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Top-Ranked Saline Learns from 2015
By
Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
May 26, 2016
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
SALINE – Players and coaches on the Saline baseball team know how it feels to enter the MHSAA Tournament as the top-ranked team in the state. They did it last year and just might do it again this year.
They also know how it feels to be the top-ranked team and end up four victories short of the title. Obviously, there is no hope for a repeat there.
Saline will be at or near the top of the Division 1 rankings again this season when next week’s District tournament begins, and the memories of the bitter end last year have not been forgotten.
“There are a lot of kids who sat in that locker room last year,” Saline coach Scott Theisen said. “They realize that they don’t want to be in that spot again, and they will do anything they need to do. They will be able to live with the result if they at least know they have done everything in their powers.
“They learned last year that no matter how good you are, it’s a one-day thing. Or even a one-inning thing, and it can be over.”
Regrouping with a new group
Saline lost in the Division 1 Regional Final last year. It was a tough 1-0 loss to Taylor Kennedy that left the Hornets with a 36-3 record but without a berth in the Quarterfinals.
The Hornets lost their starting first baseman, third baseman, catcher, center fielder and three starting pitchers to graduation – but have plugged those spots nicely.
“The program is in such good shape – Scott does such a good job – that you just kind of re-energize it,” assistant coach Dave Sontag said.
The program seemingly does re-energize itself. Saline won its fifth consecutive Southeastern Conference title this season. And the Hornets were not devoid of talent from last year’s team. The starting middle infielders (shortstop Thomas Miller and second baseman Zachary Owings) are back, and starting left fielder Zach Schwartzenberger, a junior, made the switch to center field.
Among the newcomers who have helped fill the voids are senior catcher Cal Livesay, junior first baseman/pitcher Sean O’Keefe, third baseman Jake Finkbeiner, junior left fielder Ryan Foley and pitchers Cole Daniels, John Hovde and Ted Eppinga.
It all has added up to a 28-6 record – not as stunning as last year’s but quite impressive considering how much talent was lost. The team batting average is an amazing .346, a higher average than in 2015.
“It’s funny because I think maybe we had a little more talent at the plate last year,” Theisen said. “But this team has just bought into being more aggressive and trying to have better approaches at the plate. Maybe they are playing a little more to be dangerous than worrying about maybe what happens if we fail.
“I think as coaches we can learn from that. I think we had some talented kids at the plate last year who didn’t have poor years but probably didn’t achieve as well as they could have, and some of that was the pressure they put on themselves. So, we are trying to be more positive.”
Coach Sontag preaches positive.
“We lost some bullets that were pulled off of this team last year, and for guys to step right in and not create much of a void, that’s the story of the season,” he said. “And you know what? It’s not going to be much different next year, either, because the sophomores and this year’s juniors who are going to be seniors are going to do the same thing again.”
Coach T
Theisen has quite the resume as a high school baseball coach in Michigan. Last year, he became just the 22nd baseball coach to win 600 games in a career. His career record is 653-303, including 630 at Saline. He started his coaching career with a one-year stint at Walled Lake Central before going to Saline, his alma mater.
There is one glaring omission on his record, however: The lack of an MHSAA Finals championship.
“We’ve been to the Finals four times, and I’m 0 for 4 right now. I’m Marv Levy,” he said, referring to the former Buffalo Bills head coach who lost four Super Bowls in a row.
Although Theisen’s teams didn’t lose four in a row, they did lose three in a row from 2008-10 and also lost in 1998.
“It used to bother me more than it does now,” he said. “I think when you’re younger, you’re more competitive in trying to do things and try to win titles and championships. Now that I’m getting older, I get more satisfaction out of the relationships with the coaches and the growth we see in our players.
“Yes, you still have the drive that you want to get there and win it, but you know it may never happen, and if it doesn’t, I’m OK with that because of what we’ve done as a program and what we do to try to help the kids be better players and better people.
“I get more satisfaction out of that now, and maybe I didn’t see that as a younger coach.”
The players look up to him and respect his experience and knowledge – and as much as they would like to win the Division 1 championship for themselves, they also want to win one for him.
“That would mean a lot,” said Foley, a junior left fielder. “I know how much it would mean to him, and for us to get it for him would be great. He’s such a good coach.”
Nelson, the No. 1 pitcher, said, “He brings a lot of motivation and experience to the team. He has so much knowledge about the game. He knows what to do in all of the situations and how to coach somebody from their freshman year to their senior year.”
Senior shortstop Miller said, “It would feel great to win one for Coach T. It would mean the world to him, and to do it in my senior year along with the rest of the guys, it would be the best.”
Although Theisen said he could live with never winning an MHSAA championship, that doesn’t mean the desire to do so runs deep.
“If we never get it done, I would still feel really proud of everything that we’ve done,” he said, “but I sure would like to see what it feels like.”
Learning from a loss
The loss in the Regional Final last year is something the coaches and players can’t forget, and they don’t want to forget it, either. It provides motivation and a valuable lesson.
Theisen and the players made it known that they don’t want to offend anyone, but they felt they were the team that should have won Division 1 last year – and certainly should not have been stopped in the Regional Final.
“It’s a natural tendency of young kids to maybe let up, and we’ve been snake-bitten by doing that,” Theisen said. “We got beat last year in the tournament by a team that we felt – no offense to them – that we were better than. It also happened over at Ann Arbor Huron to us, so I think the kids understand that if you let your guard down, you have a good chance to get beat.
“To win the state tournament, you have to win seven in a row to do it. You can’t be up and down during those seven games, so you have to learn how to practice and play at a high level consistently or that seven-game stretch is going to be even more difficult.”
It is that lesson that Theisen turns to when he sees the team taking it a little lax.
“It isn’t over and forgotten about,” he said. “It was a tough pill to swallow. We expected to win the state title – we expected to win the last game – and that’s the same thing we expect this year.
“They’ve been reminded on multiple occasions, and it won’t be the last time we tell them. We have to be ready no matter who we are playing.”
Has the lesson been learned? The jury is still out. Has the lesson been delivered and absorbed? Well, let the players give the answer.
Foley: “Ratings mean nothing to us, and we understand that anybody can beat anybody at any time, just like last year with Taylor Kennedy. We’ll bring it up because we have to keep it in our head that anybody can beat anybody. We have to try to get over that hump because it is lingering a little bit, but we don’t try to dwell on it too much.”
Nelson: “We’re obviously thinking about that because we’re on the same level and we can do the same things that we were supposed to do last year. We just have to play better as a team every single game and keep getting better every game in the playoffs so we can avoid having that happen again.”
Livesay: “It’s definitely there for us, and coach always brings it up when it seems like we’re not motivated during practice or during games. What you are ranked before the playoffs doesn’t mean anything. The loss was definitely eye-opening for us. We weren’t expecting them to beat us.”
Miller: “You can’t overlook any team that you are playing. We saw some other teams lose ahead of us, and we got a little giddy. We have to play the game that we’re in and focus on one game at a time.”
Unexpected spark
When the final cuts were about to be announced, Foley was on the bubble, and he knew it.
“I was just doing everything I could to be on the team,” he said. “I never knew until the last day whether I was going to make it, so I just did everything I could to please the coach.”
It was enough.
“When we chose our team in March, Foley was one of the last kids chosen, and now we can’t get him out of the lineup,” Theisen said. “He’s been a sparkplug for all of us. He’s a kid who kept his mouth shut and kept saying to himself, ‘I’ll show them, I’ll get my chances,’ and when he got his chances, he capitalized.”
Foley’s chance came when O’Keefe, the starting first baseman, went down with a hamstring injury. That forced a corner outfielder to take over at first and opened a spot in the outfield. Theisen turned to Foley.
Although Foley bats ninth, he leads the team with a .423 average and 17 stolen bases. And if there were hustle stats, he’d be near or at the top there, too.
“Ryan is going to get on base and cause problems because he can run really well,” Theisen said. “He is one of the better base runners we’ve ever had, and he’s got a little bit of being a thorn in the side of the other team. He’s not disrespectful, but if you’re going to give him an inch, he’s taking a foot.”
Theisen says that sort of attitude can be the difference between a good team and a great team.
“There was a point in the season when we talked about being good,” Theisen said. “We knew we would win a lot of games because we were talented – but if you want more, you have to have some moxie in your game. Foley probably exhibits that more than anybody. He’ll take second on a bobbled ball in the outfield, and he’ll dive for a ball. He’s more aggressive in practice and gets dirty diving and just running everything out hard and playing the game the way it should be played.
“It’s fun to watch that start to spill over to other kids. He gives us energy, and it is snowballing. That’s something our talented teams in the past might not have had.”
Foley gets great satisfaction out of going from being on the bubble to being the main spark.
“It feels great to know that you’ve worked so hard and are making an impact on the team,” he said. “Coach has taught me that no matter what the talent you have, you can always make an impact on the team. He really emphasizes that. Even with the little things, it really means a lot for everybody to do a little bit.”
Theisen said he learned a lesson in the process as well.
“When you are choosing the team, you sometimes have to look at those intangibles that a kid can bring,” he said. “They might not light up the radar gun, so to speak, but what else do they bring to the team to help you become a better team? You have to look at those things, too.”
Well-rounded team
There has never been a team that can’t improve, and Saline is no different. However, the Hornets have all their bases covered. They can hit. They can field. And they can pitch.
Nelson, a senior right-hander who is headed to Wayne State, is 8-0 with a 0.61 ERA. He has allowed just 25 hits in 47 1/3 innings with 56 strikeouts.
“I never expected to come out here and dominate like I have,” he said. “I throw a fastball, slider and a change-up. My best pitch is the slider. I throw it about 30-40 percent of the time. It’s my out pitch.”
Saline is not a one-pitcher team, either. O’Keefe, who missed half the season with a hamstring injury, threw a perfect game and is 5-0 with a 2.27 ERA. Daniels, a sophomore, is 6-2 with a 0.95 ERA. Eppinga is 3-1 with a 1.72 ERA, and Hovde is 2-1 with a 0.60 ERA.
Finkbeiner, a third baseman who bats fifth, provides a lot of pop as he has a team-leading four home runs and 33 RBI to go with a .419 average. Second baseman Owings also is hitting .419, while Daniels, the sophomore pitcher, is batting .405.
Although he missed half the season with an injury, O’Keefe is at .391 with one home run and 10 RBI in just 17 games. Miller, the four-year starter at shortstop who is headed to Oakland University, is hitting .353.
“We’ve seen a lot of different ways to win, from a perfect game one day to a seventh-inning comeback at Bedford to 15 runs in four innings at Ann Arbor Huron,” Theisen said. “It’s been interesting because on many days it has been different people who get it done. It’s not just one or two guys, and sometimes it’s the guys who are not even our regular starters.
“There is a lot of depth and competition in the group.”
And quite a bit of confidence as well.
“I think we’ve played some teams that could make runs to the state title, and we’ve beaten them,” Miller said. “We came back against Bedford. We were down 4-2 in the seventh and came back and won 5-4. We just beat Northville the other day, and that’s a very good club. We just build off of that.
“We have the talent for sure to win a state title.”
Chip Mundy served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86, and then as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen-Patriot from 1986-2011. He also co-authored Michigan Sports Trivia. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Saline shortstop Thomas Miller prepares to apply a tag during a game this season. (Middle top) Zachary Owings slides into the plate just ahead of a throw home. (Middle below) Senior Josh Nelson is an impressive 8-0 this spring. (Below) Jake Finkbeiner rounds third base on his way home. (Photos by Terry Owings.)
![Homer players meet on the mound during their 2004 Division 3 Semifinal win over Muskegon Oakridge.](/sites/default/files/2023-04/230421_Homer_2H.jpg)
St. Mary's Record Run Recalls Homer's 'Small-Town Baseball Odyssey'
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 21, 2023
As Orchard Lake St. Mary’s celebrated setting the MHSAA record for longest baseball winning streak at 77 and counting over the weekend – and with a national record certainly within reach this season – we can recall just two decades ago when Homer’s similar streak and the two seasons of buzz it stirred was on the verge of its start.
Homer, representing a community of about 1,700 residents, finished 38-0 on the way to winning the Division 3 championship in 2004, and then returned to win its first 37 games of 2005 before falling to Saginaw Nouvel 7-6 in that season’s Division 3 Final at Battle Creek’s C.O. Brown Stadium.
Along the way over those two seasons, the Trojans smashed the previous MHSAA baseball consecutive wins record of 56, and went on to set a national record of 75 straight wins that stood until 2011, when it was surpassed by both Martensdale St. Mary’s of Iowa and Portsmouth, N.H. The latter has topped the national list since 2012 after extending its winning streak into 2012 to the current record of 89 games.
Battle Creek Enquirer reporter Jeff Karzen followed Homer’s record run through many of its most notable moments, and that coverage and the relationships built during that time – and as the Trojans came back to win the Division 4 title in 2006 – led to his first book “Homer: The Small-Town Baseball Odyssey” published in 2011.
Below is an excerpt highlighting the small school’s run to national stardom – followed by updates on a few of the major players who helped the Trojans become unforgettable.
Buy the book here: JeffKarzen.com
***
Homer: The Small-Town Baseball Odyssey
August Publications
Copyright © 2011 Jeff Karzen
All rights reserved
First edition published 2008
Second edition published 2012
Homer began the 2005 season ranked No. 1 in Division 3, a spot it had grabbed and held onto for the second half of ’04. Seven starters returned from a team that had made history with a 38-0 season. Still, Homer had some things to prove to itself.
So far in high school, and even as Little Leaguers, this group of Homer players had been largely defined by Josh Collmenter and Matt Powers. In big postseason games, Collmenter and Powers would take the pressure off their younger teammates and welcome it squarely on their shoulders. Collmenter was always the big-game pitcher. Powers could always be counted on in the middle of the batting order. How would Homer deal without having its two leaders?
“They definitely set the mindset for our team,” Dan Holcomb said of Collmenter and Powers. “When you’re a freshman coming up you don’t really know what varsity is all about or what Homer baseball is all about. You get up there and having those young guys playing against teams like Blissfield is kind of overwhelming. But having guys like Josh and Matt kept you loose and didn’t let you think about Blissfield, or think about seven state titles [won by the Royals]. They just said, ‘Hey guys, let’s have some fun. We’re going out to play some baseball today.’ They just made sure everyone had their mind right.”
Whether it was nerves about following up the unbeaten season with a good showing or an uneasy feeling taking the field without their two leaders, the Trojans began the new season with a close call in a doubleheader against Marshall and its star, Evan Sharpley. Marshall was a good team and a much bigger school, but Homer simply didn’t have it. Somehow, the Trojans escaped with a 14-13 win in eight innings (the most runs it had given up in years) and then a 4-2 triumph in Game Two. With the first two wins under their belt, the Trojans began to roll. Over the next 12 games, they gave up a total of 13 runs, proof that the season opener was nothing more than a fluke. Collmenter and Powers were missing, but junior-dominated Homer began to form its own identity.
The state record for consecutive wins was 56, set by Grand Haven High School from 1960-62. Homer’s Trojans were quickly nearing the record. The streak had reached 49 games when Homer took the short drive west on M-60 for a Big Eight tilt with the Union City Chargers. By now, the other teams in Homer’s conference had basically ruled out beating the powerhouse. Goals such as scoring runs, playing all seven innings without the mercy rule, and even putting the ball in play against Homer’s overpowering pitchers had become the scaled-down aspirations for the opponent.
One rival coach, Quincy’s Brett Allman, didn’t let his team watch Homer’s impressive pregame routine where the Trojan players showed off their big-time throwing arms and precision fielding. “When they warmed up, I talked to my team outside the dugout, or had them hit Wiffle balls or something,” Allman said. “Something besides watch them take infield. They put on a show. And they were proud of the way they took infield, and rightfully so. I don’t need to watch Dusty Compton throw the ball across the infield because I know what they can do. I didn’t think it would be real beneficial for my guys to watch them take infield.”
Under gray, rainy skies in Union City, both teams finished their warm-ups and looked around. Something was missing. It was going to be hard to play this game without any umpires in sight. They waited and waited. Finally, around 5 p.m., 30 minutes after the scheduled start time, one ump arrived. Knowing how much less is seen on the field with only one umpire (regular- season high-school games have two), Salow was hesitant to let the game begin. The lone umpire told both coaches that his partner was on the way, so the coaches acquiesced and allowed the game to start with one set of eyes in charge of the entire field. Union City must’ve forgotten that its opponent that day had won 49 consecutive games. The Chargers came out like they were the team to beat and jumped all over Homer. A few innings into the game, Homer was stunningly down 7-0. “I said to Tom, ‘Not only are we going to lose our streak but we’re going to get 10-runned (a mercy rule loss),’” Salow said.
Of course, Homer started chipping away at the lead. But seven runs was a lot to come back from, even for these Trojans. In the fifth inning, with Homer still trailing by a few runs, C.J. Finch decided it was time to take control of the perilous situation. “Not today! Not today!” Finch screamed. “This is not going to happen today.”
With rain continuing to fall, Homer got within one run in the sixth inning. That’s when the umpire, who worked alone all game, walked over to Homer’s dugout to speak with Salow.
“It’s not looking good, starting to rain harder. Not sure if we’re gonna be able to finish this thing,” the ump told Salow.
“Absolutely not,” the coach fired back. “We started this game 40 minutes late and if we’d started on time, it would be over by now. Not only that, but we have a streak going. These kids have worked too hard to put this streak together and they’re not going to lose it this way.”
The umpire caved in and so did Union City. Homer rallied to win 9-7, extending the winning streak to 50 games. Seven more remained to break the state record that had stood for 44 years.
“I was on pins and needles,” Union City coach Joe Tinervia said of his team’s near-miss. “I was playing that game like it was 1-0. That shows you what I think of Homer.”
A few weeks later, Homer easily topped Concord 10-0 to tie Grand Haven’s state record of 56 straight wins. The stage was set for the talented boys from the one-stoplight town to make history. A Friday doubleheader against Reading, one of the conference’s better teams, would be the record-breaker. It seemed fitting, too, because Reading had handed Homer its last loss in a regional playoff game in 2003. Homer made history in a rather ho-hum affair, winning Game 1 of the doubleheader, 12-2. “It wasn’t breathtaking or staggering or awe-inspiring,” a Battle Creek Enquirer columnist wrote the next day. “But it was efficient. Forgive Homer if it didn’t stage a large celebration for the new record. It’s just that the boys are used to winning.”
“It was just good enough, not flashy,” Salow said after his team won its 57th straight baseball game. “I’d like to think we’re a blue-collar club. It’s the way guys are taught in practice and in the classroom. We try and never get too high or too low.”
***
Where are they now?
- Josh Collmenter pitched in Major League Baseball for seven seasons, the first five-plus for Arizona before finishing his career with Atlanta. He won a career-high 11 games in 2014 and finished his pro career with a 38-35 MLB record. He currently is living in Phoenix and doing radio and TV for Diamondbacks broadcasts.
- Scott Salow left Homer and became superintendent at Petersburg Summerfield in 2021. He coached the Trojans through 2019, building a career record of 577-157.
- Dan Holcomb lives in Nashville, Tenn., and has been a Seattle Mariners scout for six seasons, covering Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. He spent six years as a college coach prior to scouting. He pitched collegiately at University of Evansville, Grand Valley State University and Huntingon University (Ind.).
- Dale Cornstubble is married with two kids and living in Homer. He is an electrician and teaches catching lessons on the side. He played at Central Michigan University and was drafted and played briefly in the minor leagues for the Kansas City Royals.
PHOTO Homer players meet on the mound during their 2004 Division 3 Semifinal win over Muskegon Oakridge.