Through the Years: Baseball 1971-2015
June 30, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
It's often a surprise to fans that the first MHSAA Baseball Finals were played in 1971, despite a long history of the sport among the state's high schools.
But that history, while shorter than for some of our other sports, has had its share of highlights as one of our final good-byes to the school year every spring.
Check out below our recent feature on the tournament's history from our spring issue of benchmarks, built and written by Rob Kaminski, and scroll to the bottom of the page for a link to our first installment on softball. We'll look at more MHSAA postseason events every Tuesday and Friday throughout this summer.
Previous installments
June 28: Softball - Read
Moment: Homer Walks Off into Final
April 30, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Baseball “Walk-off Week” finishes today with Homer crossing home last spring to set up its first Finals championship on the diamond since 2004.
Jacob Wilson’s smash into left field drove in the game-winning run as the Trojans downed Pewamo-Westphalia 2-1 in nine innings to advance to the Division 3 championship game – which Homer then won 4-0 over Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett.
The hit was Wilson’s only one in four at bats during the June 14 Semifinal. He also threw the first six and two-thirds innings on the mound, giving up just one run and striking out five. Zach Butters came on in the seventh inning to handle the final seven outs for the Trojans – and Butters also scored the winning run in the ninth after walking to open the bottom of the frame.
“I was up to bat and I was looking at my teammates while they were on base, and they were just looking at me smiling, giving me a thumbs up,” Wilson said after the win. “I just had faith in myself that I could get it down.”
Butters threw six and one-third shutout innings the following day to get the championship game win as Homer finished the season 33-3.
Click for coverage of the Semifinal from Second Half and see below for the game winner from the NFHS Network.