Low Numbers Lead Softball Foursome to Bolster Bellaire Baseball
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
April 22, 2022
Things were pretty straight forward last spring for Bella Huffman, Karysn Fischer, Alex Dawson and Brooklynn Clark.
Huffman played third base the Bellaire Eagles. Fisher was a designated hitter and outfielder. Dawson regularly played outfield and catcher, and Clark handled second base.
Huffman is senior now. Fisher is a junior. Dawson and Clark are sophomores. They were playing for the Eagles softball team. Today, they are members of the Eagles baseball team. Small numbers forced the cancellation of girls softball for this spring.
Hesitant, maybe at first, the four student-athletes made the leap to baseball.
“This is a slightly unique situation, and I am very proud of the girls for stepping out of their comfort zone to help the baseball team,” said Brad Fischer, Bellaire’s athletic director. “Unfortunately, the numbers were just not there to support a softball team.
“When we had to make the tough call to cancel our softball season, we told the girls that they are more than welcome to join the baseball team – and we are happy that a few chose to do so.”
The girls played their first game Thursday at Pellston for first-year coach Chris Bearup after a handful of games were lost to spring weather complications. All four got playing time.
The girls, and athletic director, credited the coaches for the smooth transition to the baseball field.
“Coach Bearup has done a great job of getting the girls comfortable and making sure they know they are part of the team and have every opportunity that the boys do,” said Fischer, also Karsyn’s father. “His leadership has been tremendous.
“We are fortunate to have him.”
The girls started to become very comfortable with baseball during a meeting after the first practice with Bearup and assistant coach Al Balko.
“They were worried about the boys picking on us and treating us like … we weren’t going to be as good as them,” recalled Clark of the post-practice meeting. “Now they’re being more incorporative.
“They are really trying to make us feel we’re at home, and that we’re welcome,” she continued. “They’re giving us a chance to try everything.”
Huffman has dabbled with pitching, and that may work out. It may be a battery with Dawson in the catching position.
“We all got to practice (pitching),” Karysn said. “Alex was in her catching gear, and we pitched.
“Bella was pretty good at it naturally.”
The girls were confident going into Thursday’s season opener. Their eyes are now opened wider as a result, and they are better prepared to compete as they head to Central Lake on Monday. Huffman, Dawson and Clark all got their first at bats out of the way.
“It was a little nerve racking,” Huffman said.
Dawson was in the starting line-up for the first game. She experienced running the 90-foot bases, after being used to the 60-foot base distances in softball.
“You run your little heart out,” she said. “I didn’t make it there, but I ran."
Bellaire lost 9-1 and 11-0 to Pellston, which had already played two games this year.
The girls are coming into baseball with slightly different expectations for themselves as individual players. All plan to try working harder than the boys.
“I went into this season with high expectations for myself because I knew as a girl on the baseball team I had to work harder than any of the boys to try to prove how good I am or how good I am possibly going to be,” Clark noted. “I think speaking for all the girls, we do.”
Numbers also are low for the baseball team. There are 14 on the roster. The tough result of no softball may have saved the baseball season.
And the senior boys are down to their last swing for a District championship. The boys in the Class of 2022 have yet to win a District in any sport. Cole Robinson is among the seniors seeking that first title.
Robinson had his sophomore baseball season cancelled by the pandemic. His football teams saw limited success. The Eagles boys basketball team made substantial improvements especially this past season, but lost its District opener.
Robinson has carried on since losing his father and coach Brock Robinson in April 2020. His dad served as the assistant baseball coach and head football coach for the Eagles before his unexpected death at the age of 54.
The girls would have been cheering for him to get his first District title. But now they plan to help him win one with their play on the diamond.
“We love Cole,” together they exclaimed.
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) A foursome of past Bellaire softball players, from left Alex Dawson, Bella Huffman, Karsyn Fischer and Brooklynn Clark, take a photo during their baseball debuts this week. (Middle) Brooklynn Clark stands in at the plate against Pellston. (Below) Karysn Fischer plays right field for the Eagles. (Top photo by Julie Clark, action photos by Kendall Fischer.)
Saugatuck's Dunn Makes MLB Debut, OLSM's Mooney Continues Impressive Climb
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
August 5, 2024
Blake Dunn has realized his dream while Alex Mooney's chance may be right around the corner.
The careers of the two former Michigan high school baseball stars have taken major steps forward this summer, with Dunn, a Saugatuck graduate native, earning two stints with the Cincinnati Reds, and Mooney, from Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, tearing up the High-Class A Midwest League with Lake County, just northeast of Cleveland.
Both credit modest upbringings for their continuing baseball success. Dunn said his senior class included around 85 students.
"It was definitely hard because a lot of guys have played against a high level of competition from bigger schools," said Dunn, who earned 16 varsity letters across four high school sports at Saugatuck. "But a lot of good athletes come from smaller schools, and we have kind of a chip on our shoulders. That's no knock on smaller schools or their communities; we just work that much harder to make things happen.
"You can't just sit back and go with the flow. You work hard, set your mind on what you need to do and just go for it. I definitely take pride in where I come from and represent Saugatuck to the best of my ability or when I'm out in public."
Mooney, who was part of Orchard Lake St. Mary’s winning three MHSAA Finals titles over six years, said he traces much of his success to being part of an outstanding prep baseball program, regardless of the school's size. St. Mary's was an all-boys school during his time there, with just under 600 students.
"Playing in the Catholic League was huge for me," he said. "It's the best league in the state, and playing there just made me better. I learned early how to win, and that's carried over (to the pros)."
Dunn was one of the great all-around athletes of his generation at Saugatuck. He had more than 1,500 career points in basketball, was a four-time hurdles Finals champion in track and a member of the Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association Dream Team, and still finds himself all over the MHSAA football record book. His 113 career touchdowns are fourth all-time while his 2,748 rushing yards in 2015 are 12th best. Dunn's 827 points in 41 career games is second all-time to 924 points by East Grand Rapids' Kevin Grady in 51 games from 2001-04. Dunn's 6,954 rushing yards remains eighth all-time.
Dunn, who also had 26 consecutive 100-yard rushing games, said it seemed natural to him to play multiple sports in high school.
"I think it's the right thing for guys to test their ability to do a lot of things," he said. "It comes down to task management. You don't get a lot of free time because it's always go-go. So you need a good work ethic to stay on top of things."
Dunn and Mooney are in the midst of notable summers. Slowed by the injury bug dating all the way back to high school and then Western Michigan, Dunn developed into a bona fide prospect in the Reds system a year ago when he hit .312 with 23 homers and 79 RBIs at Double-A Chattanooga and Low-A Dayton.
Statistically, Dunn is batting .226 with six homers and 28 RBIs in Triple-A this season, but earned a 10-day stint with the Reds from June 4-13 and then again from July 3-10. He collected his first major league hit against the Cubs on June 7.
A shortstop, Mooney has hit wherever he's been. He batted .444 as a sophomore and .460 with nine homers and 57 RBIs as a senior at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, then hit .305 with 113 runs, 30 doubles, 11 homers and 33 stolen bases (in 39 attempts) in 117 career games at Duke. With the Lake County Captains this season, Mooney is tops in the Midwest League in runs (65), third in stolen bases (34), tied for 14th in home runs (10) and tied for 16th in RBIs (46).
Mooney said hitting has always been his calling card.
"I feel like I've been able to hit since I was around 8 years old," he said. "My dad coached me when I was young, and I still talk to him about it when I go home. Hitting gets significantly harder, but your mindset is that you learn to flush a bad day. I learned at Orchard Lake St. Mary that you're still a good hitter if you go 0-for-4. You just get on with it."
Mooney, the state's Mr. Baseball Award winner in 2021 and two-time MHSBCA Dream Team member, was ranked among the top five shortstops nationally out of high school by Perfect Game and Under Armour. He went on to become all-Atlantic Coast Conference at Duke before being drafted in the seventh round by Cleveland in 2021.
Among the lessons he's learned in the professional ranks is that baseball is a business.
"It's a job. A darn good one, but a job," he said. "But I also know that the worst day you could have in baseball is better than the best day in another field. Baseball is a grind, though."
Dunn has battled his share of the grind since becoming a 15th-round draft choice by the Reds in 2021. He hit .333 with 11 homers, 50 stolen bases and 78 RBIs in135 games at Western Michigan. Injuries plagued him as a Bronco, then limited him to just 48 games in his first two years in the Reds system. This year he missed time with facial lacerations after getting hit with a pitch.
No matter the difficulties, Dunn said he always believed he could become a major leaguer. The size of high schools and subsequent level of competition was never a consideration.
"I've never considered myself an underachiever, and in my mind it doesn't matter where I've been,” he said. "I know I have talent, and I've worked hard. I feel like I have a lot of years left in baseball."
Dunn and Mooney are just two of several former Michigan high school ballplayers making a mark in the minor leagues, including two members of arguably the best-ever MHSBCA Dream Team pitching staff in 2016. Tommy Henry (Portage Northern) and Karl Kauffman (Brother Rice) have combined to pitch in 46 MLB games with Arizona and Colorado, respectively, the last two seasons. Henry is 2-3 in nine games with the Diamondbacks this season. The other members of the 2016 Dream Team pitchers were Jack Weisenburger (Rockford) and Mike Mokma (Holland Christian), both of whom pitched professionally, and John Baker (Hartland), who went on to become a two-time all-Mid-American Conference pitcher at Ball State and a 29th-round pick of the Marlins in 2019.
Baker outdueled Henry in the 2016 Division 1 Final.
Another former Michigan high school baseball star has been a godsend to a depleted Atlanta Braves pitching staff. Spencer Schwellenbach (Saginaw Heritage), has gone 4-5 with a 4.04 ERA in 11 starts with the Braves. He was the 2018 Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year who went 18-6 with a 0.73 ERA at Nebraska before being taken by the Braves in the second round of the 2021 draft.
Among the other former prep stars busy in the minors are Sam Weatherly (Howell) and Brock Porter (Orchard Lake St. Mary). Weatherly is 3-1 with a 2.85 ERA in 30 games with the High-A Fresno Grizzlies. He was a 27th-round pick by the Rockies in 2020 after going 4-0 with 106 strikeouts over 72 innings in three years at Clemson.
Porter, the state's Mr. Baseball in 2022, is 0-4 with a 6.98 ERA in 19 1/3 combined innings in Rookie League and High-A. A fourth-round pick by the Rangers in 2022, Porter started 21 games with 95 strikeouts in 69 1/3 innings during his first pro season a year ago at the Rookie League level.
Other Michigan natives in the minors include Luke Russo (Howell), who is 5-3 with a 4.81 ERA at High-A Jersey Shore, and Andrew Taylor (Caledonia), who is 1-1 with a 5.27 ERA at High-A Asheville.
PHOTOS (Top) From left, former Orchard Lake St. Mary’s star Alex Mooney and Saugatuck standout Blake Dunn are succeeding in minor league baseball as they pursue Major League careers. (Middle) Dunn stands in for a pitch playing for the Louisville Bats this season. (Below) Mooney prepares to field a grounder for the Lake County Captains. (Photos courtesy of the Lake County Captains and Louisville Bats; top Dunn photo by Cam Anderson and middle by Anna Rouch.)