 9:11 PM)  Call it a screwball, changeup, or knuckleball.

It doesn’t matter.

Nobody can hit the pitch.

Northwest High School pitcher Nevaeh Ingram used her pitch – she calls it a knuckleball – to baffle two of the best Division 2 teams in the state. 

Ingram struck out 18 batters and pitched a one-hitter in defeating Owosso – the defending D-2 state champions – 4-0 in the regional semifinal at Chelsea on Saturday.

Ingram stuck out seven batters and scattered two hits in the regional championship game for a 2-0 win over Chelsea.

Northwest advances to the Division 2 quarterfinals on Tuesday at Kalamazoo College against Stevensville Lakeshore. The game is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. 

Ingram calls her changeup-style pitch a knuckleball.

“All of my knuckles are on the ball and it floats through the air,” Ingram said. 

With a lively fastball, the pitch can sometimes make batters look silly looking at the pitch as it floats in the strike zone.

Northwest was nearly flawless in the field with only one error in 14 innings on Saturday.

“It is very comforting knowing that I have a great defensive team behind me,” Ingram said. 

Against Owosso, the Mounties scored a pair of runs in the second inning on a double by Maddy Rowley and a wild pitch later in the inning.

The Mounties used the same formula in the third inning with an RBI double by Grace Pilaczynski and scored later on a wild pitch. 

Rowley finished with two hits for Northwest in the win against Owosso.

The Mounties scored runs in the third and sixth inning against Chelsea. Ingram and Pilaczynski each had RBIs for Northwest. Ava Golightly had two of the Mounties’ four hits in the game. 

Northwest improves to 39-3 with the regional wins. The regional title is the first since 1989 when the Mounties advanced to the Class B state semifinals.