Rochester Adams, Detroit Catholic Central Set Matchup for 2026 Season Finale
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 12, 2026
EAST LANSING — Thirty years after leaving Battle Creek following the second of two straight state championship game losses, Rochester Adams head baseball coach Andy Lamkin was back at the MHSAA Semifinals on Friday with his team.
The head coach of those teams that lost in Class A championship games in 1995 and 1996, Lamkin is in his second stint as Adams head coach (he took the program back over in 2024) and probably experienced some full-circle emotions entering Friday’s Division 1 Semifinal against Brownstown Woodhaven.
“It’s a different perspective this time, I’ll definitely let you know that,” Lamkin said. “It’s good that other people have an opportunity to share what I was able to feel 30 years ago. To me, that’s what I’m reflecting on, is everybody else and the parents and the kids that have this opportunity.”
On Saturday, Adams will get an opportunity to achieve what the 1995 and 1996 teams did not – win the school’s first baseball title.
The Highlanders earned that opportunity with a 10-4 win over Woodhaven, after jumping out to a 7-0 lead and not looking back. They will face Detroit Catholic Central at 5 p.m. Saturday in the Division 1 Final, which will close the 2026 baseball season.
Adams had a big inning early, producing a five-run rally in the second. Senior Rino Watters gave the Highlanders a 1-0 lead on an RBI single following a double by senior catcher McCallister Doelle, and then with the bases loaded, senior Dominic Dumitrescu cleared them with a double to make it 4-0.
Senior Matt Toeppner then followed with an RBI single to center to give Adams a 5-0 lead.
The Highlanders added two more runs in the third inning on RBI singles by senior Johnny Safadi and Dumitrescu to grab a 7-0 lead.
Dumitrescu, the team’s No. 9 hitter, had four RBI and Safadi had four hits to lead a 15-hit attack.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had four RBI,” Dumitrescu said.
Woodhaven got on the board in the fourth inning on an RBI single by junior Amauri Gutierrez after a triple by sophomore Tristan Spencer.
Adams got that run back in the fifth, but Woodhaven scored two runs with two outs in the bottom of the inning, cutting the Adams lead to 8-3 on RBI singles by Gutierrez and Spencer.
In the sixth inning, Adams took a 9-3 lead on an RBI sacrifice fly by Doelle, and then Adams went up 10-3 in the seventh on an RBI sacrifice fly by Toeppner.
The Highlanders have two players, Andrew Wozniak and Quinn DeCourcy, whose dads were on the 1995 team that lost in the title game. Now, their sons will get a chance to earn what eluded them.
“Now we’re back carrying on the legacy,” Wozniak said.
Gutierrez had two hits and two RBI in defeat for the Warriors (34-6-1).
“We started chipping way a little bit,” Woodhaven head coach Corey Farner said. “The problem was we couldn’t slow them down. At the end of the day, you can’t win when you give up 15 hits.”
Detroit Catholic Central 6, Mattawan 1
Ever since October, Catholic Central head coach Ryan Rogowski said there has been one date his team constantly talked about.
“June 13,” Rogowski said, referring to the date of Saturday’s Division 1 championship game.
Catholic Central will indeed get to play on the last day of the season.
“There are 16 seniors who are just incredible,” Rogowski said. “We have one game left. They have worked so hard for this.”
The biggest reason Catholic Central (28-12) earned a chance at winning its first Finals championship since 1999 was senior left-hander Andrew Mahoney, a Cincinnati signee.
Mahoney tossed a three-hitter against Mattawan, allowing one run and striking out 15 batters.
Catholic Central also had an efficient offense, putting together an 11-hit attack led by a three-hit performance by senior Nick Garnick.
“I was just ready to do damage and ready to attack,” Garnick said.
Catholic Central took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Garnick scored from second base on a wild pitch.
In the fifth, the Shamrocks gained separation, scoring five times to take a 6-0 lead. Catholic Central took a 2-0 lead on an RBI single to center by junior Kyle Davis, went up 3-0 when Davis scored from third on a balk, and grabbed a 4-0 lead on an RBI single by Garnick.
Sophomore Luke Fairchild then lined a two-run double over the center fielder’s head to make it 6-0.
Mattawan did have an immediate response, scoring a run in the bottom of the fifth inning on a wild pitch and putting runners on first and third with one out.
But the Shamrocks got out of the jam with no further damage to hold on to a 6-1 lead.
Mattawan (29-9) was making its second Semifinal appearance in four years, but just couldn’t make enough contact against Mahoney to advance to what would have been its first championship game.
“You’re not going to win many games when you strike out 15 out of 21 outs,” Mattawan head coach Brett Vaughn said. “He threw really well. We scouted the (heck) out of him and knew that was what we were going to get. Our approaches to the plate weren’t very good and again, striking out 15 out of 21 outs isn’t going to win you a lot of games.”
PHOTOS (Top) Rochester Adams players celebrate after crossing the plate during Friday’s Semifinal win over Brownstown Woodhaven. (Middle) The Shamrocks’ Cam Swearingen (4) follows a drive against Mattawan.
Crusaders Outlast Centreville for 1st Title
June 13, 2015
By Andy Sneddon
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – When Nicholas Holt needed it, he dug deep.
Holt allowed 17 hits, but got the biggest outs when he needed them Saturday as Muskegon Catholic Central topped Centreville in a 10-8 thriller in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 4 championship game at Michigan State’s McLane Baseball Stadium.
Centreville scored three runs on five hits in the seventh inning and had runners at first and second when Holt, with his 113th pitch of the game, got a game-ending groundout to touch off the Crusaders’ celebration.
Holt had white-knuckled it home, giving MCC – a winner of 10 MHSAA football championships – its first for baseball.
“Knowing that this is a lot bigger than me, that this has never happened at Muskegon Catholic Central, knowing that there’s eight guys around you trying to do the same thing and they’re working their butt off just like I am,” Holt said of his mindset in the seventh inning, when Centreville sent eight men to the plate and had the crowd on its feet. “The way to get through something like this is to not think about yourself, but to think about the guy next to you.
“I probably could have went 100 more pitches because I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t feel any pain. All I felt was just so much adrenaline and I just never stopped. You don’t think about if I’m hurt, you think about the guy at second base, the catcher – they’re working hard and you’ve just got to battle through whatever’s going on with you.”
It was a battle of heavyweights as both teams came into the Final with just one loss. MCC finished 39-1-1; Centreville, playing in the first MHSAA championship baseball game in school history, went 29-2.
Nicholas Holt and his brother and catcher Jacob Holt finished with three hits apiece. Jacob Holt drove in five runs, while Nicholas had two RBI.
Jalen Brown collected four hits, while Coletin Gascho and Michael Kool had three apiece for Centreville.
Jordan Gest, who started for Centreville, took the loss. He went three innings, allowing six runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out three.
Kool, who was the Bulldogs’ workhorse on the mound throughout their run to their first Final, also went three innings. He surrendered four runs on five hits. Just four of MCC’s 10 runs were earned. Centreville committed four errors.
The teams combined for 18 runs, 27 hits and six errors in a highly entertaining game. It all came down to Holt’s left arm in the seventh.
“He wasn’t coming out of the game,” MCC coach Steve Schuitema said. “We didn’t even warm anybody up. We’ve ridden him for four years now.
“I didn’t even want to look. I was getting physically ill over in the dugout. I just kept saying ‘hang on; just hang on.’ Usually when I say hang on, things don’t hang on. … Luckily we did today.”
PHOTOS: (Top) A Muskegon Catholic Central hitter closes in on a pitch during Saturday’s Division 4 Final. (Middle) Centreville catcher Nick Kelley blocks a throw as MCC’s Anthony Woodard slides in.