High 5s - 4/17/12
April 17, 2012
Each week, Second Half gives "High 5s" to multiple athletes and a team that have performed exceptionally on the field or made a notable impact off of it.
Please offer your suggestions by e-mail to [email protected]. Below are this week's honorees:
Sarah Appold
Saginaw Valley Lutheran senior
Softball
Appold is putting the final touches on a career that places her among the best ever at Saginaw Valley Lutheran. She holds multiple Chargers strikeout records and appears three times in the MHSAA record book for strikeouts in a game -- her best of 15 in a 2010 contest is tied for fifth-best in MHSAA history. Appold is 2-0 this season with batters hitting just .098 against her. She's also earned all-state recognition for volleyball and basketball this school year.
Up next: Appold has signed to play softball at Saginaw Valley State University and intends to study nursing.
I learned the most about pitching from: "Probably my dad, Randy Appold. He was pitching coach up until my seventh grade year. And Doug Gillis (out of Wixom), my pitching coach now."
My favorite athletes are: Detroit Tigers Austin Jackson and Justin Verlander. "My parents always took me to Tigers games when I was little, and I like watching them."
Try to keep up: Although Appold has never pitched to her baseball-playing friends, a few have caught her. "I've had a lot of people since freshman year ask me to pitch against them, to see how they'd do. I think I'd handle myself against them. ... There's a lot of different movement (to softball pitches)."
Nick Stiles
Bath senior
Baseball
Stiles is finishing up an all-state career for the Bees that included a trip to the Division 3 Semifinals in 2010. He's currently tied with former standout Brennan Powers for Bath's career pitching wins record with 33, enough to also get him on the MHSAA record book list in that category. Stiles is 2-0 this season and has yet to give up an earned run -- including over 10 innings Monday, although he didn't get a decision in either game that afternoon. He also plays center field.
Up next: Stiles said a few colleges said they'd like to watch him this season before offering a scholarship. Also his school's valedictorian, Stiles, has been accepted by Michigan State and could go there as a student only. He'd major in human biology with an eye on becoming an orthopedic surgeon -- which began to interest him after he suffered an ankle injury as a sophomore. He also might consider walking-on at MSU or playing on the club team.
My best pitch is: "My fastball. I've got the most control over it. I can put it pretty much anywhere I want."
I learned the most about pitching from: "My 14-and-under baseball coach Dave Morena. He had a certain way of doing things, and he knew what he was talking about. He taught me pretty much everything I know."
I look up to: "Justin Verlander. He works fast. He does throw his fastball a lot too. He's confident in his other pitches, but he likes to go to his fastball."
My career highlight: "The state Semifinal run. Records are records, made to be broken and all of that nonsense. But the run of the team; we weren't expected to do it, and the whole town followed us. Even though we lost, it was a great experience."
Grand Rapids West Catholic boys golf
After falling just five strokes short of winning the Kent County Classic on April 12 at The Highlands (behind top-ranked Division 1 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central), West Catholic took on some of the state's top Division 2 and 3 teams the next day at Michigan State's Forest Akers East -- and edged reigning Division 2 champion DeWitt by a stroke with a 303 to win the Haslett Invitational.
The Forest Akers field including Division 2 Nos. 1 and 2 DeWitt and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood, respectively, and Division 3 No. 1 Jackson Lumen Christi and No. 9 Hanover-Horton -- with West Catholic ranked No. 4 in Division 3 entering the tournament. Junior Sam Weatherhead was medalist at both the Kent County Classic and Haslett Invitational, shooting 68 and 69, respectively, to win by four and three strokes.
Pinili Aiming to Add Medalist Honor as Brother Rice Seeks Finals 3-Peat
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 8, 2023
The phrase the “third time is a charm” might often be trite and overplayed, but it also couldn’t apply more to Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice senior golfer Lorenzo Pinili.
Two years ago as a sophomore, Pinili finished as the individual runner-up at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final, five shots out of first at Bedford Valley in Battle Creek.
Last year, Pinili was the runner-up again at Grand Valley State, valiantly rallying from an opening-round score of 76 to shoot a 68 on the second day at The Meadows, but still ending six shots behind.
Both years, Brother Rice won the team title, so Pinili still left happy.
But no doubt, he hopes the third time will be the charm from an individual point of view when he competes at this weekend’s Division 2 Final at The Fortress in Frankenmuth.
“This year, I definitely have a lot more motivation to finish first,” he said. “It’s a lot of patience. That’s what it is. I just have to trust my game and not really force anything. That’s what most people try to do. If they know they want to get a win or know they want to play well, they’re going to start forcing shots that’s out of their comfort zone or do stuff they don’t really do.”
Pinili, who will play collegiately at Michigan State, has been hitting a lot of good shots throughout a golfing life that started when he was 2 years old.
In fact, while Pinili has no recollection of the moment he took up the game, his father Rommel has reminded him constantly throughout his life.
“He said that I picked up a stick while the TV was on and I tried to copy what was on TV,” Pinili said. “From there, he gave me a plastic club, and he gave me real balls. He thought I was making good contact. From there, he gave me real metal clubs, and I was able to hit balls. There’s actually a video on YouTube that you can find of me hitting golf balls at the range when I was 2. From there, it’s been with me my whole entire life.”
Pinili said if there’s one area of his game that has evolved more than any other since he began high school, it’s performing when the stakes are the highest.
Brother Rice associate coach David Sass echoed those sentiments about Pinili’s enhanced ability to stay even-keeled mentally under pressure.
“He has a tendency to have such a high level of expectation for his game, that can kind of prohibit him from looking beyond a simple mistake,” he said. “He’s been really good about doing that lately. Golf is very hard, and it’s really about managing your mistakes. Perfection is basically unattainable in golf. If he stays patient, understands that, picks his spots on when to be aggressive, is aggressive in that moment, and then plays it smart during moments he shouldn’t be aggressive, I think he’s got an incredible chance to win this thing.”
One of the biggest competitors for Pinili this weekend could be someone in the same household.
Leandro Pinili, a sophomore, finished in a tie for ninth last year at the LPD2 Tournament, and definitely helps push Lorenzo to greater heights in the game.
“We share a lot of passion with the game together, and sometimes it gets a little too competitive just because he wants to beat me and I can’t let him beat me,” Lorenzo said. “It’s really nice having someone besides me who understands the side of golf that I understand. It’s also really fun being able to play with my brother and compete with him. I really love it, and that’s one of the biggest things I’m going to miss about Brother Rice golf.”
And no doubt, Brother Rice will definitely miss Lorenzo Pinili when he finishes his high school career on Saturday at a course he is looking forward to playing because it will require precise shots.
“I think it will separate the best from the rest of the pack,” he said. “You really can’t get away with anything out there.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties
PHOTOS (Top) Brother Rice's Lorenzo Pinili, right, tees off during the 2022 LP Division 1 Finals as Grand Rapids Christian's Adam Workman follows his shot. (Middle) The Warriors celebrate their second-straight team title, including Pinili (standing, third from left) and his younger brother Leandro (standing, fourth from right). Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)