Susan Herman has been a St. Mary supporter for as long as she can remember.

"I've been going to St. Mary School since pre-kindergarten. My entire time in school has been at St. Mary and I couldn’t have asked for a better place to learn," said the senior, who graduates on Sunday afternoon.

Starting pitchers (from left) Susan Herman of St. may,
Cori Kahler of Glen Lake and Dana Popp of Leland.

Since Herman is proud to pitch St. Mary’s attributes, it seems natural that she also excelled as a starting pitcher for the Eagles’ softball team for two years. Coach Ed Merica called Herman the foundation to a successful program.

“Susan has been the rock on which our team has relied for the last two years. She is surrounded by good players, but she has been the base and heart of our team,” he said.

Like Herman, fellow pitchers Cori Kahler of Glen Lake and Dena Popp of Leland played key roles on their teams this season. All three also shared the desire to improve, with Herman’s statistics the most noteworthy. She went 17-8 as a starting pitcher for St. Mary this year with 243 strikeouts, only 25 walks and an earned run average of 2.76.

Herman attributes much of her improvement to playing summer ball. With no senior girls’ softball team at Lake Leelanau last summer, Herman played in the Traverse Area Girls Softball league.

“I wound up playing with a lot of the Traverse City Central girls. It as a great experience, I learned a lot about pitching and hitting from the coaches and players,” she said.

“The girls really helped me fix my batting speed. I had a blast playing with them and I would recommend TAGS to any girls wanting to improve their game.”

Herman will attend Saint Mary’s College at Notre Dame in the fall.

Kahler went 14-13 as starting pitcher for Glen Lake this season and had a ERA of 1.98 for the season. Coach Gary Galla said she was the reason the Lakers stayed in a lot of their games.

“Cori did an amazing job as pitcher and she improved so much this year. She set a new school record with five career saves,” Galla said. Kahler missed most of last season with an injury, and worked hard in the off season to get ready for spring softball.

Kahler also developed a new pitch this year. “It’s where a pitch starts on a normal line, then drops right at the end. I kind of got it working toward the end of the season,” she said.

Kahler also worked on her fastball and change-up.

“We were all real positive all season. I’m really going to miss that atmosphere, playing on the Laker softball team. It’s been a big part of my life and I’ll probably come back next year to help out Coach Galla,” she said.

Popp, a junior for Leland, kept the Comets in many games this year. Coach Joe Nedow said her batting and field experience were equally impressive.

“Dena with a .343 batting average led the team win extra-base hits with 10 doubles and two triples. She was team co-captain and played through some health issues. Dena really put forth a great effort,” he said.

Popp is a three-year starter for the Comets and plans on working on her game over the summer. “I’m going to the pitching and hitting camp at Ferris State University later this month and will be playing summer ball with Gary Galla’s team as well. I want to work on my change up and improve the speed and accuracy of my pitches,” Popp said.

For the season that ended Saturday, Popp said she was impressed by how her teammates responded. “We worked really well together. We communicated well on and off the field and we were competitive,” she said.