Sacred Heart Adds 1st Title in 30 Years to Coach's 57-Year Celebration
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 13, 2026
EAST LANSING — This was quite an anniversary present for longtime Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart baseball coach Earl Hartman.
On Saturday, his team’s matchup with Marcellus in the Division 4 championship game also happened to fall on the same day as his 57th wedding anniversary.
The Irish provided a nice gift, winning the school’s third Finals championship and first since 1996 with a 10-0 win in five innings over Marcellus.
“We were here (39) years ago in 1987, also on our anniversary, but we were runner-up,” said Hartman, who just finished his 43rd year as head coach. “Took a long time to make amends.”
Always one of the state’s top-ranked programs in Division 4, the biggest thing for Sacred Heart this year was getting past powerhouses such as Beal City and Portland St. Patrick before getting to the Semifinals.
The Irish finally did so again this spring, and went on to earn dominant wins in East Lansing. Sacred Heart had defeated Royal Oak Shrine Catholic in its Semifinal, 4-0.
“We still had to dial it in, but once we got over that St. Patrick and Beal City hump, it was smooth sailing from there,” said Sacred Heart senior Brady Davis, who was the standout in Saturday’s Final.
On the mound, he allowed just one hit while throwing all five innings, striking out eight.
At the plate, Davis hit his first-ever home run, sending a shot over the big wall in right field with a man on in the fourth inning to give the Irish a 7-0 lead.
“I’ve always dreamed of hitting a bomb like that,’ Davis said. “So it was great.”
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Davis came up with the bases loaded and one out with Sacred Heart up 9-0. He then sent a deep fly ball to the outfield to bring home the 10th run and end the game on the run-differential rule.
The Irish wasted little time getting going Saturday, scoring four runs on two hits in the bottom of the first inning to take a 4-0 lead. Senior Teegan Duffy had an RBI single, junior Hank MacDonald an RBI groundout and then freshman Jaxon Moore had a two-run single to comprise the rally for Sacred Heart.
Marcellus had a threat in the fourth inning, loading the bases with two outs before Davis got out of the jam with a strikeout.
Beyond that, Davis was in full control.
Marcellus (22-12) was making its first appearance in the championship game.
“That team is unreal,” Marcellus head coach Christian Hutson said. “That’s a buzzsaw.
“Nobody believed we could make it this far. It’s an amazing experience. There’s nothing to be ashamed of for this group.”
Indeed there wasn’t for Marcellus, but the day belonged to Sacred Heart’s team and the anniversary celebration for its longtime coach.
“It’s huge for the whole community and everybody showed up,” Davis said. “For Coach Hartman, It’s been a while since we’ve been back here, so we wanted to do it for him.”
PHOTOS (Top) Sacred Heart's Noah Zeien (3) sprints to first base during the Division 4 Final on Saturday. (Middle) The Irish's Maxim Boykin Lynch crosses the plate as the ball lands in front of Marcellus catcher Eli Torres.
Brother Rice Finals Hero Aiming to Ace Family Life, Financial World
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
July 6, 2023
Matt Conway said the 2008 Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice baseball team he played on wasn’t necessarily the most talented group to ever come through the state.
But that squad was still plenty good, and there was one thing that became evident during the playoff run the Warriors went on 15 years ago.
“Nobody really stood a chance,” Conway said.
It was certainly hard to argue.
During the MHSAA Division 1 Tournament, Brother Rice outscored its opponents by a combined score of 74-8 and never trailed during its seven playoff games.
The run culminated with an 8-0 win over Saline in the Division 1 championship game at Battle Creek’s C.O. Brown Stadium, led by a four-hit shutout from Conway on the mound. The title was Brother Rice’s third in school history and remains its most recent.
“The team camaraderie we had and the willingness we had to play for each other really showed in the way we dominated the playoffs,” said Conway, who now works for Center Rock Capital Partners, a private equity industrial firm based in Bloomfield Hills.
While the Warriors that year had camaraderie and chemistry, one thing they also had that other teams didn’t was Conway, who at the time was arguably the best prep player in the state.
Not only was the 6-foot-7 Conway an ace pitcher, he was also a fearsome power hitter at or near the top of the lineup.
The shutout in the championship game as a junior was only one of his achievements in high school, given he was also named first-team all-state in 2008 and 2009.
During his junior year, Conway batted .429 at the plate and was 11-1 on the mound.
Conway was an all-around force again for Brother Rice in 2009, but the Warriors fell short in their bid to repeat, losing in a Quarterfinal to Saline.
After graduating from Brother Rice in 2009, Conway went on to play baseball at Wake Forest, and his college career got off to a terrific start. He was named a freshman All-American at Wake Forest after leading the Demon Deacons with a .382 batting average during his first college season.
He went off during the summer after his sophomore year to play in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League in Massachusetts, arguably the nation’s premier summer league for college prospects and followed intensely by pro scouts.
Unfortunately, a knee injury made his time there short-lived.
“Unfortunately in the first game, I got hurt pretty bad,” Conway said. “I had to leave the Cape, and things weren’t really the same ever since.”
Conway eventually finished a nice college career at Wake Forest, but had to battle through more knee injuries.
He ultimately decided a professional baseball career wasn’t meant to be.
“At that point, I realized this is maybe not the path I was supposed to take,” Conway said. “I played through my senior year, and then took the uniform off and put on a suit. It was a little different, but I do believe things happen for a reason.”
Indeed, Conway has no complaints. He’s happily married to his wife Stephanie and has two children, an 18-month-old daughter and an infant son about a month old.
As an alum of Wake Forest, Conway was obviously thrilled to see the Demon Deacons advance to the College World Series semifinals and earn the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament this season.
“I had a ticket booked to Omaha to go to the championship series if they made it,” he said.
Conway has worked for Center Rock Capital Partners since 2018 and has always had plenty of knowledge in the financial and business sectors, given his father, Van, is a renowned financial consultant who owns a firm in Birmingham.
While his baseball playing days have been over for a while, Matt Conway said the lessons he learned playing in high school for Brother Rice head coach Bob Riker, and at Wake Forest for head coach Tom Walter, prepared him well for his current career and will always be with him.
“Time management, prioritizing and making sure you are on top of what you need to get done,” Conway said. “It taught me more than I could ever think of.”
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PHOTOS (Top) Brother Rice’s Matt Conway walks to the plate to accept his medal after the Warriors' Division 1 title-clinching win in 2008, and these days is building a family with wife Stephanie. (Middle) Conway makes his move toward the plate during that 2008 championship game. (Baseball photos from MHSAA archives; family photo courtesy of the Conway family.)