Reigning D1 Champ Posts Record Result
June 14, 2014
By Andy Sneddon
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – Same school, same uniforms.
But an almost entirely different cast.
And a piece of MHSAA baseball history.
Sophomore right-hander Jason Clark pitched seven masterful innings Saturday as Bay City Western topped Grosse Pointe South, 6-2, to win the Division 1 championship at McLane Baseball Stadium on the campus of Michigan State University.
The Warriors (38-7) became the first team in the 43-year history of the MHSAA Tournament to repeat as the champion in the largest division (Division 1 or Class A).
“It was a storybook season, and it had a storybook ending,” Western coach Tim McDonald said. “I’m not going to pretend that we were the most talented team in the state or that we were maybe even close to it. But that was a flawless performance (in the Final) from one-through-nine.
“You dream of coming out and playing like that in a big game, but you never know with high school kids.”
Unless, perhaps, those kids happen to play baseball and wear the brown and gold of Bay City Western.
The Warriors returned just two starters from last year’s team and started four sophomores in Saturday’s Final.
One of those 10th-graders was Clark, who took a perfect game into the fifth inning, then allowed three straight hits that produced both South runs to cut Western’s lead to 6-2.
“I’ve been doing that all year,” said Clark, the Warriors’ leadoff hitter who finished with three hits and scored two runs. “If I have a bad inning, I stay focused and try to speed up my momentum and it usually helps me. It’s just, stay focused, and not let myself get sidetracked by the hits.”
Those three hits – singles by Ronald Williams and James Fishback sandwiched around a Brett Bigham triple – were the only base runners South had on the day.
And after that hiccup, Clark retired the final nine Blue Devils batters he faced, finishing the game with five strikeouts. The Warriors played error-free defense behind him.
“Jason Clark is just a pup. He’s 15 years old; he was on a Pony League field this time last year,” McDonald said. “I think the seniors and some of the veterans were good about keeping him calm; (there was a) lot of positive energy. That was an unbelievable big-game performance.”
The same, frankly, could be said about all the Warriors.
“We’ve played our best in the biggest games this year,” McDonald said. “I don’t think they felt pressure because of last year, I just think there’s pressure because it’s a one-and-done tournament. If you slip up, you can get knocked off, and these guys never ever even flinched. They deserve it. There’s more talented teams, but you can’t play any better than they did.
“For seven tournament games that was as good a display of baseball that you’re going to see, in every facet of the game.”
Senior Justin Gorr drilled a two-run double in the first inning to put the Warriors up, 2-0, and Hunter David delivered a two-out double to score Gorr and make it 3-0.
As it turned out, that’s all Clark would need, though Western provided plenty of insurance with 11 hits including a two-RBI single from Seth Freed.
Freed and catcher Carson Eby are Western’s lone returning starters from last season.
“It’s a whole new team, whole new look, new pitchers,” Gorr said. “We didn’t have any returning pitchers from last year.
“Last year everyone expected us to win the state championship. This year everyone was looking down on us thinking we couldn’t do it. And to know that all the haters were out there and to win a state championship is an amazing feeling.”
And a different one, McDonald said.
“I treasured last year’s championship for a long time, and every time I see the guys from last year there’s a bond that’ll never be broken,” he said. “Now this year’s group gets to enjoy that. I’m never ever going to say one was better than the other – they’re different, but (winning is) so hard to do. You’ve got to have breaks and a little bit of luck and do all the things that championship teams do, and we did it.”
South (27-18) was seeking its first MHSAA title since 2001.
The Blue Devils started the season 1-5 and were 7-12 at one point. They finished 7-8 (third place) in their league, the Macomb Area Conference Red, but got hot at the right time and upset top-ranked Sterling Heights Stevenson in a Quarterfinal game.
“We came such a long way,” said Dan Griesbaum, who finished his 31st season as South’s coach. “I’m so proud of this team. To do what they did from the beginning to the end of the season; they just kept getting better and better and better. We lost to a very good team today. They deserved it, they played better than we did today, and that’s what the state tournament is all about.
“For us to get here and get this far and do what we did is amazing, very satisfying.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Bay City Western players celebrate their MHSAA Division 1 championship at McLane Stadium. (Middle) The Warriors' Scott Badour and Grosse Pointe South catcher Roland Williams watch Badour's drive; he had one hit in four at-bats.
Novi Ace Set to Close Prep Career Among Wildcats' All-Time Greats
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
May 1, 2025
NOVI — Ironically, what’s likely to go down as one of the most accomplished baseball careers in Novi High School history began during football season.
During a fall ball session back in 2021, Novi baseball coach Rick Green was summoned to watch a bullpen session of then-freshman left-hander Uli Fernsler, a player he and others on the coaching staff figured was pegged for a spot on the junior varsity roster.
“My pitching coach at the time said to ‘come down to the bullpen, you need to see this kid,’” Green said. “He was just so poised when he threw, especially with me there. He didn’t throw hard at the time, but he had good location.”
Come the following spring, Fernsler added some velocity and couldn’t be left off the varsity team. Since then, the Novi community has come to find out why he’ll soon graduate as one of the school’s all-time athletic greats.
So far this year, Fernsler has 55 strikeouts, four walks and just two earned runs allowed. It’s no wonder pro scouts have flocked to his starts, with Hometown Life reporting more than 20 showed up to watch him pitch against Canton in March.
Signed to play collegiately for Texas Christian, Fernsler has a shot to establish Novi school records for strikeouts and earned-run average depending on how the rest of the season unfolds.
However, his biggest claim to fame is that he was the winning pitcher for the Wildcats in both the 2023 Division 1 championship game and also Novi’s Semifinal win at McLane Stadium, something that has become rare since pitch-count limits were instituted in 2017.
In an 8-3 championship game win over Woodhaven, Fernsler tossed a complete game, striking out eight, walking none and allowing two earned runs.
However, his under-the-radar performance in the Semifinal was arguably more important.
In that game, Novi tied Mattawan 1-1 with two outs in the top of the seventh on an RBI single, and then starter Andrew Abler pitched a scoreless seventh to force extra innings.
From there Fernsler took over, pitching three scoreless innings of relief under immense pressure. Novi didn’t score in the eighth and ninth innings, so Fernsler couldn’t afford to even let in one run or else the Wildcats’ dream would be over.
Fernsler held firm, and then after being staked to a three-run lead in the top of the 10th, shut the door in the bottom half to preserve a 4-1 Novi win. He allowed just one hit over his three innings of relief, and more importantly, did so efficiently enough to stay under the 49-pitch limit that would’ve prevented him from taking the mound in the championship game.
Fernsler recalls warming up in the bullpen with Novi still down 1-0, thinking that all he wanted was a chance to pitch on a college mound at Michigan State.
“I was just really hoping we would score a run, which we did,” he said. “There was definitely some nerves. But it wasn’t too bad. I had some confidence I could do what I was able to do.”
All in all, Fernsler allowed just nine hits, two earned runs and struck out 10 in 10 innings of work on the state’s biggest stage as a sophomore.
He also had an excellent junior year, but Novi’s hopes of repeating were derailed in a 3-1 loss to rival and eventual Division 1 champion Northville in a District Final.
He’s been dazzling so far as a senior, helped by a new pitch Green recommended he try after last season to complement his fastball, slider and changeup.
“I told him to try and throw a curveball to get another pitch to get hitters off-balance in addition to the changeup,” Green said. “We worked on it all summer, and he’s really done a nice job with it this year.”
Fernsler said coaches at TCU have come to see him throw a couple of times this season, but haven’t really offered advice or instructions and have pretty much let him do his thing.
Eventually, Fernsler hopes further doing his thing will result in leading Novi to another appearance at Michigan State for another Finals weekend, although the 2023 run is not familiar to the majority of Novi’s current roster.
“It’s kind of a new team,” Fernsler said. “I don’t think we are carrying momentum from that. We are just trying to figure out what we can do to get back.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Novi pitcher Uli Fernsler makes his move toward the plate this season. (Middle) Fernsler follows through on a pitch during the 2023 Division 1 Final. (Top photo courtesy of the Novi athletic department.)