High 5s: 6/12/12
June 14, 2012
A few thousand teams began this spring on MHSAA fields and courts. Heading into the final weekend of the 2011-12 school year, that number is down to 100 and change.
Each week, Second Half gives "High 5s" to athletes and a team based on their accomplishments the previous week or throughout the season. Below are an athlete and team who will be looking to finish this season with one last win.
Josh Vyletel
Howell senior
Pitcher
Vyletel threw a complete-game no-hitter as Howell beat rival Brighton 4-3 in a Division 1 Quarterfinal on Tuesday to advance to the MHSAA Semifinals for the first time. Vyletel improved to 15-2 this spring, which ties him for 10th in the MHSAA record book for most wins in one season. He’ll take the ball again Friday for the Highlanders against Warren DeLaSalle at Battle Creek’s Bailey Park.
My kind of pitcher: “I want to be a pitcher that’s a go-to guy. I always want to be consistent. I know how to throw strikes; I don’t walk too many batters. I know if I get it over the plate, good things will happen. I’m not really the kind of pitcher that will blow it by you. My game is hitting the corners and such, and when I do it pretty well and locate my pitches, I believe in myself.”
He winds up and delivers: “My fastball moves by itself, and I usually keep them off-balance with the curve. My fastball and curveball I can locate the best.”
No. 1 highlight: “Against Brighton, the last game we played. It was crazy. There was a big crowd, and every pitch the parents and students were just going out cheering. It got my adrenaline going.”
I learned the most about baseball from: “My dad (John) has always been there for me. He’s always backing me up on baseball. He was never a great baseball player, but he says if you believe in yourself you can go far in life. He taught me to believe in myself.”
Up next: Vyletel will attend Lansing Community College beginning this fall and join the Stars’ baseball team.
Grandville Calvin Christian girls soccer
Calvin Christian will play for its first MHSAA championship Saturday at Michigan State University. Last weekend, the Squires (24-2-1) knocked out two ranked teams in last week’s Division 4 Regional – first No. 8 St. Joseph Lake Michigan Catholic 7-0 and then No. 2 Kalamazoo Christian 7-2. The Squires entered the postseason ranked No. 4.
This spring's previous honorees
- Sarah Appold, Saginaw Valley Lutheran softball
- Katie Brozovich, Clarkston tennis
- Latipha Cross, Southfield track and field
- Sarita Dotson, Battle Creek Lakeview track and field
- Lauren Hooker, East Grand Rapids lacrosse
- Drake Johnson, Ann Arbor Pioneer track and field
- Jake McFadden, Clare track and field
- Sami Michell, Reed City track and field
- Mike Nagy, Manistique golf
- Cullen Prena, Walled Lake Central track and field
- Erika Southworth, Decatur softball
- Nick Stiles, Bath baseball
- Malloy Weber, Northville soccer
- Zack Zingsheim, Lansing Catholic track and field
- Garret Zuk, White Lake Lakeland track and field
- Birmingham Seaholm tennis
- Detroit Western International baseball
- Grand Rapids West Catholic golf
- Grosse Pointe South girls track and field
- Muskegon Mona Shores golf
- Remus Chippewa Hills girls track and field
- Richland Gull Lake baseball
- Stevensville Lakeshore softball
Crusaders Outlast Centreville for 1st Title
June 13, 2015
By Andy Sneddon
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – When Nicholas Holt needed it, he dug deep.
Holt allowed 17 hits, but got the biggest outs when he needed them Saturday as Muskegon Catholic Central topped Centreville in a 10-8 thriller in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 4 championship game at Michigan State’s McLane Baseball Stadium.
Centreville scored three runs on five hits in the seventh inning and had runners at first and second when Holt, with his 113th pitch of the game, got a game-ending groundout to touch off the Crusaders’ celebration.
Holt had white-knuckled it home, giving MCC – a winner of 10 MHSAA football championships – its first for baseball.
“Knowing that this is a lot bigger than me, that this has never happened at Muskegon Catholic Central, knowing that there’s eight guys around you trying to do the same thing and they’re working their butt off just like I am,” Holt said of his mindset in the seventh inning, when Centreville sent eight men to the plate and had the crowd on its feet. “The way to get through something like this is to not think about yourself, but to think about the guy next to you.
“I probably could have went 100 more pitches because I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t feel any pain. All I felt was just so much adrenaline and I just never stopped. You don’t think about if I’m hurt, you think about the guy at second base, the catcher – they’re working hard and you’ve just got to battle through whatever’s going on with you.”
It was a battle of heavyweights as both teams came into the Final with just one loss. MCC finished 39-1-1; Centreville, playing in the first MHSAA championship baseball game in school history, went 29-2.
Nicholas Holt and his brother and catcher Jacob Holt finished with three hits apiece. Jacob Holt drove in five runs, while Nicholas had two RBI.
Jalen Brown collected four hits, while Coletin Gascho and Michael Kool had three apiece for Centreville.
Jordan Gest, who started for Centreville, took the loss. He went three innings, allowing six runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out three.
Kool, who was the Bulldogs’ workhorse on the mound throughout their run to their first Final, also went three innings. He surrendered four runs on five hits. Just four of MCC’s 10 runs were earned. Centreville committed four errors.
The teams combined for 18 runs, 27 hits and six errors in a highly entertaining game. It all came down to Holt’s left arm in the seventh.
“He wasn’t coming out of the game,” MCC coach Steve Schuitema said. “We didn’t even warm anybody up. We’ve ridden him for four years now.
“I didn’t even want to look. I was getting physically ill over in the dugout. I just kept saying ‘hang on; just hang on.’ Usually when I say hang on, things don’t hang on. … Luckily we did today.”
PHOTOS: (Top) A Muskegon Catholic Central hitter closes in on a pitch during Saturday’s Division 4 Final. (Middle) Centreville catcher Nick Kelley blocks a throw as MCC’s Anthony Woodard slides in.