Northville, Brother Rice Set Up Power-Packed Finale with Powerful Swings
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 13, 2024
EAST LANSING — For the first three years of his varsity career at Northville, Joey Broughton was one of the best two-way baseball forces in the state, excelling both on the mound and at the plate.
Unfortunately this year, Broughton has simply been reduced to a one-way force.
An all-state pitcher the last couple of years who has signed with Pittsburgh, Broughton hasn’t pitched this season due to a flexor pronator strain in his arm, so he has focused on hitting more than he ever has — and possibly will again — in his baseball career.
“I’ve never considered myself to be an amazing hitter,” Broughton said. “But to come out here and work my tail off when I can’t pitch means a ton. Just getting pitches I love and smacking them.”
Broughton certainly did that better than anyone in the first Division 1 Semifinal on Thursday, collecting two hits and four RBI to lead Northville to a 9-2 win over Bay City Western at McLane Stadium.
The biggest blow came with two outs in the fourth inning.
With the score tied and two outs, senior and No. 7 hitter Luke Dieringer gave the Mustangs a 3-2 lead with an RBI single that scored Connor Vissotski, who reached on a two-base throwing error.
Northville then got hits from its No. 8 and 9 hitters — junior Carson Eaton and pinch-hitter Justin Brown, respectively — to load the bases for senior Dante Nori.
On the first pitch, Nori was hit to force in a run and make it 4-2. That set the stage for Broughton, who hit a bases-clearing double just over the right fielder’s head to make it 7-2.
In the sixth inning, Broughton and senior Carter Jurcisin each added an RBI single to make it 9-2 Mustangs. Overall, Northville scored eight runs in the game with two outs.
“We practice that every single practice,” said Northville head coach Dan Cimini, who is in his first year with the program after building a powerhouse at Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett. “We load the bases, put two outs and see what these guys can do. They practice it probably more than anybody. It’s a strength, and it has to be a strength in these playoff games.”
Bay City Western (35-7-1) made it back to the Semifinals for the first time since winning the second of back-to-back championships in 2014.
“There is a lot of legacy in the teams in front of them, but they certainly left their legacy,” Western head coach Tim McDonald said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys in that dugout. I think every practice is going to pay off, and the experience (of getting here).”
Northville opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning when senior Vissotski walked, went to second on a sacrifice bunt, took third on a groundout and then scored on a passed ball to make it 1-0.
Western responded in the third, going up 2-1 on a pair of two-out extra-base hits. First, junior Mikey Deluca laced an RBI double to the gap in right center, and then senior Bryce Neitzel hit an RBI double down the left-field line.
Northville answered in the third inning, tying the game on a titanic home run to right by Nori. The ball went through the trees beyond the right-field fence and likely landed in the Red Cedar River.
Northville senior Caden Besco came on in relief in the fourth inning with runners on first and third base, two outs and the game tied 2-2. He ended Western’s threat with a strikeout.
Besco threw just 41 pitches in 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, so he will be available for Saturday’s title game.
Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice 5, Grosse Pointe North 2
Brother Rice had all it needed against Grosse Pointe North after just three batters.
The Warriors wasted no time jumping on North senior ace Brennan Hill, putting the first two men on in the bottom of the first inning and then taking a 3-0 lead on a towering home run to left by senior Owen Turner.
That proved to be the difference and propelled the Brother Rice (44-1) to its first state title game since 2013.
“I have not faced him, but I’ve caught him,” Turner said of facing Hill. “He played on my summer team. I was his catcher all summer, so I kind of knew what he throws and what his velocity was.”
Those runs were all Brother Rice’s pitching tandem of junior Blake Ilitch and senior Chase Van Ameyde needed. The two combined to limit the Norsemen to one hit and no earned runs.
Grosse Pointe North loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth inning and scored two runs on an error to cut the Brother Rice lead to 3-2. But the Warriors answered in the bottom of the fourth, taking a 4-2 lead on an RBI double with two outs to the gap in left-center by junior Cole Van Ameyde.
GPN put runners on first and second with one out in the fifth inning, but Chase Van Ameyde relieved Ilitch and got out of the jam with two strikeouts. Van Ameyde didn’t allow a hit in 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.
Brother Rice got an insurance run in the seventh inning on a two-out single to left by Cole Van Ameyde that made it 5-2.
The Warriors will now try and win their first title since 2008.
“I’ve got 10 seniors, and seven have played for four straight years,” Brother Rice head coach Bob Riker said. “They kind of know what’s expected and when they were freshman, they came here and lost in the final four. I’m not going to say they were using that as fuel or anything like that, but they’ve really matured over the last four years.”
PHOTOS (Top) Northville celebrates during its Semifinal win over Bay City Western on Thursday. (Middle) Owen Turner sends a pitch over the leftfield fence in Brother Rice’s victory.
Peck Bands Together to Honor Welch's Memory as Pirates Return to Diamond
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 15, 2026
Bill Kerr didn’t need to spend much time back at the Little League fields in Peck before his childhood friend James Welch caught his ear.
Not in conversation, but from the dugout, doing one of the things he loved most – coaching kids.
“When I got back to Peck 10 years ago, he was coaching Little League. We started talking about how we could get him in front of more kids and doing more,” said Kerr, the Peck superintendent. “I always joked that I was recruiting him. I’ve been around coaches forever, evaluated coaches forever, and you could just hear it, even at the Little League fields. You could hear his message and how strong it was.”
Kerr brought Welch on board at Peck, first as the baseball coach and eventually as athletic director, and over a few short years he made an out-sized impact on the kids he worked with and the community at large.
Welch died unexpectedly on Nov. 6, 2025, but that impact is still being felt today on the baseball diamond and beyond.
“He was always so authentic and positive with (students),” Kerr said. “In this day and age, a lot of adults are kind of hesitant to kind of address some of the things that don’t apply on the field. He and I talked a lot about making them good people and leaders rather than worry about what type of athlete they were. That was the most important thing to him, with his baseball players, he wanted to make sure they were good people.”
The Peck gymnasium was required to host all the people who showed up for Welch’s memorial service, and school was canceled the day after his passing.
His players were there, however.
“The next day we had school off, but the school was open because staff had to report,” said Jen Kluger, Welch’s friend and assistant coach. “All the boys came in. We all sat in James’ office and talked and cried. We were just together.”
Kluger, who began working in Peck in 2023, was surprised at how much the community came together in the days after Welch’s passing.
“It happened on a Thursday, and that Sunday we had a booster meeting because the funeral was going to be at the school and the boosters were going to handle everything,” Kluger said. “Normally, we have five or six people show up, and on that day, I don’t even know how many people were there. I was blown away. Jessica Royle is the booster president and we were texting a couple days later, I was like, ‘I am blown away by all these people that just showed up.’ She was like, ‘That’s Peck. That’s what they do.’”
While the entire community was mourning Welch, it was also there to support his family – his wife Shane and son Grady, who is a junior at Peck.
“I would say it definitely helped,” Grady said. “I felt like I wasn’t alone in grieving. Everyone in the whole community knew him, knew everything about him and what he stood for.”
The Welch family was part of the Peck community long before James began working at the school. He was a star athlete for the Pirates during the 1990s, playing football, basketball and baseball. He was part of the 1995 Peck football team that advanced to the Semifinals, and the 1994 baseball team that advanced to the Quarterfinals.
That 1994 team was inducted into the Peck High School Hall of Fame – something Welch worked with Kerr to establish – shortly after his passing.
“He was like one of those five-tool guys,” said Kerr, who graduated from Peck a year before Welch. “His best sport was football, but he was a very good baseball player.”
Now, while weather has not allowed them to get onto the field much for practice let alone play a game, Welch’s players are together again for the start of baseball season. Kluger has taken over the program as coach, which was announced in December.
“The day before we went on Christmas break, I called them all down to the gym, and I couldn’t say anything until the board approved it, so I had to sit on it for three weeks,” Kluger said. “I sat them all down, and I didn’t know how they were going to react. They didn’t seem upset about it. I got some hugs, got some claps, got some high fives.”
Not only were the players not upset, it’s the move they wanted as they had to move into a world without their coach.
“It definitely helped a lot,” Grady Welch said. “She knew how my dad ran practices, everyone knows her and she’s a nice person. It definitely helps to transition into baseball season knowing that things aren’t going to change.”
Of course, for Grady, it’s much more than simply not having a coach. He admits that the beginning of the season has been difficult – as does Kluger – but his teammates have been there to lift him up when he needs it. Many of them have been his teammates, and played for his father, since T-ball.
“I always have my space if I do need to take space,” Grady said. “But we’ve always been a group that’s been together all the time. We have a very good friendship between all of us.”
To honor James Welch, Kerr said supporters are working to create a scholarship in his name, and that his former high school number will be hung on the outfield fence at Peck.
Welch wore No. 9, as his father’s favorite player was Roger Maris. That number has been worn the past two years by Grady, who switched to it in middle school because of his dad.
Stepping onto the field in a game for the first time – which would be Thursday if weather permits – is certain to be an emotional moment for Kluger, Grady, his teammates and everyone in attendance. But it will also be the next step in honoring Welch by being together and playing the sport he loved.
“There’s a few that are going to struggle (emotionally),” Kluger said. “But I think at this point, they all want to be on the field and want to play.”
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) Peck baseball coach James Welch, left, talks with son Grady during a game from a recent season. (Middle) Welch, far left, stands at the plate for a pregame conference before taking on Capac. (Photos provided by Jen Kluger.)