First-Time Title Winner Guaranteed in D4
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
June 16, 2017
EAST LANSING – Coach Bryan Scheurer figured his Portland St. Patrick team couldn’t play much worse.
The Shamrocks committed four errors over the first four innings of their Division 4 Semifinal and trailed Unionville-Sebewaing 8-4.
“Our motto is to throw strikes early,” he said. “We want to throw strikes and take the outs they give us.”
That wasn’t working. In addition to the errors, St. Patrick issued three walks.
“We weren’t playing well,” Scheurer said. “Another one of our mottos is, losing is not acceptable. We’re going to chip away, grind away.
“We didn’t make it easy.”
The Shamrocks scored four runs in the fifth inning to tie the game and pushed across four more in the seventh to defeat USA, 12-8, on Friday at Michigan State’s McLane Stadium.
St. Patrick (28-0-1), a 10-3 loser to Sterling Heights Parkway Christian in the Final last season, will attempt to win the program’s first title when it plays Hudson (27-16) at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Hudson, which had never won a Regional title until this season, trailed Gaylord St. Mary, 2-1, after four innings and then scored two in the fifth and added three in the sixth to take a 6-2 lead on the way to achieving another program first.
St. Patrick had two triples in the fifth inning of its win. Freshman Devin Fedewa’s two-run triple was the key hit.
Graham Smith then started the seventh with a walk, and the bases were loaded with one out after an error and a hit batsman. Dan Mackowiak batted in what proved to be the winning run with a sacrifice fly to center. Nathan Lehnert and Scheurer’s nephew, Brandon Scheurer, had RBI singles, and another run scored on a well-executed double steal.
St. Patrick trailed Bay City All Saints 3-0 and 6-4 in a Regional Final before coming back to win, 7-6. Brandon Scheuer said his team has come back a number of times this season, so the fact the Shamrocks were trailing again didn’t faze them.
“We’ve seen games like that before,” he said. “We try not to hit doubles and home runs. We want to hit singles. We play small ball. We’re good at it. Apparently, they are, too.”
USA (30-8-1) batted around in the third inning and scored four runs to take a 7-3 lead. Scheurer came on in relief in that inning, and though he gave up three of the four runs, he settled down and allowed just two hits and no runs over the final three innings to receive credit for the victory.
Scheurer had four hits, and four of his teammates had two including Brendan Schrauben, Lehnert and Fedewa, all of whom had two RBI.
St. Patrick had 15 hits to nine for USA. Cooper Kauffold had three hits and three RBI for the Patriots.
“That was a heck of a game when you think about all of the back-and-forth play,” USA coach Tyler Bader said. “I told our players you’ve got to use this as a springboard. Not having experience here can add up.”
USA was playing to reach an MHSAA Final for the first time.
Hudson 6, Gaylord St. Mary 4
Jesse Hesistan went the first six innings for Hudson before filling the bases with no outs in the seventh. Coach Jeremy Beal brought in Garrett Gamble from third base and switched Hesistan to third.
The move worked. Drew Koenig hit a grounder to Hesistan, who stepped on the bag and threw to first to complete the double play. Though a run scored, Hudson got what it wanted.
“I was nervous,” Gamble said. “Pitching in relief is never easy. You just have to get it done. You prep for this.”
Brady Hunter singled in St. Mary’s fourth run, but Gamble got the last out on a fly out to center.
“(Hesistan) had enough pitches left to finish,” Beal said. “He was staring at getting us to the Final. That double play was just like we drew it up.”
Hudson’s three runs in the sixth inning proved valuable. Black Borck singled home the fourth run and Gamble, who went 4-4 with four RBI, followed with a two-out, two-run triple.
“We needed to score some runs,” St. Mary coach Matt Nowicki said. “When you get in a hole like that, it’s tough. It would have been nice to take that next step.”
Nick Torsky went the distance for St. Mary (29-8), and Joseph Moeggenberg went 3-3 at the plate.
“We don’t have experience in games like these,” Beal said. “But our athletic department has had success. Wrestling for one. We coach kids in the fall, and it carries over to the winter. We coach kids in the winter and it carries over to the spring.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Portland St. Patrick second baseman Dan Mackowiak throws to first during Friday’s Division 4 Semifinal. (Middle) Hudson puts a tag on Gaylord St. Mary’s Nick Torsky.
Performance: Summerfield's Derek Clark
June 20, 2019
Derek Clark
Petersburg Summerfield junior – Baseball
The Bulldogs closed one of the most dominating runs in MHSAA Baseball Tournament history with their first championship Saturday, and Clark turned in a performance to match. The pitcher/centerfielder threw a four-hit shutout in the 9-0 Division 4 Final win over Saginaw Nouvel, capping a run of 44 straight scoreless innings pitched to close his junior season as he earned the MHSAA “Performance of the Week.”
Clark’s pitching statistics this spring were jaw-dropping. He finished 13-0 with a 0.20 ERA – good for seventh lowest in MHSAA history. He had 116 strikeouts in 70 innings pitched, with 11 strikeouts in the championship game including for the season’s final out. He was 4-for-7 from the plate over the Semifinal and championship games to push his average to .500 for this spring, and he also finished with 48 runs scored and 52 stolen bases (tied for 19th most) on 54 attempts over 32 games. Summerfield defeated Gaylord St. Mary 5-0 in the Semifinal on the way to meeting Nouvel on Saturday, and finished with a combined scoring margin of 89-2 over eight postseason games. The championship was the school’s first at the Finals level in any boys sport. The Bulldogs also won the Tri-County Conference and finished 28-4 overall, capping a complete program turnaround – more on that below.
A three-sport athlete as a junior, Clark doesn’t plan to play football as a senior but will return as the point guard for a basketball team that won the league this past winter for the first time since 2011-12. He’s also a 3.6 student, part of National Honor Society and student council, and is leaning toward studying business or sports marketing when high school is done. He should have some interesting options to continue on the diamond as well – the left-hander made the Division 4 all-state first team this spring as a pitcher after earning the same as an outfielder in 2018.
Coach Travis Pant said: “He’s an ultra competitor. He hates to lose, and it shows in the way he plays the game. Derek’s energy and leadership fueled this historic weekend that we had as a program. He’s a humble leader who brings an enthusiasm to the field every single day that is unmatched. What people saw this weekend in the Finals is what I have watched for the past three seasons. He plays the game the right way and is very fun to watch. … He has been the face of the rebuild we had at Summerfield. When he was an eighth grader, we went 6-28. In his freshman year he quickly became the ace and a leader in the dugout. We have won at least 21 games in every year since. Derek has pitched us to two District championships, two Regional championships and a state championship. He wants the ball in big games and the team fuels off his confidence. … Derek’s junior season was nothing short of amazing. He broke the county record for ERA with a 0.20 and was within three of the county stolen base record with 52. To do what he does on the mound and at the plate for us at such a consistent rate is amazing. Derek never had a bad day on the mound. No matter what the situation, he showed up with his best stuff.”
Performance Point: “The community's been really great about it. I can't go anywhere without having somebody say congratulations. I've had people I've never seen in my life say ‘Congrats,’” Clark said. “It's really nice to have that back-up, so to say, with our community. … With the weekend, it was just so good. All of our hard work, it finally paid off, finally got (us) to our number one goal. It's really nice to accomplish something this big. … The last out, to strike him out for the game, I was telling my catcher, ‘If we get to two outs, we've got to strike him out.’ I think that was probably the best moment. I just felt like it was more ecstatic, had us all pumped up. Because we had the confidence, I don't think it was shocking, so to say. We were really confident in ourselves and in our play because we were playing really well at the time. I think it was just more of a relief.”
Talking turnaround: “I think it’s just having guys that can play. The junior class this year was really big. We started five freshmen my freshman year. So just having that, and having guys come out. Also just having confidence in each other and trusting in each other, because team chemistry is huge. If you don’t have that, talent doesn’t really mean anything. … We’ve always been a baseball group. There’s been football and basketball, but we’ve been more of a baseball grade. I think we’ve been all right coming up, and we’ve just hit a stride the last couple of years and (we’re) just getting better.”
Taking the lead: “I just try to be a leader of everything, every sport I play. When it comes to basketball, I'm the point guard so you've gotta communicate, you've gotta use your words, you can't be quiet. You're the general of the floor – you've got to know what to do, what's going on at all times. That's kinda how I am with baseball. I just try to keep everybody engaged and try to get everybody looks and help everybody as much as I can.”
Title time: “It's just great to finally get it done. Our baseball program, Coach (Darrell) Polter built it up (before retiring in 2014 after nearly 40 seasons). He has 17 league titles at Summerfield, and just to finally get that state title meant a lot to us. Nobody's really ever been there to do that, in any sport, so (the community) made a really big deal. We came home after we won, and there was a big parade in town and it was just really surreal and awesome to be a part of.”
Never stop competing: “I think we're all just so competitive. We'll be in math class, doing something that's competitive, and if you lose it's hectic. Nobody wants to lose. I think that's got something to do with (our success). When we grew up, we didn't want to lose ever. That's how we've been since we were little. Some kids take it even into school, like ‘Ha ha, I have better grades than you.’ It gets wild. I’m not bad (academically), but our shortstop Brendan Dafoe has a 4-point, and Brayden Jewell has a 3.8 or 3.9 or something like that. We’re all in advanced class, so we get after each other in there.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Past 2018-19 honorees
June 13: Audrey Whiteside, East Grand Rapids lacrosse - Read
June 6: Kari Miller, Ann Arbor Pioneer tennis - Read
May 23: Keshaun Harris, Lansing Waverly track & field - Read
May 16: Gabbie Sherman, Millington softball - Read
May 9: Nathan Taylor, Muskegon Mona Shores golf - Read
May 2: Ally Gaunt, New Baltimore Anchor Bay soccer - Read
April 25: Kali Heivilin, Three Rivers softball - Read
March 28: Rickea Jackson, Detroit Edison basketball - Read
March 21: Noah Wiswary, Hudsonville Unity Christian basketball - Read
March 14: Cam Peel, Spring Lake swimming - Read
March 7: Jordan Hamdan, Hudson wrestling - Read
February 28: Kevon Davenport, Detroit Catholic Central wrestling - Read
February 21: Reagan Olli, Gaylord skiing - Read
February 14: Jake Stevenson, Traverse City Bay Reps hockey - Read
February 7: Molly Davis, Midland Dow basketball - Read
January 31: Chris DeRocher, Alpena basketball - Read
January 24: Imari Blond, Flint Kearsley bowling - Read
January 17: William Dunn, Quincy basketball - Read
November 29: Dequan Finn, Detroit Martin Luther King football - Read
November 22: Paige Briggs, Lake Orion volleyball - Read
November 15: Hunter Nowak, Morrice football - Read
November 8: Jon Dougherty, Detroit Country Day soccer - Read
November 1: Jordan Stump, Camden-Frontier volleyball - Read
October 25: Danielle Staskowski, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep golf - Read
October 18: Adam Bruce, Gladstone cross country - Read
October 11: Ericka VanderLende, Rockford cross country - Read
October 4: Kobe Clark, Schoolcraft football - Read
September 27: Jonathan Kliewer, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern soccer - Read
September 20: Kiera Lasky, Bronson volleyball - Read
September 13: Judy Rector, Hanover-Horton cross country - Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Petersburg Summerfield's Derek Clark unloads a pitch during Saturday's Division 4 championship game win at McLane Stadium. (Middle) Clark heads back to his dugout after sliding in head-first to score in Friday's Semifinal.