Woodhaven, GP South Slug to Semifinal Wins
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
June 14, 2018
EAST LANSING – The best season in Brownstown Woodhaven’s history just got better.
Woodhaven, which had never won a District baseball title before this spring, defeated perennial powerhouse Birmingham Brother Rice 7-3 in a MHSAA Division 1 Semifinal on Thursday at McLane Stadium on Michigan State’s campus.
Colin Czajkowski’s two-run homer broke a 1-1 tie in the third inning, and senior lefthander Drew Szczepaniak allowed five hits in 6 2/3 innings and survived a bases-loaded situation in the top of the fifth to earn the victory.
Woodhaven set a state record earlier this season when it recorded 60 consecutive scoreless innings, which included eight consecutive shutouts. The pitching staff has continued to compete at a high level in the tournament, allowing 12 runs over seven games.
But, defensively, Woodhaven had its difficulties Thursday. The Warriors committed four errors, two in the fifth inning and two in the sixth. The two in the sixth led to Brother Rice’s only run. The two in the fifth helped Brother Rice load the bases with two outs. Szczepaniak got the last out on a pop up to third basemen Zach Biggs.
“In a game like this, you have to put (the errors) aside,” Szczepaniak said. “In the end, if you dwell on it, it won’t do you any good. Yes, I had to stay patient.
“Hey, we’re Woodhaven. We hadn’t won a District until this year. Everything is going so fast, and we’re just trying to take it one day at a time.”
Czajkowski agreed. No one expected Woodhaven to be in a Semifinal let alone the Division 1 championship game, so this is all new.
“We just got to keep level-headed,” he said. “That home run, things were definitely different. Definitely, beating a team like Rice is something special.”
Saturday’s Final, for just the second time in Division 1/Class A history, will feature two teams from Wayne County as Woodhaven (34-5) will play Grosse Pointe South (32-12) at 11:30 a.m.
The other time two Wayne County teams played for the title was in 2006, when Grosse Pointe North defeated Detroit U-D Jesuit 7-5.
To Woodhaven coach Corey Farner, it didn’t matter whom his team was playing Thursday. After all, this is Woodhaven. There isn’t anything with which to compare what his team and the community are going through.
“I didn’t care who we played,” Farner said. “They have a storied history. We’re Woodhaven. We’re not supposed to be here.
“That home run was huge. It was a 1-1 game at that time. It’s someone different every game coming through.”
Woodhaven could be without starting catcher Justin Charron in the Final. As he stopped at second base after batting in a run with a double, he slid awkwardly and left the game. Farner confirmed that Charron injured his right ankle, and his status for Saturday is uncertain.
Carson MacDonell replaced Charron, threw out a base runner attempting to steal and had an RBI single.
Like Farner said, it’s a different player each game.
Brother Rice (31-9), attempting to reach its first Final since 2013, used a handful of pitchers. But it seemed that no matter who coach Bob Riker pitched, Woodhaven’s batter were ready.
“They just out-pitched us,” Riker said. “We just didn’t get that big hit. When we tied it at 1-1, I said, ‘Ok, here we go.’ Then the guy hits that two-run bomb.”
Grosse Pointe South 10, Midland 0
South scored eight runs in the sixth inning of the first Division 1 Semifinal. Nathan Budziak went all six innings on the mound and allowed three hits, no walks and he struck out seven. He’s pitched three shutouts in his three tournament starts and has struck out a combined 29 hitters.
He was in a groove again, and Midland had no answer for him.
“He’s been lights out,” South coach Dan Griesbaum said of Budziak. “Winning 10-0, it’s unreal. We’re hitting over .300 as a team, but we weren’t hitting well early in the season. Maybe it was the weather.”
South had 14 hits paced by Cameron Mallegg with three. Joseph Naporani had three RBI and was one of four players with two hits.
Budziak, and Saturday’s expected starting pitcher, Cameron Shook, both suffered injuries during the season that had each out for a month. Budziak suffered a broken thumb on his left (throwing) hand and returned three weeks ago. Shook suffered a dislocated kneecap and made his first start since his return Tuesday, a 9-1 Quarterfinal victory over Macomb Dakota.
“The other players stepped up after (the two injuries),” Griesbaum said. “It wasn’t just the pitchers. It was a total team effort.”
Saturday’s will be South’s third Final appearance. The Blue Devils won their only title in 2001.
Midland (30-12) used three pitchers. Garrett Willis went the first five innings, giving up four earned runs, and took the loss to finish 10-3 this spring.
VIDEO: Grosse Pointe South tallied eight runs in the sixth inning; here's the two-run single by Giovanny Lutfy that ignited the rally.
PHOTOS: (Top) Brownstown Woodhaven’s Drew Szczepaniak turns on a pitch during Thursday’s Semifinal win over Brother Rice. (Middle) Cameron Mallegg eyes an offering during Grosse Pointe South’s victory.
BC Western Writing Storybook Season with Celebrations, Early Success
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 26, 2023
Before a single pitch was thrown this season, there was plenty for the Bay City Western baseball program to be excited about.
Some of it was historic: Coach Tim McDonald entered the year three wins away from 800 in his career, and, during the season, the program is set to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the 2013 Division 1 championship team.
But the present was just as exciting.
Led by a strong group of seniors that started a program rebuild in 2021, the Warriors figured to have one of their strongest teams in years.
Then the pitches started getting thrown, and the excitement may have been kicked up a notch.
Western is 14-0 to start the season, and living up to its lofty expectations in a year where it just feels like everything is already a celebration.
“It’s kind of freaky the way it’s kind of lining up right now,” said senior pitcher Ben Kohany. “We have our goals in mind, but we’re still taking it game by game. Obviously, there is that pressure (from the program’s past success), but we’re just trying to take things slowly.”
Western’s success on the field this season is the result of a simple formula: good pitching, solid defense and the ability to manufacture runs.
It’s a formula that helps the Warriors to focus on what’s directly in front of them, and not look ahead when they have big postseason goals that could otherwise distract them.
“We just play together as a team – we trust each other, make plays and get the job done,” junior catcher Bryce Neitzel said. “Every day in practice we work on the fundamentals. Especially with bunting, we do a station of bunting every day. I feel like it does help, because whenever we’re in a situation in a game, we’re prepared for the moment. We kind of expect it.”
It’s also a formula that has won McDonald and the Warriors a lot of games over his 31 years as a coach – 811, to be exact.
“We have a philosophy, things we emphasize and things we work on,” McDonald said. “We’re kind of known for our small ball, and we kind of got away from that. This year’s team, one of the many things they understand is that at some point, that’s going to become important. They’re just rock solid. They’re a good practice team, and that translates.”
When the season began, McDonald had 797 career wins, which put him 12th on the MHSAA’s all-time list. It took just three games, and a bit of serendipity, to become the 11th coach in state history to reach 800.
The Warriors swept Flushing in their season-opening doubleheader, which gave McDonald the chance to get win No. 800 against his alma mater, Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart, in a game that was a late addition to the schedule.
And just to make it a little more personal, Sacred Heart is coached by Earl Hartman, who coached McDonald and is one of the 10 ahead of him on the all-time list; and McDonald’s nephew, Joe McDonald, was the starting pitcher for the Irish.
“It sounds like a Hollywood script, but that’s just how it all fell into place,” McDonald said. “It was certainly a neat day, and that just added to it.”
While McDonald knew how close he was to the milestone coming into the season, he wasn’t planning on making a big deal of it. The people around him, of course, had other plans.
“They had cupcakes, and my AD got a plaque made for me,” McDonald said. “Somebody did some work behind the scenes, and all of that is appreciated. I’m proud to represent this program. If me, as the head coach, has a lot of wins, that means the school has a lot of wins. I’ve been fortunate to be in a good baseball community. They had good baseball before I came. I’m proud of the foundation that we built, and I think it’s just continued on.”
Getting to be part of that historic moment was a thrill for the current Western players.
“That was super cool,” senior third baseman Miles Yurgaites said. “That’s a lot of wins. It was a super cool moment, and a super fun day.”
The timing was also great for the Warriors, and not just because of the opponent in Game 3 of the season.
“I’m glad it happened early in the season,” McDonald said. “We got to enjoy the moment, and now we can move onto some of our goals that we set for ourselves. That worked out in a good way, as well. Now this team, they’ve become focused, because we still got a lot of work ahead of us. They’re staying humble in their approach, and every one of them knows they have some things they can get better at. As a coach, that’s all you can ask.”
Helping McDonald drive home that message is a trio of assistants who are Western alumni: Brian Patrick, Brendan “Bubba” Harrison and Brandon Wise. Patrick has been on the staff for 12 years, while Harrison (2013) and Wise (2014) were each part of Finals championship teams for the Warriors.
Not only does that give McDonald the luxury of coaching with people who know how a championship program is run, it also gives the Western players a daily look at what it takes to get back there.
“It does help,” Neitzel said. “They have all that experience, and they’ve shared all their memories with us. It makes us want to do what they did.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Bay City Western celebrates coach Tim McDonald's 800th win April 8. (Middle) The Warriors play in the Bay County Invitational on April 15. (Photos courtesy of the Bay City Western baseball program.)