Beal City Sets Tone, USA Enjoys Prime Time
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
June 15, 2018
EAST LANSING – The moment. The venue. It all got to Beal City’s Keegan Haynes as he took the mound to begin his team’s Division 4 Semifinal against Gaylord St. Mary on Saturday.
Haynes retired the first batter, gave up a base hit and proceeded to throw 10 straight balls walking the bases full before going 2-0 on the fifth batter, Alex Pudvan. Aggies coach Steve Pickens came out to talk to his junior pitcher, settle him down and hopefully instill some confidence.
Haynes threw a strike and then got a bouncer to start a double play, pitcher to home to first. Just like that, the Aggies escaped the top of the first inning unscathed – and that changed everything.
Beal City scored twice in the bottom of the inning and tacked on four more runs in the second on the way to defeating St. Mary 7-3 at McLane Stadium to advance to Saturday’s championship game, which will be its first since 2014.
Beal City (22-8), winners of three previous MHSAA baseball titles, will play first-time finalist Unionville-Sebewaing (22-15) at 2:30 p.m. USA scored four in the first inning and went on to defeat St. Joseph Lake Michigan Catholic, 5-1, in the second Semifinal.
“That pretty much defined the game for us,” St. Mary coach Matt Nowicki said. “That first (inning) could have been promising for us.”
Instead of scoring a run or more, and perhaps knocking Haynes out of the game, St. Mary was deflated.
Conversely, Beal City got pumped up. Run-scoring singles by Haynes and catcher Cameron Lynch staked Haynes to a 2-0 lead. When the Aggies added four the next inning, keyed by Kollion Sharrar’s two-run triple, Haynes and Beal City were in command.
“I told (Haynes) to trust his defense,” Pickens said. “With that double play, we were only one pitch away from getting out of the inning.
“Hey, that’s a good team over there. We scored a number of runs today with two outs. We’re getting some timely hitting. We were moving the ball. We didn’t strike out much (four times) today.”
St. Mary (26-6) scored all of its runs in the fifth inning, stringing together five consecutive singles to knock Haynes out of the game. That was good and bad news for the Snowbirds. They finally got on the board, but the run also prompted Pickens to bring in his ace. Senior Brett Upton, 11-2 on the season, fanned the first two batters he faced, then got a pop out to shortstop that stranded two runners.
Upton, who threw 23 pitches in retiring all five batters he faced, will be ready to start on the mound in the title game.
“I had all the confidence in the world in (Haynes),” Upton said. “I wasn’t coming in at that time anyway. We had all the confidence in the world in our offense and that we’d come back and score. That double play was a big momentum swing. That was huge for us. The plan for me today was to come in for an inning or so and get used to the mound. I’m ready.”
Aaron Schafer relieved Upton in the sixth and got the final four outs.
Haynes got credit for the win and he also went 3 for 3 with two RBI.
“The nerves got the best of me in that first inning,” Haynes said. “(Pickens) said to me to throw strikes and calm down. Giving up no runs in the first, that was the best-case scenario. This is the biggest game I’ve ever pitched in.”
For St. Mary, Drew Long went all six innings and pitched well after the first two. Joseph Moeggenberg had two hits and an RBI.
Unionville-Sebewaing 5, St. Joseph Lake Michigan Catholic 1
Brendan Prime went the first 5 1/3 innings for USA to earn the victory. He survived a shaky start, and when his pitch count ran out, Devin Riskey came to his rescue. Riskey, likely Saturday’s starting pitcher, allowed one hit and struck out two in his 1 2/3 innings of work.
Prime allowed three hits and one run in the first inning, and allowed just one hit after.
“I don’t think I was in a groove yet,” Prime said. “After those four runs, when they got that one, I didn’t think about it much.”
Last season USA scored a bunch of runs early in a Division 4 Semifinal but failed to close out Portland St. Patrick. USA led 7-3 after three innings in that one before St. Patrick came back to win, 12-8, and go on to claim the championship.
“I thought back to St. Patrick last year,” USA coach Tyler Bader said. “We talk about getting to teams early. We wanted to stay on top. Stay on top. Stay on top.
“I felt we were going to do well in the tournament in the Districts. We’re not done yet.”
USA batted around in the first inning; the big hit was Braden Carter’s two-run single.
For Lake Michigan Catholic (27-4), starting pitcher Matthew Defay had a triple and scored on Jacob Kissane’s sacrifice fly. Defay gave up all five runs, but only two were earned.
VIDEO: Unionville-Sebewaing's four-run first inning was highlighted by this two-run single by Braden Carter.
PHOTOS: (Top) A Beal City runner tries to beat a throw to third base during his team’s Semifinal win over Gaylord St. Mary. (Middle) Unionville-Sebewaing’s Brendan Prime delivers a pitch as the Patriots earned a trip to Saturday’s championship game.
Grand Blanc Claims Most Grand Baseball Prize for 1st Time
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
June 19, 2021
EAST LANSING – Pitching and defense have been staples of the Grand Blanc baseball team during its postseason push.
Those two elements combined with timely hitting to help carry the Bobcats to an 8-3 victory over Portage Central in Saturday’s Division 1 Final at Michigan State’s McLane Stadium.
Grand Blanc allowed only seven runs over its seven postseason games.
“That’s been our MO most of the year and definitely through this playoff run for sure,” Bobcats coach Kevin Hubbs said. “We’ve counted on several kids, and today it was (pitcher) Nate Helms, and our defense has been stellar.
“We know that will keep us in any ball game, and the last couple games our bats have come alive, too. We’re a tough ball club when we’re clicking on all cylinders like that.”
The win capped off a season of firsts for the Bobcats (33-11), beginning with their first Regional title.
“We played an extremely tough schedule all season long, especially nonconference, to get to this point,” Hubbs said. “We knew we would take some lumps along the way, but we knew it would prepare our kids ultimately to play in games like this.”
Grand Blanc senior center fielder Jonah Meleski, who had a hit and scored two runs, said the team peaked at the right time.
“This postseason has been insane, and we haven't given up very many runs at all,” he said. “The pitching has been dominant, and everyone defensively has been locked in.
“We’ve always been a good team, and we played the best competition in the state. We were always looking for competition, and we didn’t settle for easy wins. That’s why we are here, and this couldn't be any better, especially as a senior.”
Freshman Nathan Fidelino’s two-out RBI bloop single gave the Bobcats a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Moments later, Hunter Ames scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
On defense, Grand Blanc left fielder AJ Maxwell made an amazing diving catch in the bottom of the inning to prevent at least one run from scoring.
“That was huge,” Hubbs said. “He doesn't catch that ball, then it’s a triple and a 2-1 ball game. It changed the momentum and kept it in our favor.”
The Bobcats broke it open in the fifth with six runs on five hits. They also took advantage of two Portage Central errors to go ahead 8-0.
“Everyone got hot at the right time, and everyone took their job seriously,” Meleski said. “It was just a great moment, and the momentum shifts completely.”
Grand Blanc made a habit of grabbing early leads and not relinquishing them.
“We haven’t played from behind yet this entire postseason run,” Hubbs said. “Our kids only know how to play with a lead, so it gets tough on other teams when we are playing like that with a lead.”
Helms, a junior, was brilliant on the mound until the sixth inning, when the Mustangs (35-5) touched him up for three runs.
Luke Leto scored on an infield single and Gavin Brasosky belted a two-run homer over the right field fence.
“That’s the character of this team,” Mustangs coach Cory DeGroote said. “They were frustrated, but they didn’t quit. They didn’t like the fifth inning, either, and I love that.
“The (six total) errors were uncharacteristic of us to have those happen, but that’s baseball, and we just couldn't figure their pitcher out. We couldn’t get good swings and string anything together.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Grand Blanc players welcome teammate Hunter Ames (24) back to the dugout during Saturday’s Division 1 Final. (Middle) Grand Blanc’s AJ Maxwell leaps for a run-saving catch in left field.