Parks Thrives on Mound & at Plate to Help Deliver Forest Hills Eastern's 1st Title
By
Tim Robinson
Special for MHSAA.com
June 18, 2022
EAST LANSING – Evan Parks wasn't nervous before or during Saturday's Division 2 championship game at McLane Stadium.
Not while he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, and not while going 3-for-3 with an RBI at the plate.
After his Ada Forest Hills Eastern team won its first baseball Finals title, defeating Grand Rapids Christian 3-0, it was a different story.
“It's starting to set in now,” he said with a nervous laugh.
Parks held Grand Rapids Christian to one hit, an infield single by Nathan Hedlund, walked three and struck out nine.
"With him on the mound, him at the plate, him in the field, we always feel very, very comfortable," Hawks coach Ian Hearn said. "Our motto all year has been 'Team,' be servants for one another and serve one another."
Grand Rapids Christian pitcher Camden Seth had a good outing, scattering 10 hits while strong defense kept Forest Hills Eastern from causing any more damage.
"They’re very talented," Hearn said. "They have a lot of very good baseball players, and coach (Brent) Gates does a really nice job. They kept us in check."
Parks drove in the only run the Hawks would need in the third inning. With two out, Caleb Kuiper singled and scored on a double by Parks off the fence in right field.
The Hawks added single runs in the fourth inning on a groundout by Max Ferrick, and in the fifth inning on a single by Leo Hearn.
“Hats off to them,” Gates said. “Their pitcher did a great job on the mound. We battled. We competed. We just came up short.”
The Hawks finished 39-4 after a 25-0 start.
“We had amazing chemistry,” Hearn said. “Right out of the gate, they competed well. We knew we were a pretty good team. I’m super proud of them and super proud of the way they handled themselves all season long.”
Parks, for his part, stayed focused, admitting he didn’t know he had no-hitter until the fifth inning.
“I just threw strikers,” he said. “That’s what it comes down to. That’s how you get outs. We worked real hard all summer, all fall, all winter, even all spring and we finally got it done.”
Forest Hills Eastern’s work came to a close when Parks induced a game-ending double play.
“There is no way to describe it,” Parks said of his reaction to the final out. “It means all the world when you see the ball down, your defense is playing for you. It means all the world when you see the play finally finish, and it's done.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Ada Forest Hills Eastern raises its championship trophy Saturday at Old College Field. (Middle) A Hawks runner slides into third base as Grand Rapids Christian’s Nathan Hedlund (5) anticipates the throw.
Northville, Brother Rice Set Up Power-Packed Finale with Powerful Swings
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 13, 2024
EAST LANSING — For the first three years of his varsity career at Northville, Joey Broughton was one of the best two-way baseball forces in the state, excelling both on the mound and at the plate.
Unfortunately this year, Broughton has simply been reduced to a one-way force.
An all-state pitcher the last couple of years who has signed with Pittsburgh, Broughton hasn’t pitched this season due to a flexor pronator strain in his arm, so he has focused on hitting more than he ever has — and possibly will again — in his baseball career.
“I’ve never considered myself to be an amazing hitter,” Broughton said. “But to come out here and work my tail off when I can’t pitch means a ton. Just getting pitches I love and smacking them.”
Broughton certainly did that better than anyone in the first Division 1 Semifinal on Thursday, collecting two hits and four RBI to lead Northville to a 9-2 win over Bay City Western at McLane Stadium.
The biggest blow came with two outs in the fourth inning.
With the score tied and two outs, senior and No. 7 hitter Luke Dieringer gave the Mustangs a 3-2 lead with an RBI single that scored Connor Vissotski, who reached on a two-base throwing error.
Northville then got hits from its No. 8 and 9 hitters — junior Carson Eaton and pinch-hitter Justin Brown, respectively — to load the bases for senior Dante Nori.
On the first pitch, Nori was hit to force in a run and make it 4-2. That set the stage for Broughton, who hit a bases-clearing double just over the right fielder’s head to make it 7-2.
In the sixth inning, Broughton and senior Carter Jurcisin each added an RBI single to make it 9-2 Mustangs. Overall, Northville scored eight runs in the game with two outs.
“We practice that every single practice,” said Northville head coach Dan Cimini, who is in his first year with the program after building a powerhouse at Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett. “We load the bases, put two outs and see what these guys can do. They practice it probably more than anybody. It’s a strength, and it has to be a strength in these playoff games.”
Bay City Western (35-7-1) made it back to the Semifinals for the first time since winning the second of back-to-back championships in 2014.
“There is a lot of legacy in the teams in front of them, but they certainly left their legacy,” Western head coach Tim McDonald said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys in that dugout. I think every practice is going to pay off, and the experience (of getting here).”
Northville opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning when senior Vissotski walked, went to second on a sacrifice bunt, took third on a groundout and then scored on a passed ball to make it 1-0.
Western responded in the third, going up 2-1 on a pair of two-out extra-base hits. First, junior Mikey Deluca laced an RBI double to the gap in right center, and then senior Bryce Neitzel hit an RBI double down the left-field line.
Northville answered in the third inning, tying the game on a titanic home run to right by Nori. The ball went through the trees beyond the right-field fence and likely landed in the Red Cedar River.
Northville senior Caden Besco came on in relief in the fourth inning with runners on first and third base, two outs and the game tied 2-2. He ended Western’s threat with a strikeout.
Besco threw just 41 pitches in 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, so he will be available for Saturday’s title game.
Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice 5, Grosse Pointe North 2
Brother Rice had all it needed against Grosse Pointe North after just three batters.
The Warriors wasted no time jumping on North senior ace Brennan Hill, putting the first two men on in the bottom of the first inning and then taking a 3-0 lead on a towering home run to left by senior Owen Turner.
That proved to be the difference and propelled the Brother Rice (44-1) to its first state title game since 2013.
“I have not faced him, but I’ve caught him,” Turner said of facing Hill. “He played on my summer team. I was his catcher all summer, so I kind of knew what he throws and what his velocity was.”
Those runs were all Brother Rice’s pitching tandem of junior Blake Ilitch and senior Chase Van Ameyde needed. The two combined to limit the Norsemen to one hit and no earned runs.
Grosse Pointe North loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth inning and scored two runs on an error to cut the Brother Rice lead to 3-2. But the Warriors answered in the bottom of the fourth, taking a 4-2 lead on an RBI double with two outs to the gap in left-center by junior Cole Van Ameyde.
GPN put runners on first and second with one out in the fifth inning, but Chase Van Ameyde relieved Ilitch and got out of the jam with two strikeouts. Van Ameyde didn’t allow a hit in 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.
Brother Rice got an insurance run in the seventh inning on a two-out single to left by Cole Van Ameyde that made it 5-2.
The Warriors will now try and win their first title since 2008.
“I’ve got 10 seniors, and seven have played for four straight years,” Brother Rice head coach Bob Riker said. “They kind of know what’s expected and when they were freshman, they came here and lost in the final four. I’m not going to say they were using that as fuel or anything like that, but they’ve really matured over the last four years.”
PHOTOS (Top) Northville celebrates during its Semifinal win over Bay City Western on Thursday. (Middle) Owen Turner sends a pitch over the leftfield fence in Brother Rice’s victory.