D1 Semis: South Seeks to Unseat Champ
June 12, 2014
By Andy Sneddon
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – One big inning, one big relief performance.
And Grosse Pointe South will play for an MHSAA baseball championship.
The Blue Devils used a five-run fourth inning and the clutch relief pitching of Andrew Eaton in topping Battle Creek Lakeview, 6-4, on Thursday in an MHSAA Division 1 Semifinal at Michigan State’s McLane Baseball Stadium.
South (27-17), seeking its first championship since 2001, will play defending champ Bay City Western (37-7) in the title game Saturday.
Western, ranked No. 4, advanced with a 6-1 victory over Clarkston and will attempt to become the first school in the 43-year history of the MHSAA tournament to win back-to-back championships at the highest level (Division I or Class A).
South is unranked and largely unheralded, but far from untested. The Blue Devils overcame a 7-12 start to win the rugged Macomb Area Conference Red and upset second-ranked Sterling Heights Stevenson on Tuesday in a Quarterfinal. South had lost three times, by a combined 26-5, to Stevenson during the regular season.
“I’m so proud of this group,” said Dan Griesbaum, who is in his 31st season as South’s coach and is the state’s ninth all-time winningest coach with 707 victories. “They’ve just come such a long way.
“What we’ve done the last three weeks has just been amazing. We’re not seeing anyone in the playoffs who’s better than what we saw in the regular season. We’re used to this kind of stuff. We’re used to playing good competition.”
South could muster just one hit, a Ronald Williams single, off Lakeview starter Jacob Herbers through three innings.
Trailing 1-0, the Blue Devils broke through in the fourth, batting around and using five hits, an error, and a wild pitch to seize a 5-1 lead.
Lakeview (32-6) responded in the next half inning, batting around and scoring three runs on four hits to draw to 5-4.
“The thing that you want, right after you get up like that, is to come out and shut them down, and that’s exactly what we didn’t do,” Griesbaum said. “It was kind of frustrating. But a good team keeps battling, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Eaton came on for starter Douglas Graham with a runner on third base and no one out after the Spartans had pulled close. Eaton, a sophomore right-hander, got a lineout and a groundout, but then issued a walk and hit a batter to load the bases. He got a strikeout to end the inning.
James Fishback’s RBI double in the fifth inning extended South’s lead to 6-4. Lakeview threatened in the seventh, using an error, a single and a walk to load the bases. Eaton induced a game-ending flyout to end the drama.
“I was a little nervous there, but I just knew I had to calm myself down and get through it,” said Eaton, who allowed two hits, walked two and struck out four over three innings. “I think we’re sort of like a Cinderella team. No one really expected us to be here. … It’s just been a great run for us.”
Graham earned the win, allowing nine hits while striking out four over four innings.
Herbers surrendered nine hits in taking the loss. He struck out six and walked two. Just three of South’s six runs were earned.
Lakeview finished with 11 hits – Gavin Homer, Herbers and Russell Mathiak had two apiece – but stranded 11 runners, including eight in scoring position. Click for the full box score.
Bay City Western 6, Clarkston 1
Brandon Wise had three hits and Scott Badour tossed a five-hitter for Western, a team that lost seven starters to graduation after winning the 2013 Division 1 championship.
“I am (surprised), but I don’t want to downplay my team,” said coach Tim McDonald, who is in his 22nd year at Western. “They have been rock-solid for six straight (tournament) games. It’s going to take a really good team to beat us, because we don’t beat ourselves.
“In high school baseball and in probably any high school sport, if you don’t beat yourselves then that’s half the battle. If you don’t walk people and you don’t make errors – its tough to put two, three hits together at any level, and that’s what we’re making teams do.”
The Warriors graduated 10 players total off last year’s team, which became just the second in school history to win an MHSAA championship, along with the 1999 boys golf squad.
Six players from that 2013 baseball squad have gone on to play college ball.
“We have two starters back from last year, and we start four sophomores,” McDonald said. “They’ve stopped surprising me. I think they don’t think of themselves as sophomores anymore. We don’t have any stars on this team. We don’t have that one guy that you’ve really got to be careful of. It’s a team in every aspect of the word. We play baseball the way I think baseball should be played. We move runners along, we take advantage of opportunities, and it’s fun to watch.”
Western gave Badour all the support he would need with two runs in the second inning. The runners were driven home by Tyler Snover (sacrifice fly) and Jason Clark (two-out single), both sophomores.
Badour’s sacrifice fly and Snover’s RBI single in the fourth inning extended Western’s lead to 4-0, and the Warriors upped their advantage to 5-0 in the fifth when Carson Eby was hit by a pitch and eventually scored on a throwing error.
Clarkston got back-to-back doubles in the fourth inning from Nathan Witt and Mitch Smith to plate it’s only run.
Badour struck out four and walked two. The Wolves (20-13) stranded seven runners.
“That’s Scott Badour,” McDonald said. “Not overpowering, but he’s a pitcher with a capital ‘P.’ He knows what he’s doing; he uses his defense. He stepped up huge for us.”
Witt allowed nine hits and walked one over 5 1/3 innings in taking the loss.
PHOTOS: (Top) Grosse Pointe South’s Andrew Eaton threw three innings of relief to help his team return to the Division 1 Final. (Middle) Bay City Western’s Zach Schirmer scores in the second inning past Clarkston catcher Nick Morey.
Top-Ranked St. Francis Earns Repeat Try, Unranked K-Christian Walks Off To Advance
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
June 11, 2026
EAST LANSING - You can say much about a defending state champion, but opportunistic likely describes Traverse City St. Francis best.
The Gladiators remained in the hunt to become the first team to win back-to-back MHSAA Division 3 titles in 13 years after topping Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest 13-3 in Thursday's five-inning Semifinal at Michigan State.
St. Francis didn't necessarily pound the ball offensively and two pitchers scattered six hits, just four fewer than the Gladiators (33-5) tallied. But St. Francis took advantage of eight Crusaders errors, either bunted the ball for hits or used a sacrifice to involve scoring seven runs, and stole 10 bases en route to the win.
That, said coach Tom Passinault, is typically how the team rolls.
"Absolutely," he said. "There were the errors and that compounds things. But Rochester is a good team. You can't yell at the kids because it's just baseball. But there are things that we can do."
The win sent St. Francis into Saturday's 11:30 a.m. Final against Kalamazoo Christian.
Gladiators freshman infielder John St. Peter said taking advantage of opponents' mistakes is a trademark for the team, which won Division 3 a year ago and will be playing in its fourth Final since 2017.
"That's always how we roll," said St. Peter, who contributed a two-run triple and RBI single. "We pick up on what they can't do and the things we can do. I'm just a freshman and this is my first year, and I know I have some big shoes to fill. There's a lot of responsibility for sure."
There was no more of an opportunistic inning for St. Francis than the third. Already ahead 3-0, the Gladiators bunched three singles, a fielder's choice, a walk, three stolen bases, three errors and a wild pitch to score four more runs.
St. Francis senior captain Sam Wilfong said the ability to capitalize on mistakes added to the experience from playing in last year's Final likely makes the current team better than last season’s champion.
"I would say better because we're battle-tested," he said. "We know what we have to do and how to keep our emotions in check. We know what it takes to win much better this year. Guys have been there before."
St. Francis pitcher Lanse Vos, who gave up four hits in 3 1/3 innings, won't necessarily compare the two teams. But there's little doubt last year's run has affected this season.
"I think we've built off last year," he said. "Our four seniors we lost from last year said go run it back this year. That's what we're trying to do. We put the ball in play, and good things happen. We make those plays this year."
Kalamazoo Christian 6, Detroit Edison 5
Who says Kalamazoo Christian is too young to cause ripples in the MHSAA baseball tournament?
The Comets rallied with a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to outlast Detroit Edison and to sail into Saturday's 11:30 a.m. Final.
Despite having just two seniors on the roster, the unranked Comets – who start six juniors and a sophomore – overcame a 5-4 deficit during their final at bats to win the game on a based-loaded single by junior outfielder Max Johnson. Kalamazoo Christian (26-8) let a 4-2 lead slip away in the fifth inning and was tied as late as 4-4 in the sixth before trailing 5-4 going into the last half inning.
Comets coach Russ Meyer said the young team "hasn't flinched" in handling big moments, even with just two seniors.
"I knew and they knew we had incredible talent last year, that people expected a lot and things didn't happen for us," he said. "We played with a chip on our shoulder this year. It's like what about us?"
Johnson, who entered the game hitting .304 but with just nine RBIs in 79 at-bats, said his clutch hit was the first walk-off he's ever had, going back to Little League.
"I was down in the count and I knew I had to battle," he said. "Everyone on base trusted me, and that trust helped. It was like see ball, hit ball. We've done this all year; we just had to stick it out."
Comets junior outfielder Noah Zichterman had a pair of huge hits, including a third inning RBI double that gave the team a 3-2 lead, and a game-tying triple in the seventh two batters before Johnson's heroics.
Zichterman said it doesn't bother his teammates that the team isn't ranked or that few expected the club to be in an MHSAA Final.
"No one expected us to be this good," he said. "We've had some adversity that we overcame. I believe in us, we believe in ourselves and we just play the game."
Another key hit for the Comets was a two-run third-inning double by Jace Rarick. Crosby Croel had an RBI single in the fourth that put Kalamazoo Christian up 4-2.
Among Edison's highlights were a run-scoring single by Javarious Jackson that tied the game at 4-4 in the sixth inning and an RBI single by Jerrell Crosson II that gave Edison (23-9) a 5-4 lead in the top of the seventh.
PHOTOS (Top) Kalamazoo Christian catcher Jace Rarick prepares to put a tag on Detroit Edison's DaiJon Brooks (8) during the Comets' Division 3 Semifinal win Thursday at McLane Stadium. (Middle) A Traverse City St. Francis runner attempts to get back to first base during his team's win over Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest.