Grandville Backstop Home Again Behind the Plate

By Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com

April 16, 2021

GRANDVILLE – Spencer Verburg understands his position on the baseball diamond isn’t the most glamorous. 

It doesn’t bother the Grandville senior standout one bit. 

In fact, he takes pride in his role as one of the top catchers in the Grand Rapids area.  

“I like to do the dirty work,” said the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Verburg, who recently signed with Central Michigan University. “Not many people want to do that, and everyone wants to be a shortstop or center fielder where you look cool and get the girls.

“I feel like a team can't take it to the next level without a dude behind the plate that is willing to block and get down and dirty to help the pitchers look pretty.” 

Verburg is a defensive stalwart who embraces the opportunity to help his pitching staff. 

“I like receiving because I’m able to stick pitches that other catchers would drag out of the zone,” Verburg said. “It’s such a confidence booster when you stick and steal one and it can change the whole game because your pitcher gains the confidence he needs and then he starts rolling. 

“I’ve always focused on defense because it's hard to find good catchers out there. I feel like so many people have focused on hitting, so I focused on catching where I knew not as many people would focus on.”  

Grandville baseballVerburg’s prowess and maturity was on display in Grandville’s first tournament of the season last weekend. 

Bulldogs head coach Matt Cook was impressed by Verburg’s ability to block out his offensive struggles and remain focused on his catching duties. 

“He didn’t have a great day at the plate and I sent him a text telling him that the way he talked to our younger pitchers, the way he carried himself behind the plate and the way he talked to umpires is going to pay such dividends in the long run,” Cook said. “He didn’t let the other things bother him at all.” 

Verburg is thrilled to be back on the field with his teammates after the pandemic wiped out his junior season. 

Last year was a challenging time for all spring sports athletes in the state.  

“It hit hard because baseball is such a big part of my life,” Verburg said. “I didn’t get to play with my teammates and see them every day. There weren’t any places to work out or throw or hit because so many places were shut down because of COVID.” 

The Bulldogs had just wrapped up tryouts before they found out the season would be put on pause. It eventually turned into a cancellation. 

“There was no way I thought they were going to cancel the season, and we thought we would just wait it out for a couple weeks,” Verburg said. “It felt like it dragged out, and eventually we sensed that we wouldn’t be playing at all.” 

Verburg had mixed emotions because he knew he had another year of high school baseball. 

On the other hand, he knew that wouldn’t be the same for his senior teammates. 

“I felt really bad because I’ve been playing with those guys since I was a freshman, and I’ve been through so much with those guys,” he said. “It was hard to not be able to go out and play that last season with them and know they were not going to enjoy senior night and everything else.” 

“It was heartbreaking for everyone around the state and the country,” Cook added. “Guys like Spencer and others who had been waiting in the wings and they knew they were going to be day-one starters and play every single inning. And then for the season to get canceled ... I know it was really tough on those guys.” 

Cook saw a noticeable difference in his players’ preparation upon learning of their return this spring. 

“They have been so locked in this year, and I think a lot of it is because they lost a year and are not taking anything for granted,” Cook said. “We’ve had our best practices so far this year than we’ve had in my four years here. 

Grandville baseball“Guys are more locked in because of that missed year. They don’t take practice for granted, and they want to be there.” 

Verburg feels blessed to have the opportunity to play in his final season. 

“I’m so thankful because last year it was obvious to everyone that things can be taken away so fast,” Verburg said. “This is the first year I’ve been able to play with all the guys I grew up with since kindergarten. It’s nice to go out and play the game that we love together and just have fun doing it.” 

Verburg has been on the varsity since he was a freshman. As a sophomore, he spent time playing behind then-senior Jake Paganelli. 

The following offseason, playing with his Diamonds travel team, Verburg began to show promise at the plate.   

The combination of defense and hitting helped him earn interest from college scouts. 

“Things just started to click for me at the plate,” Verburg said. “It’s this feeling you have when you step up to the plate and you knew you were not going to strike out. You knew you were going to find a way on base no matter what pitcher was out there and no matter what situation it was.” 

Verburg fit in right away as an incoming freshman on varsity.  

“He was business-like then, and had goals early,” Cook said. “We recognized him as a kid that was only going to work and work and work, It’s rare when you find a freshman that carries himself the way he did. He carried himself like an upperclassman.” 

The Bulldogs possess a lot of potential this year after winning 24 games in 2019. 

“I think we’re being slept on, but we're scrappy,” Verburg said. “I  think we can make a deep run in the tournament.”

Dean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for four years after serving at the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years along with shorter stints at the Ionia Sentinel and WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties. 

PHOTOS: (Top) Grandville catcher Spencer Verburg gets ready for another inning behind the plate during his team’s doubleheader against Grand Ledge earlier this month. (Middle) Verburg signs with Central Michigan in November. (Below) The then-sophomore drives a pitch for the varsity in 2019. (Photos courtesy of the Verburg family and Grandville baseball program.) 

St Mary's Completes Championship Climb

By Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com

June 15, 2019

EAST LANSING – By the time the final weekend of the baseball season came around, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s was a juggernaut. 

The young but incredibly talented Eaglets showed that by defeating their final two opponents by a combined score of 18-1, including an 8-1 victory Saturday against Grand Rapids Catholic Central in the MHSAA Division 2 Final at McLane Stadium.

But after a 7-9 start to the season, what seemed inevitable by the end looked far from certain.

“That Ohio trip (on spring break), we really just kind of bonded closer,” St. Mary’s sophomore second baseman Alex Mooney said. “We said, ‘Enough is enough, we’re not losing anymore,’ and that’s actually what we did – we haven’t lost since. You see all the talent, you see all the (college) commitments and stuff, and it’s like, ‘Why aren’t we winning?’ Then it finally just clicked, and everything just came together.”

St. Mary’s (34-9-2) finished the season 27-0-2 over its final 29 games to claim the fourth Finals title in school history, and first since 2015. 

"It’s good putting it all together,” Eaglets coach Matt Petry said. “At the beginning of the year while we were struggling, we would get good pitching and we wouldn’t swing. Or we would swing and we wouldn’t get good pitching. For the last two months, we’ve kind of put it all together and we’ve won every type of game possible, and the guys were just really confident coming into this weekend.”

That confidence was evident Saturday, as the Eaglets were always in control against the Cougars thanks to strong hitting and a stellar pitching performance from freshman starter Brock Porter. In six innings of work, Porter struck out seven while allowing five hits, three walks and one run.

“I definitely have confidence in Brock,” Mooney said. “He’s no normal freshman, so I don’t think the stage ever gets too big for him. He’s going to be a stud.”

Senior Dillon Kark closed the game, allowing one hit before forcing a double play ball to end the seventh inning.

Petry said he had complete confidence in Porter, despite his age, but he also knew he had the full strength of his deep pitching staff at the ready thanks to a complete-game outing from Thursday’s starter Logan Wood.

“Brock has thrown great for us,” Petry said. “That was his first start in the playoffs, but he had three wins prior to today in relief. We really couldn’t make a bad decision, whether we wanted to start Brock or Anthony Fett or Mikey Gall, we were confident in all those guys, but we went with Brock. It started with Logan Wood on Thursday going a complete, that way we had the whole rest of our staff available. Some very talented guys and guys with experience. After Brock we had Dillon Kark closing it out, which was very valuable.”

St. Mary’s bats wasted little time getting going, as they scored two runs in each of the first three innings to jump out to a 6-0 lead. 

Senior catcher Harrison Poeszat opened the scoring with an RBI single, and Kameron Arnold, who came in to run for him, made it 2-0 with some heads-up play. After he stole second, the throw went into the outfield and Arnold took advantage of the confusion to run home.

Mooney drove in a pair of runs with a single in the second inning, and the Eaglets added two more runs on an error in the third.

Catholic Central (27-11) got on the board in the fifth inning with a sacrifice fly from Kyle Tepper that drove in Nate Trudeau. 

Jack Mooney put St. Mary’s up 7-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning with a sacrifice that scored Grant Henson, and an RBI triple from Nolan Schubart in the bottom of the sixth closed out the scoring. 

“We looked at their lineup before we played and we saw that the bottom of their order, 7-8-9, were seniors,” Catholic Central coach Tim MacKinnon said. “When you have seniors hitting 7, 8 and 9, you have a pretty decent ballclub, and we knew that. We had seen them play Thursday, and we knew that they would come out swinging the bat, and they did. We didn’t get the results we wanted, but we got a good effort out of Joe Collins. But a couple of balls got left up, and they tattooed them a little bit and got some runs early. Then we had to fight back from there.”

Mooney led the way for St. Mary’s with three hits, while Schubert had two. Cole Sibley added an RBI. 

Brenden Leonard led Catholic Central with two hits. 

“We had a great season,” MacKinnon said. “We ran up against a really nice ballclub. Matt Petry does a good job with his team, and they played all aspects of the game very well. Porter did a great job, they hit the ball extremely well today and played good defense. After the game, I told (my team) they had a good season, and you don’t throw one season into a situation where one last game means everything for the season.”

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS: (Top) Orchard Lake St. Mary's Brock Porter makes his move toward the plate Saturday during the Division 2 championship game. (Middle) The Eaglets' Cole Sibley (9) slides into second base as Nate Trudeau awaits the throw.