Liggett Outlasts Beal City in D4 Classic
June 15, 2013
By Andy Sneddon
Special to Second Half
BATTLE CREEK – An absolute gem of a high school baseball game, and a shame that one team had to come out on the losing end.
That’s sports, and that’s baseball.
Cole Zingas scored on a throwing error in the top of the eighth inning Saturday night, then Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett got a pair of standout defensive plays in the bottom of the inning while holding on to beat Beal City, 3-2, in an oh-so-memorable Division 4 championship game at C.O. Brown Stadium.
“If that’s not the greatest championship game at any level in a long time, I’d like to see one better,” said University Liggett coach Dan Cimini. “The back and forth on both sides, all of our kids fought, scratched and played their hearts out.
“That was the best baseball game I’ve ever been involved in. And I’m not just talking about the play, I’m talking about the hustle and the drive and the will to win and the will not to lose. It was unbelievable.”
It was University Liggett’s second MHSAA crown in three years. The Knights (31-4) were runners-up last season.
Beal City (35-3) was back in the title game after winning championships in 2008 and 2010. The Aggies fell to University Liggett in the Semifinals in 2011.
Beal City left the bases loaded four times through the first seven innings and stranded 14 runners on the day.
Aggies pitcher Ty Rollin took a perfect game into the fifth inning and a no-hitter into the sixth, when Patrick Broder ended his latter bid with a leadoff infield single.
The game was tied 1-1 in the top of the seventh when the Knights got a one-out single from Connor Fannon, a walk to Nathan Gaggin, and a single from Anthony Simon to load the bases. Kevin Allen’s sacrifice fly to center brought home the go-ahead run.
The Aggies tied it in the bottom of the seventh when No. 9 hitter Nicholas Hoogerhyde drew a bases-loaded walk.
Fannon, who had taken over on the mound for University Liggett to start the fifth inning, then struck out Rollin, the Aggies’ leadoff hitter, and they had left the bases loaded for the fourth time.
Still, Beal City had managed to tie the game, setting the stage for the dramatic eighth inning.
Zingas, University Liggett’s No. 9 hitter, led off the top of the eighth with an infield hit. He moved to second on an Adam Fiema bunt, and took third on yet another infield single, this one by Mark Auk.
With Auk on first base, a wild pickoff attempt skipped by first baseman Ryan Tilmann, and Zingas raced home with what turned out to be the winning run.
For the bottom of the eighth Fiema relieved Fannon, University Liggett’s workhorse who went the distance in the Knights’ 1-0 Semifinal win over New Lothrop on Friday.
Fiema struck out the Aggies’ leadoff hitter, and then induced popouts for the final two outs. Both were highlight reel-worthy catches, the first a sliding grab by Auk in shallow centerfield on a ball that looked certain to drop for a hit; the second by catcher Nathan Gaggin. He caught the final out falling backward in foul territory between home plate and the first-base on-deck circle.
Rollin went all eight innings on the mound for Beal City. He allowed six hits, struck out five and walked two. Fannon earned the victory, while Fiema picked up the save.
“I give it to my guys,” Cimini said. “I love those guys. They fight, scratch, claw – they never give up, and they will never give up and that’s how we won this baseball game.”
As proud, Cimini said, as he was of his own team, he was equally proud of – but also sympathetic toward – the Aggies.
“Their coach (Brad Antcliff), he’s one of my best friends in the coach world and I respect him and what he’s done with that program. And I told him neither team deserved to lose this ballgame, and I believe that with all my heart.
“They (Beal City) should be super proud, I’m super proud, and I’m super proud to be able to be able to play against a team and a coach like that.”
PHOTO: (Top) University Liggett pitcher Connor Fannon begins to celebrate after catcher Nathan Gaggin catches the final out of the Division 4 Final. (Middle) Knights shortstop Nicholas Azar dives over teammate Mark Evan Auk after Auk makes a grab during the eighth inning. (Click to see more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Foley Becomes Baseball's 1st to Win 3 Straight
June 15, 2013
By Andy Sneddon
Special to Second Half
BATTLE CREEK – Be it with the bunt, the big hit or anything in between, Madison Heights Bishop Foley showed – once again – it can beat an opponent myriad ways.
The Ventures pounded out 12 hits including four doubles Saturday in topping Grandville Calvin Christian, 12-5, in the Division 3 championship game.
The win gave No. 1-ranked Foley an MHSAA record three consecutive titles.
And the Ventures’ may just be hitting their stride.
“We say a couple things,” Foley coach Buster Sunde said when pointing to the keys to his program’s success. “Nobody’s going to outwork us, and on the field we’re not going to give away anything.
“And, every single game, we don’t play, really, to our opponent; we play to get better, and we want to leave the field a better team each game. That’s our focus. It’s not who we play or who’s after us or anything like that. We want to be a better team when we leave the field.”
Or the best, as has been the case in each of the past three seasons. The Ventures finished 35-2-1 and are a combined 112-8-1 since the start of 2011.
“It’s character, it really is, and that is flat-out the truth,” said Sunde, who is in his fifth season at the school. “We’ve got seniors and freshmen hanging out together. There’s a special bond, and we’ve had it year after year. You can say what you want; you can get that big lefty who throws 92, 93 (mph), but I’ll take character all the time and work with that.”
It doesn’t hurt to have some solid arms and big bats. Both were on display on Saturday at C.O. Brown Stadium.
Michael Murley and Chad Gravlin each went 3 1/3 innings on the mound for the Ventures, and Michael Reid came on to get the final out. Murley started and did not allow a hit, but he did walk five, hit a batter and allowed two runs. Gravlin surrendered three runs on four hits, while walking two. The pair combined to strike out five.
They got plenty of support. The heart of Foley’s order – Nathaniel Grys, cleanup man William Malak and Michael Reid – combined to go 5-for-8 with five RBI.
Foley’s four doubles – one each by Grys, Malak, Reid and Murley -- tied the record for doubles in an MHSAA Final.
“We swung the bats, and that’s what we’ve done all year long,” said Sunde, adding that his players may have played Saturday’s Final with a chip on their shoulders after the storyline in Foley’s 6-0 Semifinal win over Bridgman on Friday was that the Ventures had played small-ball. “I told (my players) last night in the meeting that everyone thinks you’re a small-ball team. So they had a little something in them that they wanted to show they can swing the bats.
“We had to do it a different way today. We had to do it with our bats, and I think we went out and did that.”
They did, and they served notice that they aren’t going anywhere. They will graduate just two players, Malak and Gravlin, and Sunde shows no signs of letting off the gas.
“We try to make our schedule as tough as we can,” Sunde said. “We play the toughest teams every year in our nonleague games, and I think that makes you a better team. When we need to improve at something, we work at it.
“It’s like I tell (my players): each team, every year, has gotten better as the season has gone on, and that’s how you win the state championship.
“If you stay the same team that you are in March and April, you’re not going to win. Someone will get up and get you. Next year, if we can grow as a team as our teams have in the past, and we can be the best team we can be on this day, then we have a good shot. We really do.”
Junior Jamie Bristol was the lone Calvin Christian batter to have multiple hits, finishing 2-for-4 with an RBI. The Squires did get within 3-2 heading into the bottom of the third inning before Bishop Foley scored the next six runs.
PHOTOS: (Top) Bishop Foley junior David Chung connects with a pitch during Saturday’s Division 3 Final; he finished 2-for-4. (Middle) Senior Chad Gravlin prepares to fire a pitch after coming on in relief. (Click to see more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)