Semifinal Comebacks Set Up Decider Between 1st-Time Title Hopefuls
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 15, 2023
EAST LANSING – Clutch pitching, squandered chances and plenty of extra baseball was the theme of Thursday’s second Division 1 Semifinal between Novi and Mattawan.
In a battle of two teams both seeking a first championship, it was Novi that ultimately prevailed in 10 innings, 4-1, at Michigan State’s McLane Stadium.
Novi was down to its last strike in the seventh inning, but finally broke through against Mattawan junior starter Brendan Garza to advance to the season’s final day for the first time since 1973.
With runners on first and second and two outs following a walk and hit batter, Novi senior Alex Czapski lined a single up the middle with two strikes to tie the game at 1-1, just as Garza was on the verge of tossing a one-hit shutout.
“Earlier in the game I was thinking off-speed,” Czapski said. “He was giving it to me, and I wasn’t hitting it. Overall, I wasn’t hitting it great, but I got a lucky poke on that. He was a great pitcher.”
Each team had a chance in the ninth inning, starting when Novi put runners at first and second base with nobody out. But the rally fizzled after an unsuccessful sacrifice bunt attempt and two strikeouts.
In the bottom of the ninth, Mattawan put a runner on third with one out following a leadoff double by sophomore Tyson Stratton and a sacrifice bunt, but couldn’t get the winning run across after a short flyout and strikeout. The flyout was a soft line drive to right, but the baserunner was partially up the line when the ball was caught and didn’t have enough time to go back to the base, tag up and try to run home.
In the top of the 10th inning, Novi took a 2-1 lead on a Mattawan throwing error. Novi put runners on first and second with nobody out after a hit and a walk, and on a sacrifice bunt attempt a throw went into left field allowing a run to score. With two outs, junior Andrew Kummer hit a ball that got past the shortstop and into left field, scoring two runs to give Novi a 4-1 lead.
Novi sophomore reliever Uli Fernsler capped off three scoreless innings by pitching a 1-2-3 ninth to finish the game.
Now, Novi will go for its first Finals title in head coach Rick Green’s 23rd year at the helm.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Green said. “I’m so thrilled and happy for these guys. It’s all about these guys and the guys in the past as well.”
Novi on the mound started senior Andrew Abler, who allowed five hits and a run over seven innings.
Up until Czapki’s tying single in the seventh, the story of the game was Garza, who was dominant throughout until the walk and hit batter in the seventh opened the door.
Garza also accounted for Mattawan’s lone run, singling it home in the first inning.
Mattawan, which stranded runners on second and third base in both the fifth and sixth innings, finished 25-12-1.
“We had two or three chances to win the game and didn’t capitalize,” Mattawan head coach Brett Vaughn said. “It was exactly what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be a pitcher’s duel, and that’s exactly what it was right until the end.”
Brownstown Woodhaven 6, Macomb Dakota 4
Woodhaven has been following a pattern of clutch two-out hitting and improbable comebacks of late.
In a Division 1 Quarterfinal win over Grosse Pointe South, the Warriors rallied from a 7-3 deficit in the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring six runs with two outs en route to a 9-7 victory.
It was more of the same for Woodhaven in its Semifinal win over Dakota.
The Warriors trailed 4-0 in the fourth inning, but rallied for six runs — all with two outs — to earn a 6-4 victory and their second appearance in a Division 1 championship game since 2018.
Woodhaven (32-11) has won 21 of its last 23 games.
“We’ve been through a lot this season,” Woodhaven head coach Corey Farner said. “Almost every single situation you can think of, we’ve been through it. We were down big in the Quarterfinal. We just don’t quit. They don’t have that in them.”
A bulk of the rally for Woodhaven came in the bottom of the fourth inning, when the Warriors mounted a five-run rally with two outs.
With runners on second and third base, senior Tyler Harris doubled to left-center to cut the deficit to 4-2 Dakota.
Senior Michael Budai, junior Jacob Wright and senior Nick Phillips each added RBI singles with two outs to give the Warriors a 5-4 lead.
Woodhaven then added another run in the fifth inning when an RBI single with two outs by Budai gave the Warriors a 6-4 advantage.
Once given a lead, Woodhaven ace Evan Langlois settled in and didn’t give Dakota any great opportunities to get back into the game, allowing just one runner to get into scoring position over the last three innings after Dakota scored four runs in the top of the third to go up 4-0.
“I felt I was dialed in pretty much the whole entire time,” said Langlois, a senior who struck out five, walked one and allowed five hits in a complete-game win. “That rally will affect anybody. I just tried to stay focused the whole entire time and do my thing.”
Three of the four Dakota runs scored in the third inning were unearned. After loading the bases with one out, the Cougars took a 1-0 lead on an RBI groundout by senior Brendan Borowicz before forming a two-out rally. Dakota took a 2-0 lead following a throwing error, and then the Cougars grabbed a 4-0 lead when a single to right by senior Will DeMasse plated two runs.
But that would be all the offense for Dakota (26-13-2), which also ended its 2019 season at the Semifinals.
DeMasse had three hits to lead the way for the Cougars.
“One bad inning,” Dakota head coach Angelo Plouffe said. “It sucks, but that’s baseball. You’ve got to make three outs in an inning. That’s what it takes. I’m proud of my kids.”
PHOTOS (Top) Novi players, from left, Uli Fernsler, Brett Reed and Jonathan Aurilia celebrate their team’s Semifinal win Thursday at McLane Stadium. (Middle) Novi’s Alex Czapski drives a pitch against Mattawan. (Below) Woodhaven’s Evan Langlois (3) applies a tag during his team’s Semifinal win over Macomb Dakota.
Hart Teammates Reunite After 80 Years Now as WWII Vets, Great-Grandfathers
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
June 7, 2023
Walter “Stretch” Hansen and Harold Tate were good friends and high school basketball and baseball teammates at Hart High School, graduating in 1943.
No one could have guessed that less than two months after graduation (on July 2, 1943), the two friends would head to Fort Custer in Battle Creek, the first stop on their way overseas to fight for their country in World War II.
No one could have imagined how many twists and turns their lives would take over the next 80 years – from the battlefields in the South Pacific, then back to West Michigan where they both were married with children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and now Harold even has a great-great-grandchild.
And, certainly, no one would have believed that the two young boys from Hart – who forged a friendship through high school sports long before the days of computers, microwave ovens and cell phones – would still be alive at the age of 98 for an emotional reunion last month, on May 22, seeing each other for the first time in 80 years and, to cap it off, the reunion took place in their hometown of Hart.
“It was such a great day,” Hansen said about the meeting, which was set up by Muskegon-area World War II historian Richard Mullally.
“We picked right up, talking about sports and the service and everything else.”
The conversation came easy for the two old friends, who played for Hart during a “golden era” at the school – particularly in basketball, as the Pirates won 11 West Michigan Conference basketball titles between 1940 and 1954.
Perhaps the best team during that time period was Hansen and Tate’s as seniors in 1943. That team lost only once, to rival Scottville (31-25), but more than made up for it with an 80-10 trouncing of the Spartans in the final regular-season game.
Hart then crushed Scottville and Newaygo to win the District championship, only to have Michigan’s prep basketball season stopped abruptly at that point because of World War II.
That 1943 team featured four starters over 6-0, led by the duo of Hansen and Stan Kapulak (both 6-6), Joe Mack (6-2), Lyle Burmeister (6-1) and Stanley Riley (the lone starter under 6-foot at 5-11).
“The newspapers called us ‘The Hart Skyscrapers,’” said Hansen, who will be 99 on Nov. 6. “We were taller than most college teams at that time.”
Hansen and Tate’s friendship continued to blossom on the baseball field, only to have their lives turned upside down shortly after graduation 80 years ago, when all Hart senior boys who had been drafted headed to Battle Creek as a brief staging area on their way to the battlefields of Europe and the South Pacific.
Hansen served in the Army Specialized Training Program and was part of the 52nd Signal Battalion and the 4025th Signal Battalion in the Pacific Theater.
“I had an all-expense paid tour of the South Pacific,” Hansen said with a chuckle. “The Philippines, New Guinea, Okinawa, Hawaii, all over the place.”
Tate did his service in the 24th Infantry Division and the 19th Infantry Regiment, and was stationed in Japan.
During their visit last month, Harold showed off the Japanese Samurai sword and Arisaka rifle which he had sent back from Japan to Hart. The week after their visit, both took part in Memorial Day parades – Hansen in the Lakeside parade in Muskegon and Tate in his 77th Memorial Day service in Hart.
Hansen, who still has a home on a small lake in Holton and lives at a senior care facility in Muskegon, played many years of semi-pro basketball and did some coaching. He worked at GTE and has five children and 10 grandchildren.
“I have been so blessed,” Hansen said, sorting through one of his many scrapbooks. “All five of my kids are great and I have grandkids that are just amazing, everything they are doing. I don’t even know all of their names, but it’s sure been fun watching them.”
Tate returned to Hart after his military service and has been there ever since, at first working as a carpenter with his father and then becoming a rural mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, retiring 26 years ago at the age of 72. He has lived in the same home for 75 years and has three children, six grandchildren, seven great-grandkids and now one great-great-grandchild.
Tate laments the demise of his beloved American Legion post in Hart, a town with just over 2,000 residents, as the number of members has steadily declined.
One topic that brings a smile to both of their faces is the recent resurgence of the Hart High School athletic program, which drew media attention not too many years ago for all the wrong reasons – notably a football program which went 24 years without a winning record.
That string was snapped with a 6-3 mark and the school’s first earned playoff appearance last fall.
But that was just the start.
This winter, Hart’s boys basketball team finished the regular season 22-0, the girls basketball team made it to the Division 3 Semifinals at the Breslin Center, wrestling qualified for the Team Finals for the fourth-straight year and competitive cheer placed fourth in Division 4. This spring, the Hart girls track & field team won its second-straight Division 3 Finals team title, and the boys placed fourth.
“It’s a great place to call home, a great place to live, always has been,” said Hansen of his hometown, which got its name from its central position in the “heart” of Oceana County.
And who would have imagined that these two high school teammates could still come home again for a reunion at the age of 98?
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Members of the 1943 Hart High School varsity baseball team gather together, preparing for a team photo. Among those are Harold Gayle Tate (far left) and Walter "Stretch" Hansen, at 6-6 the tallest player in the back row. (Middle) Hansen, left, and Tate reunite for the first time in 80 years on Monday, May 22, 2023, in their hometown of Hart. (Below) Hansen served from 1943 to 1946 as a Sergeant in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Tate served from 1945 to 1946 as a Platoon Sergeant in the Pacific Theater during World War II. (Top photo courtesy of Stretch Hansen. Middle and below photos courtesy of Richard Mullally.)