Ashley Bila's instincts on the bases pay off for Laingsburg in Softball Classic victory

LANSING — When Ashley Bila gets on base, she is determined to make sure her journey around the diamond includes crossing home plate.

And more often than not the Laingsburg senior and Central Michigan signee uses her strong baserunning instincts to succeed in that mission. It's why Bila owns the state record for career runs scored.

And those smarts paid dividends Monday.

Bila had a key hit that helped bring in the go-ahead and run and eventually scored what wound up being the winning run in Division 3 top-ranked Laingsburg's 3-2 win over Lansing Catholic at Ranney Park in the opening game of the Greater Lansing Hall of Fame Softball Classic.

"It just comes instinctually," said Bila, who has scored more than 279 runs in her varsity career. "It's the drive to help the team. We have to get runs and we have to find a way to score. Getting on base is the key thing before I can even run the bases."

Bila came through in a key spot with the Wolfpack tied with Lansing Catholic at 1 in the bottom of the fifth. She hit a double to left field that helped bring in Alayna Merrell with the go-ahead run.

As Bila was rounding the bases, she was given third base because of obstruction. She decided to dash to home plate with no one paying attention.

"Part of it is because a lot of people don't know the obstruction rule," Laingsburg coach Jeff Cheadle said. "(The umpire) was giving her the obstruction to stay at third and she was safe because that girl interfered. She just started going home and they all said let's let her go because (the ump) has his arm out. If she would have got tagged out, she would have been out going home on that.

"She's so aggressive on the bases. You give her an inch and she's on the next base. I love watching her play. She's got the green light to go any time she gets on. There's only a couple times where I've said no."

Bila's run proved to be even more pivotal after Lansing Catholic got a solo home run from Taylor Dunneback to lead off the sixth that pulled it a run closer.

Addyson Buchin retired the next six to help Laingsburg close out the win and earn a spot in the semifinals scheduled for Wednesday.

"That's kind of our team right there," Cheadle said. "It wasn't the greatest hitting performance or whatever, but we do just enough to pull it out at the end there."

Weather suspends Leslie-Holt matchup

Reigning Softball Classic champion Leslie put itself in position to earn a date with Laingsburg in the semifinals. The Blackhawks had a 6-0 lead over Holt in the bottom of the fifth Monday when the contest was suspended due to the weather. The teams are tentatively set to resume the game at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Jalen Fossitt drove in the first run as part of a four-run third inning for Leslie. Sahara Burley had a two-run single to cap the scoring in that frame.

Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on X @brian_calloway.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Ashley Bila's instincts on the bases pay off for Laingsburg in Softball Classic victory