Oilers Add to Decade of Dominance
June 14, 2014
By Andy Sneddon
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – Aaron Leasher didn’t need a whole lot of run support.
Still, it was a nice luxury to have as the senior left-hander tossed a four-hitter Saturday in leading Mount Pleasant to a 7-2 win over Richmond in the MHSAA Division 2 Final at McLane Baseball Stadium on the campus of Michigan State University.
It was the Oilers’ third MHSAA championship and first since 2007, and it goes in the books as another highlight in an outstanding run that includes eight District championships and Seven regional titles over the past decade.
“We came in pretty focused, and we pretty much peaked in the tournament here,” said Luke Epple, who completed his 21st year as the Oilers’ coach and has led the program to a 615-166 record and all three of its championships. “I knew we were better than what a lot of people thought we were. We’re young, and just had to keep working at things and make the plays you can make and throw strikes, put the ball in play and keep pressure on them.
“We expect to do well in this tournament, but you’ve still got to execute. Some years past we’ve matched up very good, and we didn’t execute. This team, we really stressed that execution with everything – small ball, driving runs in with two outs, making the plays you should make. We came in focused, and that was what I was most proud of. They didn’t let the other things around them bother them. They wanted to win, and they played to win today.”
And there’s good reason to believe that Mount Pleasant could contend next year and beyond. Five underclassmen were in the Oilers’ starting lineup Saturday. One, sophomore Zach Heeke, gave his team a 1-0 lead with a first-inning sacrifice fly.
Mount Pleasant (32-8-1) tacked on three runs in the third, getting an RBI single from Hunter Buczkowski, a sacrifice fly from Joe Genia, and getting another run on a balk by Richmond starter Dillon McInerney.
Leasher went the distance, striking out seven (four on called third strikes) and walking three.
“I was struggling a little bit early on with trying to get the first pitch across, but in the later innings I started to get my first pitch (for a strike), and that’s where it went from there,” said Leasher, who got outstanding support from a defense that turned two inning-ending double plays behind him. “My defense stayed strong, and we got early run support, so that was great. It calms your nerves down and you just get settled in on the mound, and you can work on trying to throw to contact instead of trying to strike guys out.”
Robert Backus had two hits and two RBI to lead the Oilers as the plate, while Dean Marais also had two hits.
Zach Leach and McInerney had two hits apiece for Richmond, but the Blue Devils never put more than one runner on base in any inning until the sixth. And by then, they trailed 5-0 and Leasher was clearly in a groove.
Richmond (35-3) lost in the MHSAA Final for the second straight year, and saw its winning streak end at 33 games.
“Every run they tack on, it takes away our small ball; (then) we have to play for a bigger inning,” said Scott Evans, who is 92-20 in three years as Richmond’s coach. “We just hit balls at people.”
Evans returned six starters from a team that fell, 3-0, to Grand Rapids Christian in last year’s Division 2 Final.
“I think we were 100 percent overwhelmed last year,” he said. “(This year) we went deep in all of our at-bats. We only had one strikeout on a ball that was out of the zone. I’m not disappointed in our effort at the plate.
“It’s a great group of kids. I’ll never forget them. They’re like my sons. It’s never been about me; it’s about those boys.”
And for the Oilers, it was all about pitching throughout the tournament as Leasher and Buczkowski, a sophomore right-hander, dominated. In Mount Pleasant’s seven tournament games, they combined to surrender six runs and post two shutouts.
The two runs scored by Richmond – both came in the seventh inning – were the most the Oilers had allowed in any of their tournament games.
“We have some other good pitchers, but these two, we had to go with them,” Epple said. “They were dominating all the way through. They dominated through the regular season. They’ve got a couple losses, but they were like 1-0 (scores) in eight innings.
“We knew if we could pick the ball up, move the runners, score some runs and make the play that you should make (that) we had a good chance to win. And they believed that.”
McInerney took the loss, his first of the season against 12 victories. He allowed four runs on seven hits, while walking one and striking out two over three innings. Jake Schmidt went the final three frames for Richmond, surrendering three runs on three hits, while walking one and striking out three.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Mount Pleasant players rush the field to celebrate their third MHSAA baseball championship. (Middle) Oilers pitcher Aaron Leasher struck out seven batters in throwing the shutout.
Kenowa Hills Rallies Early, but St. Mary's Rallies Late to Claim Latest Title
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 13, 2026
EAST LANSING — The McLane Stadium scoreboard definitely had to be a strange sight for Orchard Lake St. Mary’s early in Saturday’s Division 2 Final against Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills.
En route to 26 straight wins entering the game, St. Mary’s had routinely recorded lopsided wins, but found itself trailing an inspired Kenowa Hills team by four runs after three innings of play.
But while it was unfamiliar territory, panic certainly didn’t set in.
“We were calm, cool and collected,” Eaglets senior Hudson Brzustewicz said. “We knew we were going to put up runs. It was just a matter of time before the bats got hot and balls started dropping.”
Brzustewicz couldn’t have been more right, as St. Mary’s rallied for a 6-4 win in eight innings to add another Finals championship trophy to its collection.
The Eaglets (34-5) have now won seven titles and five since 2015 – four in Division 2 and the 2022 Division 1 crown.
It also gave head coach Nick DiPonio his first title as a coach after winning one as a player for St. Mary’s in 1998.
“They never had a doubt that they had it within themselves to persevere through everything,” DiPonio said. “It makes it that much sweeter.”
In the eighth inning with the game tied 4-4, junior Joseph Schilp started the winning rally with a sharp one-out single to left-center field. Schilp took second base on a passed ball, then went to third on a bunt single by senior Nate Baumann.
St. Mary’s senior and No. 9 hitter Preston Duff then brought Schilp home with another bunt single inside the third-base line to give their team a 5-4 lead.
With two outs, Eaglets senior Luke Crighton hit an RBI single to make it 6-4.
Kenowa Hills put runners on first and second with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, but St. Mary’s senior left-handed reliever Anthony Abela ended the game on a strikeout.
Abela came on in the fourth inning and provided five innings of scoreless relief, striking out six.
Making its first trip to a Final, Kenowa Hills finished 36-3.
“We just gave up a couple too many runs,” Knights head coach Todd VandenHeuvel said. “They outhit us (13-6). If we could have gotten a couple more baserunners on and stayed aggressive like we were and put more pressure on them, it might have been a different outcome. But very proud of the kids."
Kenowa Hills got off to a good start, taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI single up the middle by Andrew Lake to score senior Brennan Gustinis, who led off the inning with a double.
The Knights took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on junior Will Fussman’s RBI triple to the gap in right-center.
With two outs, an attempted steal of home by Fussman worked, as an errant St. Mary’s throw got behind the catcher, allowing Fussman to score and make it 3-0.
Kenowa Hills then made it 4-0 later in the inning when it executed a double steal perfectly with runners on first and third. With the runner on first breaking for second, senior Mason Peebles charged for home and slid underneath the tag at home plate after St. Mary’s cut off the throw to second and threw back to home.
The Eagles got one run back in the fourth, cutting the lead to 4-1 on an RBI groundout by senior Derick Conrad.
In the sixth inning, St. Mary’s made a move, cutting the Kenowa Hills lead to 4-3 on a two-run double to the gap in right-center by senior Tyler Shubnell.
The Eaglets then tied the game at 4-4 on an RBI single by Bauman.
PHOTOS (Top) An Orchard Lake St. Mary's runner rounds third base Saturday as a Kenowa Hills throw comes in from the outfield. (Middle) Eaglets reliever Anthony Abela delivers a pitch.