Hancock’s Sydnie Scholie (7), Sadie Biekkola (8), and Brooke Koskela (13) celebrate after the Bulldogs’ win during the Division 4 District 97 championship game against Gogebic in Ironwood. Biekkola and Koskela were two of five Bulldogs honored as part of the All-Region 25 team. (Jason Juno/For the Gazette)

HANCOCK — The Hancock Bulldogs softball team, whose season ended in the state quarterfinals with a 7-1 loss to Johannesburg-Lewiston in Sault Ste. Marie, had five girls and their head coach honored as part of the 2023 Region 25 All-Region team. The Lake Linden-Hubbell Lakes, who lost to the Bulldogs in district play, had four girls named to the team as well.

For Hancock, who finished the season 23-8, outfielders Ella Storm and Sophie Freeman were both honored. Shortstop Kaisa Salani, catcher Brooke Koskela and pitcher Sadie Biekkola were also named to the team.

Head coach Randy Heinonen could not say enough good things about his players and their efforts.

“The players named all were huge contributors all year long,” he said. “You know, it’s nice to get recognition. It’s funny, when you start to win, people start to notice, and that’s a good thing.”

Lakes outfield Olivia Shank, a junior, second baseman Kara Kinnunen, a senior, third baseman Cleo Milkey, a freshman, and pitcher Emily Jokela, a sophomore, were also named to the team.

Heinonen was named Region Coach of the Year, which he feels he shares with his staff of Craig Biekkola, Gary Scholie and Hannah Asiala.

“The cliche is that it’s a shared award, but it really is,” he said. “It’s all about our staff. It’s about all the coaches who did the small group workouts in the winter, really thought about things, put practice plans together, and game planned. We videotape our hitting, and the whole staff really comes together, and it is a payoff for us.”

Storm, a junior, found a home near the top of the Bulldogs’ batting order. Heinonen was extremely impressed with how well she took to creating offense through traditional small ball techniques.

“She started down towards the bottom,” he said. “We moved her up. She bunted a lot for us, but that was more part of our game than it’s ever been. We decided to play some smaller ball this year, and she was kind of a catalyst for that. She was so good at laying down bunts that we decided to get her right up to the top of the lineup to help us move runners along.”

The junior also proved to be able to handle a tough position in center field for the Bulldogs.

“She’s an athlete, and she’s a very coachable kid,” said Randy. “She listens, and she just blossomed in center field. We’re happy to have her there. She just got better and better. She’s the best defensive center fielder in the WestPAC, for sure.”

Freeman, a sophomore, took over in left field this season defensively, but where she did a lot of damage was in the leadoff spot in the Bulldogs’ batting order, where Randy credits Craig for insisting she move up the lineup.

“It was Craig who really really recognized what her skill set was, and brought it to me,” Randy said. “We decided to try it, and it worked. It turned out to be more important than I would have thought, because since we played a lot of small ball, it was important for her to get on base and then Ella would bunt her, or she’d steal a base and Ella would bunt her over.

“The way our style morphed through the season, she became more and more important.”

Salani was the only Bulldogs senior to be recognized, but Randy felt that her leadership, along with his daughter Ellie at second base, really helped anchor the team’s defense.

“She (Salani) would be the first to admit she didn’t have the season she wanted in the regular season, but she stepped it up, starting with Game One of the districts, all the way through the end of the playoffs.

“(She) and Ellie, as our middle infielders, both were super important, because we weren’t sure what we were going to do at first and third base. We ended up settling on some underclassmen again, so to have the seniors up the middle behind Sadie, was absolutely huge.”

Sadie, a sophomore, grew into a workhorse on the mound, and at the plate, for the Bulldogs this season. Randy was very proud of the improvements she made to her game throughout the season.

“The biggest thing with her, her physical skills are there,” he said. “She’s a special player. Her mental approach to the game has grown so much. She doesn’t get frustrated over a strike she thought she should have got, or if she has a bad inning, she doesn’t unravel. As a freshman, she had to adjust to that in high school softball. This year, she has grown so much, and she was just very emotionless out there, which is what you need to be as a pitcher.

“She learned from last year. In the regional, she did not have a good day. (Then she) knew what it was going to take in the region. She absolutely put the mental game together with her physical abilities.”

Seemingly, whenever the team needed a key out, Sadie found a way to make that happen.

“She absolutely did that,” said Randy. “That’s just the concentration it takes to forget about what’s going on and concentrate on the next pitch.”

Koskela proved this season to be a perfect backstop for Sadie in that she kept a lot of balls from reaching the backstop, which was key. As a sophomore as well, Randy is excited to have the pair together for two more seasons.

“It’s really exciting,” Randy said. “I told them, when they were in eighth grade, I said, ‘Look, you guys have a chance to do this together, to get better each year, and to have some success,’ and that has come true to a certain extent.”

Since Koskela is a taller player, she appears non-traditional for the position of catcher, but Randy feels that is a huge advantage for her and the team.

“She’s tall and long, and that really helps on covering balls,” he said. “We also worked on her throwing from her knees, so she doesn’t have to get up in a big motion, and take the time to do that. It’s a little quicker if she throws from her knees. So, we started working on that last year. She took to it, and she’s accurate throwing from her knees; got a great arm, and she’s done well with it.”

After the Bulldogs defeated the Lakes 6-2 in the District 97 semifinals, Randy was also quick to point out that he was extremely impressed with how Jokela handled his team’s hitters during the contest.

“This was the toughest one,” he said, after his team won its fourth straight district title. “We earned this one. We really had to game plan and play some small ball against Jokela. She throws hard.”

As the only coach in Bulldogs softball history, Randy has nurtured the program from two straight winless seasons in the beginning to a team that made it to the state quarterfinals this season. He is encouraged by how the program has developed, and he hopes that next year, they can take another step in the right direction.