Springville softball team opens postseason in honor of ill teammate

SPRINGVILLE — Springville High’s softball team had to wait an extra day for its Class 4A state tournament opener after rain forced a postponement from Tuesday’s scheduled contest with Cyprus.

The Red Devils didn’t want to wait any longer.

Mary Fredrickson accounted for four of the Red Devils’ nine runs in the bottom of the third en route to a 12-0 win over Cyprus in five innings in the opening round of the playoffs.

“It was really important for us to start off with a bang,” Fredrickson said. “This shows people that we are here to play.”

The win gave Region 8 a clean sweep of the first round of the state tournament. Maple Mountain downed Alta 12-2 on Tuesday, while Spanish Fork shut out Olympus 10-0 and Uintah topped Region 6 champion Murray 8-4.

But Wednesday’s win was extra special for Springville (21-8) after injured player Mikaela Gage returned from surgeries to remove several benign tumors in her brain, neck and spine and threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

“For Mickey, she told us that she would walk laps at the hospital with how many runs we scored,” Fredrickson said. “I feel like those runs are for her.”

Before the game, Springville presented the Gage family with a donation from the Bonneville baseball team, which raised money to help pay for medical expenses after hearing about the ordeal through the state-wide high school program Especially for Athletes.

“I never thought I’d be the girl everyone would do fundraisers for. I’ve never been one for the spotlight,” Gage said. “But everyone has been great.”

Kaycie Jensen struck out 13 in the two-hit shutout for Springville, which batted around in the third after scoring a run apiece in the first two frames. She didn’t mince words with how important the game was to the Red Devils, who dedicated their season to Gage after her diagnosis a month ago.

Wednesday’s game mattered, and not only because it set up a 4A quarterfinal showdown at Box Elder at 4 p.m. MT Thursday.

“We want to win, but we want to win for Mikaela,” Jensen said. “It’s definitely been motivation for us. She’s taking it so positively that we all want to make it into a positive thing and motivation for us to do well. She wants it for us, and we want to do what she wants to do.”

Jensen has known Gage since the third grade. The duo played tee ball and Springville city rec league games together, and Jensen was more than happy to share the circle with Gage in Wednesday's playoff game.

“We’ve been really close ever since we were little girls,” Jensen said. “It’s always been our dream to play on the high school team together.”

Springville’s offense started slow with single runs in the first and second innings. But Jensen opened the third with a triple, and Frederickson drove her home with a homer in the next at-bat to start a reaction that won’t end until the junior came back around and added an RBI single.

“I knew they could do it,” Gage said of the big inning. “That’s just a regular day for us.”

Before her diagnosis, Gage was batting .220 with 19 runs scored and a .396 on-base percentage for the Red Devils. But her impact on the game hasn’t stopped over the past month.

Gage was diagnosed with a hemangioma, or a benign brain tumor, in April when her family took her to see a doctor over what they thought was an inner ear infection. Additional tests revealed several tumors at the base of her brain near the cerebellum, which regulates balance and positioning, as well as in her neck and down her spinal column.

Initially, doctors thought at least one of the identified tumors could be cancerous.

“We were just in shock,” said Lauren Gage, Mikaela’s mother. “I still find myself talking about it, and I think my daughter is just playing softball. I think we’re in shock, and I’m in a daze from it all.”

After one surgery removed two tumors from Mikaela’s brain, doctors confirmed there was no cancer involved. That proved to be the first of several miracles the family experienced.

“She was playing ball one week, and then we found out she had a brain tumor,” Lauren Gage said. “We found out the day of her surgery that it wasn’t cancerous, and we knew we could do this.”

The family been able to get through the past month with massive support from the community — not just Springville, but softball teams from Salem Hills, Payson and even the Bonneville baseball squad volunteered time and donations in honor of Mikaela.

“It’s been amazing, honestly,” said Don Gage, Mikaela’s father. “We never expected anything like this at all. It’s been fantastic, and it’s been great to see the support of the softball community. It’s been phenomenal.”

The Red Devils also benefitted from the appearance of their injured teammate, while Gage benefitted herself from the game. The junior was walking around, cheering on her team, yelling at the umpire at times — and being a normal, teenage girl.

For someone who has undergone as much medical trauma since April as she has, seeing their teammate put a little extra pep in her teammates’ step.

“It’s definitely easier when she’s there, and you see how strong she is doing,” Jensen said. “You want to be strong for her. I think it’s easier to be motivated when she is there.”

Springville’s success has also helped Mikaela.

“I think having this game got her up and out of bed,” Laura Gage said. “She would still be at home, but she had something to do; she had a cause to come support her team. She got up, and because of them she was able to get up and come here.”

Her team is glad she “got out of bed,” as well. The squad wears t-shirts with Mikaela’s number on them, bellow the hashtag #playformickey to acknowledge her in everything they do.

“It’s been hard for us, but we make it a priority to play for her, every single pitch and play,” Fredrickson said. “We want to show her that we are doing this for her. We love her, and she means a lot to us.”

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