Portland softball hosts St. Patrick’s and Owosso for Suzanne J. Buche Cancer Awareness Tournament

On Saturday, the Portland High School softball team hosted the St. Patrick Shamrocks and the Owosso Trojans for the annual Suzanne J. Buche Cancer Awareness Tournament. Attendees were able to participate in multiple raffles with incredible prizes. Players from each community also collected funds for the event. All proceeds from the raffles and collections will be given to the American Cancer Society for cancer research.

The tournament is in memory of Suzanne J. Buche, the mother of former PHS athletes Danielle (Buche) Kingery and Bridger Buche. Suzanne lost her battle to cancer during Danielle’s senior year at PHS.

Sweet Caroline’s Barbeque was also on site for the event.

Ceremonial first pitches were thrown by three honored guests. The first was by Kathy Thiel, a breast cancer survivor and grandmother of Portland player Rylee Miller. The second was by Kaden Werner who lost his mother Mandy to cancer. The third was by Karen Scheurer, a 20-year cancer survivor and the mother of St. Patrick’s Rylee Scheurer.

The Portland squad won the tournament going 2-0 on the day.

Game 1: Portland 6, St. Patrick 5

The cross-town showdown was a back-and-forth affair with the Shamrocks leading through four and a half innings before the Raiders tied things up in the bottom of the fifth. The Shamrocks scored two in the top of the sixth to take a two-run lead, but the Raiders went ahead in the bottom half of the inning scoring three runs.

Offensively, the Shamrocks got multiple hits from Gracely Rockey, Natalee Teachworth, Addison Scheurer and Hayley Fleischer, including a double and a homerun by Rockey and triples by Scheurer and Fleischer.

For the Raiders, Autumn Reffitt went two for three at the plate. Rylee Miller and Claire Lyon each had doubles.

Bella Spitzley got the win in the circle for Portland pitching five innings and striking out four.

Game 2: Owosso 8, St. Patrick 7

St. Patrick’s gave up the lead late in the game and fell to Owosso 8-7. Multiple hits in this game were by Emma Honsowitz, Natalee Teachworth, Mattie Honsowitz, and Addison Scheurer and a triple by Hannah Weller.

Game 3: Portland 2, Owosso 1

Jayden Townsend pitched the complete game for Portland, allowing just three hits and one run.

Bailee Fish and Townsend each had double for Portland. Miller also had a hit for the Raiders.

Ahead

The Shamrocks will host East Lansing on Thursday for the regular season finale. They start district play when they face Potterville on Saturday at noon at Fowler. The winner advances to play Dansville or Fowler at 2:00 in the district finals.

The Raiders will open districts facing Ionia at Lakewood at 10:00 on Saturday. The winner will face Lakewood or Hastings at 2:00 in the district finals.