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Detroit Catholic Central players celebrate after clinching the Division 1 title Saturday at McLane Stadium.

Detroit Catholic Central Baseball Seniors Put Stamp on School's Success

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

June 13, 2026

EAST LANSING — Throughout their entire high school tenure at Detroit Catholic Central, you couldn’t blame the seniors on the school’s baseball team for looking around at all the Finals championships won by other Shamrocks programs and wondering, “When will it be our turn?”

“A lot of fans and outsiders doubted us and we were like, ‘This year is going to be OUR year,’” Catholic Central senior Bennett Thompson said. “We’re going to buy in. Everyone’s going to give it their all. We’re such a senior-led team. We knew it was our season this year.”

Indeed it was.

For the first time since 1999, the Shamrocks won a Finals championship in baseball, earning a 7-0 win over Rochester Adams in the Division 1 title game at Michigan State’s McLane Stadium.

Catholic Central rode an offense that reached the record books and brilliant pitching from senior Mikey Laser to glory.

The offense broke the championship game record for most triples, hammering five of them, four during the first two innings. 

That was more than enough offense for Laser, the team’s No. 2 pitcher, whose plans for the future do not include playing college baseball, but attending Michigan State as a student only.

Laser was masterful, allowing just four hits in his shutout.

“I’ve got 18 guys going to (play baseball in) college, and we threw the one guy out there that’s just going to college to be a student,” Catholic Central head coach Ryan Rogowski said. “What a pitcher he is and what an outstanding job.”

The Shamrocks’ Kyle Davis (19) throws to first base while Adams’ Matt Toeppner attempts to advance.For Adams, it was more championship game heartbreak 30 years after it last made an appearance.

Adams lost in the 1995 and 1996 Class A Finals, and those teams also were coached by this year’s leader, Andy Lamkin.

In his second stint as the head coach of the Highlanders, Lamkin led them back to the biggest stage.

“We haven’t done that all year long,” Lamkin said of his team getting just four hits. “You’ve got to give him a lot of credit. He pitched fast. When we did hit the ball hard, it was at people. They outhit us. They took it to us at the beginning, and nobody has done that to us this year.” 

The seeds for Catholic Central’s tournament run were sown during the Catholic League tournament, when the Shamrocks lost a semifinal on its home field to Warren De La Salle Collegiate. 

Motivated by that defeat, Catholic Central made sure it wouldn’t lose again in the MHSAA Tournament, punctuated by a terrific performance in the championship. 

Thompson set the tone right off the bat, hitting the first pitch of the game into the left-center gap for a triple. He scored when senior Dylan Fairchild did the same thing, hitting a triple to the gap in left-center to put Catholic Central up 1-0. The Shamrocks went up 2-0 on an RBI groundout by senior Nicholas Garnick.

In the second inning, Fairchild came up with two outs and two on and hit another laser into the left-center gap, a two-run triple that gave Catholic Central a 4-0 lead. 

In the fifth inning, Thompson led with his second triple of the game and the team’s fifth, and then scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-0. Cam Swearingen followed that up with an RBI single to put the Shamrocks up 6-0. 

They went up 7-0 in the seventh inning on an RBI sacrifice fly by junior Jaxon Gatt. 

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS (Top) Detroit Catholic Central players celebrate after clinching the Division 1 title Saturday at McLane Stadium. (Middle) The Shamrocks’ Kyle Davis (19) throws to first base while Adams’ Matt Toeppner attempts to advance.

High 5s: 5/15/12

May 15, 2012

This week's honorees include arguably Michigan's top distance runner, top lacrosse player, and a baseball team looking to assert itself at the top while representing the state's largest city.

Lauren Hooker
East Grand Rapids senior
Lacrosse

(Updated May 19) Hooker, who plays attack, led the Pioneers to a 20-0 start. She's scored 101 goals -- already third-most for a single season in the MHSAA record book, and more than 25 percent of her team's total. Add in her 33 assists, and her 134 total points are fifth in MHSAA history for one season. East Grand Rapids is ranked No. 1 both in Division 2 and regardless of division based on the computer rankings supplied by LaxPower.com. Hooker also was the low scorer on the Pioneers golf team that finished eighth at the fall's Division 3 Final, and she missed the individual top 10 by only two strokes. She's signed to play lacrosse at Marquette University next season.

Scoring touch: "I don't try and dodge all the time. I don't like to work my way through people to score. I just try to find an opening."

Up next: "I'm not exactly sure yet (what I'll study), probably something in the sciences. Maybe something like criminology. I always wanted to be an FBI agent when I was growing up."

I learned the most about lacrosse from: "Two of my best friends play for the University of Oregon (Jana and Jess Drummond). And Coach (Jeff) Oates has spent a lot of time with me, talking to me, helping me during the offseason."

Different strokes: "I love the intensity (of lacrosse). I love the team aspect. It's competitive, but fun at the same time. Everyone on our team loves it together. ... In golf, I like how you're still part of the team, but an individual. To help the team, it's on you. It's a good contrast to lacrosse." 

Garret Zuk

White Lake Lakeland senior

Track and Field

Zuk, the reigning MHSAA Division 1 cross country champion, ran career bests of 9:09.2 in the 3,200 meters and 4:16.92 in the 1,600 to take first in the former and second by two hundredths of a second in the latter at Saturday's Kensington Lakes Activities Association championship meet at Pinckney. But his best moment might've come when he finished second on purpose -- to Walled Lake Northern's Devin Kimberlin in the 3,200 last Tuesday after pacing the sophomore through the race to a career-best time, and then letting him win at the end. (Click to read more). Zuk was an MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award winner this winter and is the co-salutatorian of his class with a 4.22 grade-point average. He will run this fall at Michigan State University.

"I've done it for kids on my own team. Normally, I'm in a position where things are still hanging in the balance and we need the points to win. But the way this meet was ... there was no way we could win. I saw the kind of effort Devin was trying to put in, and there was no reason not to help out."

Up next: Zuk will run both cross country and track at MSU, as is the norm at the college level. He's planning to study mechanical engineering, with an eye on the aerospace field -- think NASA, Boeing, etc. Not surprisingly, math is his best subject.

I learned the most about running from: Retired longtime Lakeland coach Randy Wilkins and current cross country coach Joe Verellen. "The combination of those two (taught me) a lot of what I know and what I practice in my running.

I look up to: "Every American distance runner has to look up to Steve Prefontaine at one time or another. What Pre stood for, the way he went about running; it's inspiring to everyone."

Detroit Western International baseball

The Cowboys are 22-4 and winners of 11 straight heading into Friday afternoon's Detroit Public School League Tournament semifinal. They are the top seed after finishing the league regular season undefeated, and have their sights set on a trip to Battle Creek this month after coming within an out of the MHSAA Semifinals a year ago. Of 16 players on this spring's team, 14 were on last year's as well. Click to read more.

This spring's previous honorees