Pitcher Saves Best for Team's 1st Final
June 15, 2013
By Andy Sneddon
Special to Second Half
BATTLE CREEK – Connor Foley saved his absolute best for last, much to the delight of longtime Bay City Western coach Tim McDonald.
Foley put on a gutsy mound performance Saturday in pitching the Warriors to a 1-0 win over Birmingham Brother Rice in the MHSAA Division 1 Final at C.O. Brown Stadium in Battle Creek.
“Best game I’ve pitched in my life, and I couldn’t have picked a better day to do it,” said Foley, who went the distance in limiting a formidable Rice lineup to six hits while striking out four and walking one. “Every single pitch – if I wanted it on the outside corner, it was going there; if I wanted it on the inside corner, it was there.”
It was the first MHSAA baseball championship for the Warriors and the first for McDonald, who is 564-198-7 in 21 years at the school. He was recently inducted into the Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
“We wanted to get him his first ring,” Foley said. “He just got inducted into the hall of fame, so we wanted to give him something else to be happy about.”
Western got the game’s only run when senior Grant Bridgewater drew a two-out walk in the top of the sixth inning. Bridgewater, Western’s catcher, gave way to courtesy runner David Fegan, a sophomore, and Fegan was balked by Rice’s Dalton Greyerbiehl to second – the first of two costly Rice miscues in the late innings. On the pitch after the balk, senior Brendan Harrison smacked a solid single to center, and Fegan slid home well ahead of the throw.
The confident Foley did the rest. And, as is the case with any good pitcher, he got some help from his defense.
“Once I got that run, I knew,” he said, “I knew we were getting it.”
Foley allowed a one-out single in the sixth, but the courtesy runner was doubled off of first after a long flyout to center fielder Briton Ott to end the inning.
“Throw to contact,” Foley said of his pitching philosophy. “I’ve got a great ‘D’. I knew to throw to contact and they’d take care of it. Before the game I was telling the guys we’d probably need four or five runs because, you know, I’m pitching. But all we needed was one today. Inexplicable.”
The Warriors also had their ace in the hole, literally, with University of Michigan-bound lefthander Brett Adcock – who pitched the Warriors to a 2-1 Semifinal win over Sterling Heights Stevenson on Friday – warming up in the bullpen.
After Foley surrendered a two-out single to Bobby Cross in the bottom of the seventh, McDonald went to the mound to speak with his pitcher, but he didn’t replace him. The next hitter popped out to end the game.
“(Rice) had a left-handed hitter coming up in a couple batters, but to be honest, I don’t think I could have pulled the plug on Connor,” McDonald said. “He didn’t throw a lot of pitches. He deserved to close out a state championship.
“Adcock gets a lot of attention, (and) he deserves all of it, but Connor Foley’s been equal to the task. He’s a great complement to Brett and anybody who knows Connor will tell you you know exactly what you’re going to get. He is a gutsy kid, he’s confident and he’s got a little swagger to him, maybe, but it’s all about him wanting the ball. He wants the big game.”
And for Western, there were plenty of them this year. Saturday’s win was its 35th consecutive. Rice finished 32-8-1.
“I told the guys last night, if we had to play (Rice) in a seven-game series, we might not win,” McDonald said. “But we just had to play them once and beat them once and I’m beyond proud.
“I’ve been proud of every team I’ve coached and I’ve coached some incredible teams. But this team separated themselves. They set the bar. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to coach, but I’m not sure if we’ll ever do the things we did this year. … Maybe people can put it into perspective for me, but I don’t know what else to say about what we’ve done.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Bay City Western sophomore David Fegan slides into home for the Warriors' deciding run in a 1-0 win Saturday at Bailey Park. (Middle) Senior Connor Foley threw a complete game in earning the win on the mound for Bay City Western. (Click to see more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Brother Rice Baseball, Lacrosse Standouts Live Out National Team Dreams
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
October 23, 2026
Broder Katke sees it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a stepping stone and also a chance to showcase himself not only on a national level, but eventually an international one.
Not least of all, however, is the chance to represent his country.
When the Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice senior and Vanderbilt University commit found out he'd made the USA Baseball U-18 team for the recently commenced WBSC Americas U-18 Pan Am Championships in the Dominican Republic, he didn't dwell on the pressure and long odds he overcame, but instead on what a tremendous opportunity the selection offers.
"There are definitely a lot of ways to look at it," said Katke, one of three Brother Rice athletes selected to compete in select United States national competitions this fall. "I just looked at it like, don't press, don't make the situation bigger than it is. You just go about it like any other game, any other at-bat.
"It was super cool to make the team a cold-weather state. Putting that "USA" across your chest and representing your country is a big thing."
A senior catcher for Brother Rice, Katke made the U-18 team following tryouts at the USA Baseball facility in Cary, N.C., in late August. Eighty-eight players were invited including other catchers from California, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana, Minnesota and Puerto Rico. Katke impressed a coaching staff comprised of predominantly former major leaguers by going 5-for-17 with two RBIs in eight games.
The Pan Am Championships are a qualifier for the 2027 U-18 World Cup in China. Katke is the first Michigan native to make the U-18 roster since Billy Killian of Remus Chippewa Hills in 2003. Just 10 Michigan high schoolers have made that team since its founding in 1981.
Recent graduates of the U-18 program include current major leaguers Pete Crow-Armstrong, Bobby Witt Jr., Riley Greene, C.J. Abrams, Corbin Carroll, Nolan McLean, Jackson Holiday and Dylan Crews. Among USA Baseball coaches at the tryouts were former big leaguers Brian Schneider, Rick Ankiel, Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond and Brad Wilkerson.
Katke made Michigan's all-state Dream Team at Brother Rice last spring after batting .410 with 21 RBIs and 34 runs. In three seasons at Brother Rice, Katke has hit .371 with 78 RBI, 31 doubles and eight homers in 275 at-bats.
He knows the rarity of making a national team when 14 of the 20 players come from baseball-popular, warm-weather states California, Florida, Texas and Georgia.
"Michigan is a cold-weather state, but it doesn't get enough credit in baseball," said Katke, rated as the nation's 37th-best player by Perfect Game and 31st by Prep Baseball. "But (cold-weather) teams haven't faced some of the pitching we have. I was never stressed out at the tryout; I just wanted to compete and give myself the best shot at making the team. I thought of it as a chance to express myself rather than trying to impress.
"There are bigger and faster players than me, but I was there to do the best I could. It was nice to go there knowing you were representing your school, our coaches, community and state. If you go there thinking anything else, you're playing the wrong game."
Katke said one of his strengths as an athlete is the ability to put pressure aside. Katke followed up his performance at the tryouts by playing for the West team last month at the 2026 Dick's Perfect Game All-American Classic at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. He was the first Michigan player to make that game since Northville's Dante Nori in 2023.
"Pressure is a privilege," Katke said. "You feel intensity and you're excited, and there's a thin line between the two. You're going to have anxiety, but the preparation I had leading up to the event was some of the best I've ever had."
Katke is one of three Brother Rice athletes who have recently donned USA national team jerseys. Senior Ben Waechter made the USA Lacrosse U-19 team while junior Michael Burkhart made the U-17 team. The Brother Rice lacrosse players were the only Michigan players to make either team, both of which competed in the Sept. 27-29 Brogden Cup held at the USA Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md.
Committed to continue at Duke, Waechter was all-state and All-American last season and scored the game-winning goal in overtime in the 2025 Division 1 championship game against Detroit Catholic Central. He was one of 85 players invited to the original tryouts who later were cut down to the final 25.
"Everyone dreams of having "USA" stitched across your chest," he said. "That's awesome. You're playing with some of the best lacrosse players in the country, which is always a goal you have in mind. Getting to the highest step you can make is great, something awesome to be part of."
While Katke competed against well-known southern and western baseball players, many of lacrosse's top high school-age players come from the East. The talent level at the tryouts was an eye-opening experience, Waechter said.
"It was definitely hard because the East has so many players, but I've always had good coaches who do the same things that coaches in the East do," he said. "It just comes down to how much you want to put into it."
The USA U-19 team defeated Canada 8-7 in the final to go undefeated in three games.
Burkart lettered for Brother Rice as a junior last season. He went through a Regional qualifier and then 100-player combine to make the U-17 roster.
"It was an amazing experience," he said. "You have to go out there level-headed and not wanting to get out of yourself and play badly. I felt I was pretty composed and not overconfident, and that worked for me."
Like Katke and Waechter, Burkhart was aware there are limited chances to impress coaches at tryouts. He credits the national team coaches, however, for giving all players an equal shot at making the roster.
"I thought we had a lot of chances to make plays," he said. "Things move pretty fast. You do drills and technical stuff, but there is an opportunity to be seen. That's what you want."
The U-17 team beat Canada 16-3 in the final to earn a gold medal.
PHOTOS (Top) At left, Broder Katke heads to first base while playing for his national baseball team. At right, Michael Burkhart and Ben Waechter pose for a photo together. (Middle) Katke waits on a pitch during an at bat for USA Baseball. (Below) Waechter launches what would become the game-winning shot for Brother Rice in the 2025 Division 1 Final. (Katke photos courtesy of USA Baseball.)