Summerfield, Nouvel Add to Playoff Perfection
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
June 14, 2019
EAST LANSING – Petersburg Summerfield pitcher Brock Olmstead said he was a little surprised when he got the ball to start Friday’s Division 4 Semifinal, thinking it would be Bulldogs ace Derek Clark who took the mound with a trip to the Finals on the line.
His coach, Travis Pant, feels his team has two aces, however, and his confidence was rewarded as the sophomore threw a two-hitter to lead the Bulldogs to a 5-0 win over Gaylord St. Mary and their first-ever championship game appearance.
“I kind of thought he was going to put Derek to throw in front of me, because we want to get there before we can actually play there,” Olmstead said. “I was happy that he trusted me, and he threw me out there, and it worked out good.”
Summerfield (27-4) will play Saturday against Saginaw Nouvel, which defeated Decatur 4-2 in the second Semifinal at McLane Stadium on the campus of Michigan State University.
Olmstead entered Friday’s game with a chip on his shoulder, carried all the way from last year’s Quarterfinal, a 3-2 loss to St. Joseph Lake Michigan Catholic. Olmstead took the pitching defeat in that game and said he’s had the final scoreboard saved as the lock screen on his phone ever since.
“I just have all the confidence in the world in Brock,” Pant said. “He lost the Quarterfinal game last year, so I was going to give him a chance for some redemption. He’s been throwing great for us all year, and we’re solid defensively when he pitches because I get to put Derek in center field – he made a couple plays today that you just kind of shake your head at. But that was the decision, that’s what we’ve been rolling with and I wasn’t going to change anything because I didn’t want him to think I didn’t have any confidence in him. He’s been throwing Game 1, and Derek will throw Game 2.”
Clark had three hits, one RBI and two runs scored Friday. Olmstead struck out five, allowing the two hits and one walk, facing just 24 batters in seven innings of work.
He also had some early run support, as the Bulldogs jumped on the Snowbirds (26-6) right away. Brendan Dafoe led the game off with a single, followed by a bunt single from Clark. They were both driven in two batters later by Ethan Eyler.
It was the top of the order that was responsible for all of Summerfield’s runs, as the Bulldogs struck again in the third inning. Clark and Eyler each had an RBI triple in the frame, putting the Bulldogs up 4-0. Another run was added in the fifth when No. 5 hitter Mark Keller drove in Dafoe with a sacrifice fly.
Dafoe and Clark each ended the game with three hits, while Eyler had two.
“Our early leads, we’ve been doing that all year,” Eyler said. “I think it’s really key for us to get the early lead and then keep adding on and on. The top of our order is really killing it right now. Everyone one through nine is a hard out.”
Drew Koenig and Logan Murrell each had a hit for St. Mary. Koenig took the loss, striking out five while allowing nine hits.
The Snowbirds were making their fourth straight Semifinal appearance and could see every player who started Friday’s game return next season.
“Obviously next year is next year, but we have the same crew of kids coming back for the most part,” St. Mary coach Matt Nowicki said. “Our plan is next year to work just as hard and get here again.”
Click for the full box score
Saginaw Nouvel 4, Decatur 2
Brady Alverson and his Saginaw Nouvel teammates didn’t see themselves as a below-.500 team entering the postseason, despite their 9-16-1 record.
“We didn’t really think about our record,” the Nouvel sophomore said. “We knew going into the postseason it starts 0-0. It doesn’t really matter what our record is, it just matters who wins the most games in a row.”
Thanks to a big fifth inning and a resilient pitching performance by senior Jacob Burr, Nouvel has now won five in a row, and a sixth win will give them a Finals title and a .500 record.
“Our regular season, we played a lot of tough teams,” Nouvel coach Shawn Larson said. “We try to do that, too. Not only is our conference tough, but when we’re scheduling out-of-conference games, we want to play good teams. That makes us better, because we know come playoffs, everybody is 0-0 and we all have a shot.”
The Panthers made the most of their shot with a two-out rally in the top of the fifth inning, which provided all four of their runs. Alverson started the scoring with a bases-loaded double, which plated two runs, and in the next at-bat, Justin Osmond singled to drive in two more and make the score 4-1. Prior to that inning, the Panthers had managed just one hit against Decatur pitcher Jakob Southworth.
“I was just thinking of a way I could help my team,” Alverson said. “I was looking for a fastball on the inner half of the plate and tried driving it. I was a little late on it, and I put it in the left-center gap. When it hit the ground, I knew we were going to score, and it was just a rush of adrenaline going through my body as we scored that run.”
That was enough for Burr, who bounced back after allowing a solo home run to Southworth in the first inning that cleared the scoreboard in left field. Burr finished the game with four strikeouts while allowing five hits and two runs in seven innings.
“That’s kind of like the theme of our season: can we come back after being punched in the mouth,” Larson said. “Overcoming some adversity has been huge for us, and I credit the entire season for how we responded right then. There was a time when this team would have shut it down, but not anymore.”
Decatur did add a run in the bottom of the sixth inning, as Benjamin Cerven scored on a double steal following a strikeout.
Southworth led Decatur with two hits. He also struck out seven while allowing seven hits and two walks in 6 2/3 innings pitched. Sam Bartels led Nouvel with two hits.
PHOTOS: (Top) Summerfield's Brock Olmstead unwinds toward the plate during his team's Division 4 Semifinal win Friday. (Middle) Nouvel's Michael Ehlman (11) snags a throw at first base just in front of Decatur runner Justin Gale.
Close Wins Send St. Francis, University Liggett to Showdown
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 17, 2021
EAST LANSING – Traverse City Francis relied primarily on a two-headed monster to get it to the Division 3 Semifinals this season.
But once there, another formidable force emerged for the Gladiators.
The dynamic duo all season has been junior ace Charlie Peterson and senior catcher Aidan Schmuckal, and those two delivered again for St. Francis in a 5-4 win over Richmond at McLane Stadium.
Schmuckal went 2-for-3 with two RBI, while Peterson allowed one run in 4 1/3 innings pitched despite laboring at the end and being taken out in the fifth after throwing 109 pitches.
But that’s where the third hero of the day entered for St. Francis.
Senior Jack Hitchens entered for Peterson in the fifth and settled the game down, tossing 2 2/3 innings of scoreless to relief to help lock down the game for the Gladiators.
Hitchens allowed just one hit.
“Just hitting your spots and throwing strikes,” Hitchens said of what made his outing effective. “Hit the outside corner, and it’s really hard for high school athletes to hit that.”
St. Francis advanced to the Final for the first time since 2017, when it finished runner-up to Madison Heights Bishop Foley.
The Gladiators (28-9) won Thursday despite committing five errors.
“We made uncharacteristic errors, but the kids just battled,” head coach Tom Passinault said. “Charlie’s pitch count went a lot higher and quicker than we thought. Jack Hitchens just did a tremendous job against a really good team.”
Richmond (30-6) likely will lament missed opportunities, as the Blue Devils left 10 runners on base and couldn’t score with the bases loaded and nobody out in the fourth inning.
“All year long, we were able to get that key hit,” Richmond head coach Scott Evans said. “Whether it was pressure or heat, we couldn’t. Give their guys credit.”
St. Francis opened the scoring in the first when Cody Richards hit an RBI single to score Schmuckal, who had reached on a walk and took second on a sacrifice bunt.
St. Francis added two more runs in the second inning, loading the bases and then taking a 3-0 lead on an opposite-field two-run double down the right field line by Schmuckal.
Hitchens then made it 4-0 St. Francis on an RBI groundout to second base.
Richmond answered in the third inning, taking advantage of a two-out error by St. Francis and cutting its deficit to 4-1 on an RBI single by Hudson Davenport.
Richmond had its golden opportunity in the fourth inning when it loaded the bases with nobody out, but Peterson struck out Richmond’s first three hitters in the lineup to get out of the jam.
The Blue Devils did strike in the fifth inning, scoring three runs to tie the game at 4-4. The big blow was a two-run double to the wall in left-center by Jackson Jones.
St. Francis responded in its half of the fifth, taking a 5-4 lead on a single by Josh Groves.
“They just don’t know when to be nervous,” Passinault said of his team. “They just play even-keel.”
Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett 2, Buchanan 0
The final Semifinal of the day was the quickest, mainly because it was a terrific pitchers duel between Liggett junior Kurt Barr and Buchanan junior Matt Hoover.
Barr was just a bit better, tossing a two-hit shutout to lead Liggett to a 2-0 victory over Buchanan and its second-straight trip to the Division 3 Final.
“I’ve been going with my slider all season, but today my curveball was going in the pen,” Barr said. “From the second inning on, I only threw the curveball and ditched the slider. The slider has been the pitch I’ve been rolling with all season.”
Liggett, which lost to Homer in the 2019 championship game, will play Traverse City St. Francis.
“Everything clicked,” Liggett head coach Dan Cimini said. “When you get this far, you know you are going to run into pitching like that, and you have to be able to combat that. You combine that by having great pitching with it and great defense.”
Liggett (30-5) scored the only two runs of the game in the top of the first inning, the first coming on an RBI single by Matt Greene.
The next came courtesy of Ryan Jones, who doubled down the right field line to make it 2-0 Liggett.
That was more than enough support for Barr, who struck out nine and walked just one.
Barr did run into a bit of trouble in the fourth inning, when Buchanan put runners on second and third with two outs.
But Barr induced a groundout to end the threat.
Hoover was stellar as well, tossing a three-hitter, striking out five and walking five.
Sophomore Jarren Purify reached base three times and scored a run to lead Liggett offensively.
Buchanan finished its season 34-3.
“I’m proud of the way the boys competed,” Buchanan head coach Jim Brawley said. “This is a working group. … These kids came to work every day, and I’m proud of them for that.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Traverse City St. Francis’ Cody Richards takes the throw at first as Richmond’s Hudson Davenport speeds down the line. (Middle) University Liggett’s Kurt Barr makes his move toward the plate.