After 2021 Semifinal Trip, Huron Building Toward Another Big Finish
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
May 10, 2022
NEW BOSTON – Phil Yancey learned an important lesson while coaching baseball to teenagers in the Dominican Republic – a lesson that he uses today with his players at New Boston Huron.
“The kids there play hard, from the warm-ups right through the last play of a game,” he said. “They give 100 percent. For many of them, it’s there only way out of poverty. Baseball is their ticket off the island.”
Yancey stresses to his players now to play hard every single minute they are on the field.
“Field that ground ball like it’s your last ground ball,” he tells them. “Go up to the plate like it’s your last at-bat.”
Yancey coached five seasons in the Dominican before becoming the varsity baseball coach at Huron High School in southern Wayne County seven years ago. He’s developed a rock-solid program at Huron, one that is currently ranked among top teams in the state and looks to be built for a deep tournament run.
Huron went 26-8 in 2021, reaching the state rankings for the first time in school history. The Chiefs won Division 2 District and Regional titles and made the Semifinals before bowing out to eventual champion Orchard Lake St. Mary’s. That club had 10 seniors, but Yancey saw potential for big things this season.
“It was nice coming into the season with guys to build around, but we found some really talented players this year too,” he said. “We are playing pretty well right now.”
The Chiefs are off to a 17-2 start. The losses came to Grosse Ile in an early-season game and to Livonia Stevenson in an 8-7 slugfest. The Chiefs have a key matchup with Riverview this week, and a win would go a long way toward the team repeating as Huron League champion.
The team is built with a solid core of seniors including shortstop-pitcher Cole Grunwald and centerfielder Matt Williams, plus juniors like Rory Callahan, Michigan State University commit-Gavin Moczydlowski and sophomore Micah Smith – who is quickly gaining the interest of multiple colleges.
Moczydlowski is the ace of the pitching staff and one of the top hitters on the team. He committed to MSU in the fall after a great season last year.
“He throws 90-92,” Yancey said. “He’s a really good pitcher, doesn’t walk many, and hitters have a tough time with him.”
Moczydlowski would have been on the varsity as a freshman, but the season was canceled because of COVID-19. As a sophomore he broke a bone in his elbow during basketball season, and no one knew it until after he pitched – and won – the baseball season opener. He ended up playing first base all season due to the arm injury. This year he’s in the rotation, and Yancey considers him the ace.
“It like an addition to the team because he didn’t pitch last year,” Yancey said. “We like the combination of him starting and Micah Smith closing.”
Smith has been a pleasant surprise. He’s another hard-throwing righthander. Yancey wasn’t even counting on him when the season started, but he’s throwing in the 90s and has more than proven himself. Oakland University and the University of Pittsburgh have been in regular contact with Yancey about the sophomore, who has a 1.80 ERA with 34 strikeouts among the 84 batters he’s faced.
“He’s a diamond in the rough,” Yancey said.
Grunwald is 4-0 with an ERA under 1.00. Grunwald pitched a perfect game in the Regional Final last season and hit for the cycle in the Quarterfinal. He’s hitting almost .400 this season.
Junior Lucas Coll is another solid piece of the rotation.
“We definitely have a better, deeper pitching staff than last year,” Yancey said. “It’s hard to win deep in the tournament with one guy or two. We have five. We are setting up nicely. It’s like we added a whole new pitching staff to our team since last year.
“It’s a good problem to have.”
Catcher Connor Grant is hitting .468 with three doubles in his first season behind the plate. Ashton Warren is hitting over .500 in limited action, and Callahan has raised his average more than 100 points over last year and is batting .377.
Yancey says Williams might be the fastest guy in centerfield in the state.
“When other teams look back at why we beat them, inevitably the answer is Matt Williams,” Yancey said. “He can dominate games.”
Yancey has coached on and off for about 20 years, including time as an assistant softball coach at Huron when his daughter was an all-state player. His time in the Dominican Republic was an eye-opener.
“The kids play hard, but they play loose,” he said. “They know they are out there to have fun. That’s one thing I tell my kids at Huron – play to have fun – but never take a play off. We’ve had very good results that way.”
New Boston Huron will start the MHSAA Tournament run with Carleton Airport. After that, Yancey has the path to Michigan State and the Finals well-mapped out. Now, the Chiefs must go out and perform.
“We’ve built a program,” he said. “It’s not a varsity team, junior varsity team and freshman team. It’s a program. We all wear the same uniforms. Every guy, from the nine guys on the field to the guys on the bench or guys on the JV team … they are all competing for spots. Everyone knows their number could be called at any time.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Huron’s Gavin Moczydlowski drives a pitch while his teammates look on during a game at Chelsea. (Middle) The Chiefs’ Cole Grunwald pulls into third base during a game against Trenton. (Photos by Tom Hawley/Monroe News.)
Forest Hills Eastern, GR Christian Set Up all-Grand Rapids-area D2 Final
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 16, 2022
EAST LANSING – As much as he tried to keep it out of his mind, it became nearly impossible for Ada Forest Hills Eastern senior pitcher Jacob Pallo to do so late in his team’s Division 2 Semifinal against Goodrich.
Pallo was four outs away from a no-hitter Thursday, but then a bloop single with two outs in the sixth ended that hope of him making history.
“A little bit,” Pallo said when asked if he had to compose himself after the no-hitter was broken up. “But I just tried to keep it out of my mind as much as I could.”
Pallo might not have done something historic, but he did something extraordinary for his team and set up another historic opportunity. His 6 2/3 shutout innings helped lead No. 1 Forest Hills Eastern to a 6-0 win over No. 4 Goodrich and its first trip to an MHSAA Finals championship game.
It was the type of game where scoring first seemed more important than usual, given Pallo (9-0, 0.95 ERA, 79 K, 12 BB going into the game) was going up against Goodrich ace Noah Keller (12-0, 141 K, 14 BB), who had given up just one earned run all year.
But the Hawks (38-4) put pressure on Goodrich’s defense with its bunt game and got some timely hits to give Pallo a lead.
“Keller is a helluva pitcher, and we just had to figure out how to manufacture stuff,” Forest Hills Eastern coach Ian Hearn said. “He’s a winner. We had a couple of situations where we thought the bunt could work, and we moved some runners over. Of course, after you move runners over, you still have to get a key hit. We were able to get a couple of those.”
Forest Hills Eastern struck first on an RBI single by senior Brian Messing, who hit a grounder just past a drawn-in infield to score pinch-runner Walter Brockie from third base and make it 1-0.
Following a leadoff single by senior Leo Hearn, Brockie had ended up reaching third base after a successful sacrifice bunt by junior Mac DenBraber. Brockie rounded second base and beat the throw to third as the Goodrich third baseman was racing back to the bag after trying to field the bunt.
Forest Hills Eastern took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on an RBI single by senior Evan Parks, who brought home senior Caleb Kuiper after he reached second on two Goodrich errors. The Hawks then plated another run in the fourth inning on a two-out single by senior Collin Fridsma, who scored to make it 3-0.
After Liford broke up Pallo’s no-hit bid in the sixth, Keller singled to put runners on first and second for the Martians. But Pallo got out of the jam with a strikeout to preserve a 3-0 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Forest Hills Eastern added three insurance runs. Following a leadoff double by Messing and a sacrifice bunt, freshman Brendan Thompson singled home Messing to make it 4-0 Hawks. A bunt single by Fridsma advanced Thompson to third, and Forest Hills Eastern then went up 5-0 on a successful squeeze bunt by Kuiper. Parks then followed it up with an RBI single to give Forest Hills Eastern a 6-0 lead.
Pallo finished with nine strikeouts and three walks in improving to 10-0 on the year.
Keller allowed five earned runs and struck out nine for Goodrich (37-3), which committed three errors.
“It’s hard to win a game when you don’t score any runs,” Goodrich head coach Bob Foreback said. “Their kid threw a good game. We had hard-hit shots early in the game right at guys, and that made the difference. Whoever had the lead early on was probably going to win this game.”
Grand Rapids Christian 9, Grosse Ile 1
Hot bats carried Grand Rapids Christian to East Lansing and the Division 2 Semifinals, so it was fitting they carried the Eagles again once there.
Entering the contest with 49 runs over five previous tournament games, Grand Rapids Christian added nine more on 17 hits.
Junior Ty Uchman went 3-for-4 with three RBI, junior Kyle Remington had three hits and senior Nathan Hedlund added two hits and two RBI to lead Grand Rapids Christian (27-8).
“We’ve been on a hot streak lately,” Uchman said. “There’s energy and when we have that, we can do a lot of good things. That’s really helped us.”
Grand Rapids Christian broke through in the top of the third inning, scoring a pair of runs to grab a 2-0 lead. Remington led off the inning with a double, and then went to third when sophomore Jackson Isaacs reached second on a throwing error. Remington then scored on an RBI single to center by Uchman, and Isaacs scored on a fielder’s choice groundout from Hedlund.
Grosse Ile broke through in the fourth inning, cutting its deficit to 2-1 on an RBI single to center by senior William Lowery, who plated junior Cannon Kawadri after Kawadri hit a one-out double to the gap in left-center.
But the Eagles essentially put the game away with a big rally in the sixth inning, scoring seven runs on nine hits. The first came on an RBI triple over the centerfielder’s head by junior Josh Winkle, and then sophomore Cannon Paul scored Winkle with an RBI single to make it 4-1 Grand Rapids Christian.
Senior Alec Koval and Uchman followed with two-run doubles, and Hedlund hit an RBI single, to make it 9-1 Eagles.
“I think we were having good at-bats, and then we all of a sudden started to find some holes and got a little momentum going throughout that inning,” Grand Rapids Christian coach Brent Gates said. “It was nice getting those runs later in the game, for sure.”
The offense was more than enough support for Remington, who allowed five hits, struck out nine and didn’t walk a batter in a complete-game win.
Kawadri and senior Tyler Garza each had two hits for Grosse Ile, which finished 23-7.
PHOTOS (Top) Ada Forest Hills Eastern players celebrate during Thursday’s Division 2 Semifinal win over Goodrich. (Middle) Grand Rapids Christian’s Christian Burgess connects on a bunt. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)