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.”

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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.”

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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.