Unexpected Eagles Finish Repeat Run
June 15, 2013
By Andy Sneddon
Special to Second Half
BATTLE CREEK – There’s a big difference between a mere thrower and pitcher.
Austin Batka epitomized Saturday what it means to be the latter.
Batka took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before settling for a two-hitter as Grand Rapids Christian held on to beat Richmond, 3-0, in the MHSAA Division 2 championship game at C.O. Brown Stadium.
It was the second consecutive title for the Eagles, who took a markedly different path than in 2012.
Saturday’s win capped a remarkable run for Grand Rapids Christian, which was 6-12 at one point this season and entered the MHSAA tournament 12-15. The Eagles reeled off seven consecutive wins to finish 19-15. They went 36-5 a year ago, and were 30-8 in 2010, when they were the MHSAA runner-up.
“I don’t know if you think that way,” Christian coach Brent Gates said when asked if he was surprised his team found itself back in Battle Creek after the way it started the year. “I knew we had ability, but it was a young team so you really didn’t know what they were going to become.
“What we saw over the course of that (early-to-midseason) time is every practice, the three-hour practices – they wanted to be there, they wanted to get better, and you just saw it become a little bit smoother. We’ve got some good athletes on the team, and they put the work in to get here.”
Batka, a junior left-hander, tamed a Richmond (34-5) team making its first-ever appearance in Battle Creek.
He mixed his breaking ball in effectively enough to keep the Blue Devils on their heels and, more importantly, off the bases. He struck out eight and walked two and at one point set down 11 consecutive Blue Devils.
“I wasn’t necessarily overpowering,” said Batka, who completed a one-week, three-game stretch, including Regional and Quarterfinal victories, during which he allowed a combined five hits. “I’ve been finding my curveball, so I don’t have to throw my fastball as hard.”
Batka’s teammates gave him all the support he would need when cleanup man Tyler Sigler tripled leading off the second inning. He scored on Tyler Boyd’s bunt.
The Eagles used two walks, a hit batsman, a wild pitch, and a fielder’s choice to scratch out another run in the fifth inning. Batka then helped himself when he drove in the game’s third and final run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Though Batka had a three-run cushion – and his no-hitter still intact – to start the seventh, he wasn’t out of the woods.
Ryan Boyd led off the bottom of the final frame with a looping liner to shallow center field to spoil the no-hit bid.
Batka said he didn’t realize the significance of that turn of events until Gates made his way to the mound.
“He told me ‘It doesn’t matter; it’s still going to be a complete game,’ Batka said, “and I looked up at the scoreboard and there’s the ‘1’ on the hit.”
A strikeout, an infield single, a fielder’s choice forceout, and an error left the bases loaded with two out. Batka got the final out on a chopper back to the mound.
“He’s thrown a lot of innings here in the last week,” Gates said. “He’s had three starts in less than a week. He’s a consistent 85-87 (mph) kid with a consistent curveball. He strikes out a lot of kids. Today, he just battled. … He didn’t have probably his best stuff, but he gutted through it. He knows how to pitch.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Grand Rapids Christian baseball players pile onto the pitcher’s mound and each other after clinching their second straight MHSAA championship. (Middle) Eagles junior Austin Batka threw a complete game to earn the victory. (Click to see more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Mullaly's Devotion to Local Sports Burns Brightly with Scoreboard Donations
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
April 11, 2023
HILLSDALE – Sports have always been a big part of Bill Mullaly’s life.
In high school, he played on the 1975 Hudson football team that set a national record with a 72-game winning streak.
He coached an Arizona high school team to back-to-back state softball championships in the 1990s.
And the 63-year-old Hillsdale resident has spent nearly three decades as an MHSAA-registered official in basketball, volleyball, baseball, and softball.
Now, he’s giving back to multiple communities and school districts in southeast Michigan by purchasing and donating scoreboards for use at recreation and high school fields.
"Bill is a great example of everything that is right with sports,” said Pittsford athletic director Mike Burger. “He has so much enthusiasm and love for the game. I have known him a long time and can honestly say he is one of the good ones that I have had the good fortune of meeting along my journey.”
Mullaly decided to start his scoreboard campaign a couple of years ago and, so far, has donated a total of 15 scoreboards to seven communities in south-central Michigan, including four in his hometown of Hudson.
“It’s to make the games more fun and more enjoyable,” he said. “I’ve been to two places this spring where they have scoreboards, but they aren’t working. It’s frustrating. It improves the whole game. It’s for everybody, the coaches, the players, the fans. It helps everybody.
“I’ve got a lot of positive feedback. People are grateful.”
Mullaly said he is fortunate to be in a position to help out the communities. His donations have all been to either recreation fields or high schools to which he has a connection, whether it be where he’s from ( Hudson), where he is a substitute teacher (Litchfield) or where he hosts baseball youth tournaments (Concord).
One of the scoreboards in Pittsford is in memory of his mother, Beverly, a 1948 Pittsford graduate.
“Someone said to me a couple of years ago, ‘What’s your legacy going to be?’” Mullally said. “I started thinking about what I can do to make a difference.
“I saw a lot of recreation fields that do not have scoreboards. Most of them don’t. A lot of schools don’t have a scoreboard, in fact. I looked into the price and what it would take to get them and came up with this thing that I’m going to donate scoreboards to parks. I saw a couple of schools that needed them.”
Mullaly purchases the scoreboards, then leaves it up to the school district or community to install them, which sometimes has been a hangup. In Hudson, he enlisted the help of a friend, Bruce Isenhower, and his son, Ryan, a former Hudson quarterback who now owns a construction company. They’ve put up all four scoreboards Mullaly has donated to Hudson.
“It’s more than just buying it, it’s getting it put up,” Mullaly said. “They have installed them, completed the wiring and it’s great. It’s great to have a working scoreboard there. I’m just trying to give back and make a positive difference.”
His first donation was to Concord, which went to the town’s recreation organization.
“They have five fields and three scoreboards,” he said. “It just adds to the game, the experience. Everyone wants to know the score at these games.”
In Hudson, two went to Memorial Park and two to Will Carleton Park, which is home to Hudson’s middle school and junior varsity softball teams.
Last winter his donation went to North Adams-Jerome for a varsity softball field.
“I’ve been there before,” he said. “The thing barely worked, and you couldn’t see the numbers. I wanted to help them out.”
Pittsford has installed one of two scoreboards Mullaly has purchased for the district for its baseball and softball fields. Quincy and Litchfield are using scoreboards donated by Mullaly. He has also donated a scoreboard to Union City.
“A guy was building a new complex two years ago. I said, ‘If you build it, I’ll donate the scoreboard.’ He said, ‘You will?’ I thought it was great what he was doing, and I wanted to be part of it,” Mullaly said.
Most of the signs include the moniker, “Donated by Bill Mullaly – For the Love of the Game,” which is something he and a friend thought up.
“My main focus was to do it for parks that the rec teams play on,” Mullaly said. “They don’t have a booster club or a budget. That’s how it began, but then I started going around to high schools and noticing they need scoreboards too.
“I get some satisfaction looking out there,” he said. “I feel blessed that I am able to do it. It’s neat when you are umpiring a game and you look out there.”
The first scoreboard Mullaly purchased in 2021 cost less than $3,000. They are now running a little more than $4,000 each.
“It’s useful and practical and can last for years if they take care of them,” Mullaly said.
After college, Mullaly lived for 15 years in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., where he taught and coached softball. He makes a return visit annually to that area and manages to get on the high school softball umpiring schedule while in town.
He retired as a teacher at Homer Community Schools in 2010. In addition to being a substitute teacher at Litchfield, umpiring and working as an official in other sports, he writes about sports for the Hudson Post-Gazette and Homer Index, two weekly newspapers. He’s done that since 1996. He also is a historian for the Hudson football team and area athletics.
He’s never far from some aspect of sports.
“I’m just trying to give back to the communities, to the sport,” Mullaly said. “I wanted to do something positive.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) A scoreboard donated by Bill Mullaly stands tall at Pittsford High School. (Middle) Mullaly, middle, stands last July with Jo Ann and Watson Clark in front of a scoreboard he donated to Will Carleton Park; the photo was taken during the 22nd David Clark Memorial Baseball Tournament. (Top photo courtesy of Pittsford High School; middle photo courtesy of Bill Mullaly.)