St. Mary's Standouts, More Michigan Stars Taking Major Steps in Pro Baseball Climb
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
July 16, 2026
It took former Orchard Lake St. Mary's star Brock Porter three years to reach five professional baseball victories on the mound.
It's taken only four months for Porter to win five more.
Porter is one of four Eaglets from the 2019-22 MHSAA Finals champion clubs now navigating their way through professional baseball. The 2022 Mr. Baseball Award winner, now a 23-year-old right-handed pitcher, went a combined 30-0 with an ERA under a run per game for those three championship teams (with 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19) before being tabbed by the Texas Rangers in the fourth round of the 2022 MLB draft.
Injuries slowed his first three minor league seasons, and Porter didn't win any games over his first two in the Rangers chain. But a healthy Porter has taken significant steps forward this season with the High-A Hub City Spartanburgers (S.C.) with a 5-2 record, 3.56 ERA and 52 strikeouts over 43 innings and 13 games. Porter was actually 0-9 over his first two minor league seasons before going 5-1 a year ago with Hickory of the Class A Carolina League.
He said he doesn't feel rushed in moving up the Rangers minor league ladder.
"I still have time," he said. "The big goal for me is I want to move up throughout the chain. Things are going very well, I'm excited for the season. Health-wise, I feel very good. I still want to grow into the dominant pitcher I was in high school."
Porter's role within the organization has changed. While he started 28 games over first two seasons, Porter has transitioned to the bullpen, where he's pitched in a combined 54 games during last two summers.
His former Eaglets teammates also are winding their ways through the minors.
Among them, Ike Irish was one of two former Michigan high school baseball stars who played in Sunday's prestigious MLB Futures Games as part of the all-star festivities in Philadelphia. Irish, a first-round pick a year ago, has emerged as Baltimore's No. 2 prospect as ranked by MLB.com. He went 0-for-1 with a walk after starting the game as his team’s designated hitter. The other past Michigan prep star playing Sunday was Okemos’ Caleb Bonemer, a top prospect in the Chicago White Sox chain. He went 0-for-2 as the starting third baseman for the American League.
Irish, an outfielder who also can catch, has dominated High-A Frederick (Md.) with 12 homers, 15 doubles, 47 RBIs and 18 stolen bases while batting .264. Irish hit .230 in 20 games with Low-A Delarva (Md.) in 2025 after batting .350 with 39 homers over three years at Auburn University, where he was named an All-American as a junior.
Irish, who batted .427 and .450 with a combined 19 homers and 95 RBIs during his two seasons at St. Mary's, said his professional goals don't include obsessing over posting numbers.
"No, I just want to go out there and play," he said. "I don't care about numbers or hitting X number of homers. I would rather just go out and play."
In addition to Porter and Irish, former St. Mary's star Nolan Schubart has heated up at high-Class A Lake County (Ohio) of the Midwest League. A Cleveland Guardians prospect, Schubart was named last Monday as the league's Player of the Week after hitting three homers with 12 RBIs and 20 total bases. The former third-round draft pick is now batting .248 with 67 RBIs in 69 games with a 37-game on-base streak.
The fourth former St. Mary's player in the minors is infielder Alex Mooney, the 2021 Mr. Baseball Award winner. Mooney is batting .203 with 36 RBIs and 18 stolen bases in 22 attempts with Double-A Akron (Ohio). Mooney was taken by the Guardians in the seventh round of the 2023 draft out of Duke. He started his professional career as a shortstop, but has branched out to playing 27 games at second base and 17 at third this season.
Mooney said playing at the Double-A level has been an adjustment.
"It's a tough place," he said. "I'm not really a huge stats person; I just take it day-by-day. When you're playing 140 games a year in the minors you just try to get better every day. That's the mindset. You just try to get better and win the battle in the war."
A fifth member of the 2021-22 Orchard Lake St. Mary's teams will have a shot at professional baseball. Former Eaglets pitcher Nolan Higgins was taken by the Toronto Blue Jays in the fifth round of Sunday's MLB draft.
Meanwhile, Okemos’ Bonemer has been in the national spotlight twice over the first four months of this minor league season. A member of the coaches association all-state Dream Team as a high school senior in 2024, he gained a painful national notice May 5. The New York Yankees' all-star pitcher Gerrit Cole, while rehabilitating from an injury with Hudson Valley (N.Y.), surrendered a homer and single during Bonemer’s first two at bats, then drilled the Chicago White Sox prospect with a 97-mph fastball to the shoulder. The move incensed White Sox fans, who believed Cole was trying to send Bonemer a message after banging out the two hits.
Bonemer not only survived, but has thrived. He hit .238 with High-Class A Winston-Salem (N.C.) to start this season, but slammed 18 homers and 15 doubles along while totaling 43 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. That earned him a promotion to Double-A Birmingham (Ala.) where he's off to fast start with a .279 average, three homers and 11 RBIs over his first 17 games.
Four other former Michigan prep stars have had active professional seasons. Outfielder Dante Nori, who helped Northville to the 2024 MHSAA Division 1 championship, has built on his rapid start this spring when he batted .400 for Italy in March's World Baseball Classic. A member of the all-state Dream Team as a senior at Northville, Nori is batting .245 at Double-A Reading (Pa.) in the pitching-heavy Eastern League. Nori has 12 stolen bases and 11 doubles.
Former Saginaw Swan Valley infielder Mitch Jebb has played in 20 games at Double-A Altoona (Pa.) and Triple-A Indianapolis in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ system, batting .273 with eight RBIs. A 2018 all-stater at Swan Valley, this is Jebb's fourth season in the minors after batting .327 in 147 career games at Michigan State.
Howell native and the state's 2017 Mr. Baseball, Sam Weatherly, is playing his fifth year of professional baseball. Weatherly is 1-3 in 23 games at Double-A Hartford (Conn.) of the Eastern League, a Colorado Rockies affiliate. He's struck out 34 batters in 28 innings.
Jeff Criswell from Portage Central is still recovering from Tommy John surgery a year ago. A member of the 2019 NCAA runner-up Michigan club, Criswell was called up to the Rockies for two games during the second week of June. He's divided time between three levels this season, with a 2-1 record and 6.86 ERA over 19 games and 29 strikeouts in 21 innings. In 2025, he pitched in 13 games for the Rockies with a 2.75 ERA before the surgery.
PHOTOS (Top) Orchard Lake St. Mary’s grad Brock Porter delivers a pitch for the Hub City Spartanburgers this season. (Middle) Ike Irish runs the bases for the Frederick Keys. (Below) Caleb Bonemer takes the field for the Birmingham Barons. (Porter photo by Becca Torncello/Hub City Spartanburgers. Irish photo by Robert Kimble. Bonemer photo courtesy of the Birmingham Barons.)
Lakeshore, John Glenn Win Big in D2
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
June 15, 2017
EAST LANSING – Stevensville Lakeshore trailed 1-0 and did not have a hit until leadoff batter Ryan Remus stepped to the plate to open the bottom of the third inning of Thursday’s Division 2 Semifinal against Chelsea.
That’s when the game changed. Remus singled, went to second on a balk and with a head-first slide scored the tying run – swinging the momentum clearly toward the Lancers.
Lakeshore went on to score four runs in that inning and defeat Chelsea 7-1 at Michigan State’s McLane Stadium.
Lakeshore (35-6), headed to a Final for the first time since 1990 when it won the Class B title, will play Bay City John Glenn for the championship at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Glenn will make its second Final appearance in search of its first MHSAA title.
Glenn (34-8) hammered Dearborn Divine Child, 15-4, in the second Semifinal, with 15 hits and a seven-run second inning to set the tone.
Cal Barrett homered with two outs in the first Semifinal to stake Chelsea to a 1-0 lead. The Bulldogs allowed three walks over the first two innings, but Remus’ at bat helped turn the game around. Standing on second after the balk, Remus got a good jump on Trey Thibeault’s line drive single to right center. Hunter Neff’s throw to Barrett seemed to beat Remus to the plate, but the senior second baseman alluded the tag with his slide.
Tyler Mojsiejenko followed with another single to center, and when the ball got past Neff, Thibeault scored for a 2-1 lead. Starting pitcher Connor Brawley tripled to score the third run, and Brawley came home on Max Gaishin’s sacrifice fly.
From there Brawley held Chelsea (31-10) to two hits over the final four innings, and the junior lefthander finished with a complete game five-hitter. He walked none and struck out five.
Remus said he didn’t notice the balk, but was aware that he started something big.
“I was just trying to get myself a good lead,” he said. “I didn’t look to see the throw (from center). I trusted my on-deck hitter (Brawley). He knew when it was coming and gave me the (slide) sign. After that we started hitting the ball hard and finding holes.”
Chelsea coach Adam Taylor didn’t think those four runs changed the momentum. He said his team had come back from greater deficits and was confident they’d do it again.
“The difference was their starter,” Taylor said. “He threw all three pitches for strikes, and in high school that works. Get it and go.
“When people scored on us throughout the year, we did a good job of coming back. It goes back to what I said. Their pitcher was the difference.”
Lakeshore had nine hits, and Mojsiejenko (with three) was the only batter with more than one.
“That balk kind of loosened us up,” Lakeshore coach Mark Nate said. “Sometimes it takes us awhile. That slide was big. Credit my third base coach (Matt Cotton) for that.”
Bay City John Glenn 15, Dearborn Divine Child 4
John Glenn had four hits in the second inning, and add in three Divine Child errors and the Bobcats had a big, early lead.
“They had us for three (errors), and it could have been four,” Divine Child coach Dan Deegan said. “They teed off on every one of our pitchers.”
Brad Mularz went all five innings and allowed five hits for the Bobcats. Getting those seven quick runs made his job that much easier.
“It means a lot to just go five,” Mularz said. “It keeps us fresh. With (Friday) being a day off, we’ll be ready.”
Corey Langenburg had two hits and four RBI to lead Glenn. Matt Fisher, Ben Cnudde and Mularz each had three RBI, and Tanner Gilles, the eighth batter in the lineup, went 4-4.
“They’re a loose bunch,” Glenn coach Jeff Hartt said. “Sometimes they’re too loose. When you put the ball in play in high school baseball, good things can happen.”
Divine Child finished 23-20.
PHOTOS: (Top) Lakeshore pitcher Connor Brawley makes his move toward the plate during Thursday's Semifinals. (Middle) Bay City John Glenn's Brad Mularz delivers a pitch.