This Time, It's Saline's Time to Top D1
June 17, 2017
By Andy Sneddon
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – Five times, Scott Theisen had brought a team to an MHSAA championship game.
Five times, his Saline Hornets had come up empty.
But Saturday, appearing in its sixth Final, Saline jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and made it stand up to claim its first MHSAA baseball championship with a 5-2 victory over Northville at Michigan State’s McLane Baseball Stadium.
“It means the world, not only to me but all the other guys who have been here and gotten so close so many times,” said Theisen, who is in his 25th season at Saline and led the Hornets to Division 1 runner-up finishes in 1998, 2008-10, and 2016. “This one is in the books for everybody. It’s hard to describe how I feel.”
Theisen used four pitchers – starter Danny Weidmayer followed by Paul Kiyabu, Kellan Huang and Tyler Zmich – to hold in check the Mustangs (30-11).
None was overpowering – they surrendered a combined 10 hits and Northville stranded 10 base runners – but they threw strikes and benefited from three double plays turned behind them.
“They threw OK compared to how they’ve thrown all year,” Theisen said. “It’s a tough situation out there with the stakes so high and the zone was moving and it was tight at times. They just kept working and kept pumping strikes and didn’t let the wheels fall off.”
The Hornets (39-3) loaded the bases in the first inning with a single, a walk and a bunt. Two runs were forced in by walks, and Huang hit a sacrifice fly for a 3-0 lead.
Ryan Foley led off the Saline second inning with a double, stole third and scored on a wild pitch to extend the lead to 4-0. He finished with three hits including two doubles.
“We’ve been working so hard for this state title,” said Foley, a senior outfielder and one of seven starters who returned from the Hornets squad that fell, 7-6, in the 2016 title game to Warren DeLaSalle. “To get one for coach T, it means so much to this community. Even when we were 8 or 9 years old, we had a goal and that was to get a state title at the high school level.
“We came up short last year, and that crushed us. We kept our composure (this year) and I think it helped having had so many guys who played in the state title game (last year).”
Kiyabu, who relieved Weidmayer, picked up the victory. Zmich worked the final two innings for the save, entering with two on and none out in the sixth inning and inducing two groundballs, one of which went for a double play.
It was the first Finals appearance for Northville, which got three hits from Aram Shahrigian and two each from Nick Prystash and Alex Garbacik.
“I think ultimately it was the first inning, nerves and jitters, and the double plays we hit into,” Northville coach Mike Kostrzewa said. “We had 10 hits and two runs; that’s not going to happen very often. Credit them for making the plays. We had squandered opportunities, and really a bad first inning.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Saline celebrates its first MHSAA baseball championship Saturday at McLane Stadium. (Middle) The Hornets score one of their five runs.
In 'Turn & Burn,' Kent III Gives Voice Again to Father's Life Lessons, Coaching Wisdom
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 29, 2025
As his son, his player and during their time coaching together, Warren Kent III was front row for the words of wisdom often shared by his father Warren Kent Jr., who coached a multitude of sports at seven schools over more than three decades.
But as the years have rolled on after his father’s death in 2017, Kent III began to realize something most disheartening – he’d forgotten the sound of his dad’s voice.
In an attempt to regain that memory, Kent III has given us all an opportunity to listen.
His book – “Turn & Burn” – is the story of a son growing to love baseball under the tutelage of his father, a teacher and coach of the local varsity. The seeds for that love of the game are planted during the summer of 1984 – coinciding with the Detroit Tigers’ most recent World Series championship season.
Technically, the story is fiction. But it’s set in Fulton Township, which lies just west of US-127 between St. Johns and Ithaca, where Kent Jr. was indeed a coach and Kent III grew up and attended Fulton High School. And all of the information on the Tigers’ historic run that season – including game-by-game synopses of all 162 plus eight in the playoffs – is true as well and easily will connect with fans who, like Kent III, grew up during that unforgettable summer.
“That was my thing. I wanted people to get the feelings I had with the ’84 Tigers and sharing that with my dad as I was growing up,” he said. “My outlet is writing, so this is really a catharsis, just to get this out there, to let other people know the love of the Tigers but more the love of my father and things we went through together.”
Kent III was five months old when the Tigers won their 1968 World Series championship, but 16 in 1984. He said his book is about 70 percent factual, but even the imagined is rooted in reality.
The main character in “Turn & Burn” – EJ – is 12 years old because that seemed a more reasonable age to fall in love with the sport, and by 16 Kent III was well into his baseball fandom. The father in the book is a teacher and coach. Kent Jr. was a special education teacher for more than four decades and his son’s baseball coach at Fulton High School but just for freshman year before moving into the stands for the remainder of Kent III’s four-year varsity career.
Kent III began coaching baseball himself when he was 18 and served as North Muskegon’s varsity coach for 15 years, including 11 with Kent Jr. as his assistant. At one point in “Turn & Burn” players write EJ’s dad’s initials on their hands because he had been hospitalized after a heart attack; North Muskegon players did the same when Kent Jr. had a heart attack prior to a Pre-District game in 2005.
“Some of it’s been changed. Some of it’s been realistic,” Kent III said. “(But the dad) is definitely my dad’s voice.
“I put him in charge of the outfielders at North Muskegon, and that was his one motto – ‘Turn and burn.’ The kids could probably tell you that over and over, (that’s) the one thing Coach Kent would always say.”
A source of many of the fatherly pearls of wisdom found in “Turn & Burn” came from a journal-style “father’s legacy” book Kent III had purchased for his dad years before and asked him to fill out. Kent Jr. passed those on not only to his children but during a coaching run that took him to Hudsonville, Ashley, Fulton, Vestaburg, Blanchard Montabella and Greenville, where notably he led the football program to its first playoff appearance in 2000.
Writing has long been a love for Kent III, who taught English and journalism for 32 years – and served as a yearbook advisor for three decades – while at Battle Creek Central and then the final 27 years at Muskegon Mona Shores. Prior to becoming a teacher, Kent III was “Journalist of the Year” at Ferris State while sports editor of the student newspaper and then moved on to study and serve as sports editor of the paper at Michigan State.
He has written for the Big Rapids Pioneer, Lansing State Journal and Battle Creek Enquirer, among others over the years, and after retiring from teaching at Mona Shores this spring took a position with Walsworth Yearbooks helping schools all over the state with their yearbook programs.
Kent III also is in his 34th year as an MHSAA registered official. He wrote a piece once for Referee Magazine about his experience officiating the 2011 Class D Girls Basketball Final at Breslin Center, home of his beloved Spartans. He’s more recently officiated Basketball Semifinals at Breslin during the 2023 and 2024 seasons and has returned to the baseball diamond as an umpire as well after umping baseball and softball earlier in his career.
Writing a book came to Kent III during the COVID-19 pandemic, as he like many searched for something to occupy spare time. “Turn & Burn” is available exclusively via Amazon; click for details.
The venture was never about making money, but he’s sold 152 books – well above his goal of 100. And while Kent III still has not come across any recordings or voicemails of his father’s voice, “Turn & Burn” has given him a chance to hear Kent Jr.’s words once again.
“The sound, no. But the things and the ways he would say them, yes,” Kent III said. “Everybody else says they can picture his voice. I think it’s because, I’m assuming being his son, my voice probably sounds familiar to his to other people, but I can hear the things he’s saying. And in that book, the way he’s saying them.”
2025 Made In Michigan
Aug. 5: After Answering Call, MCC's Caughey Finds Football Lessons Pay Off in Priesthood - Report
July 31: After Enjoying Pro Golf Stardom, Flynn Relishing Roles as Instructor, Sports Mom - Report
July 29: Marckel Supplies Marketing Magic to Hunter's Heisman-Winning Campaign - Report
July 28: Union City to Omaha: Skirka Takes Murray State Baseball to 1st College World Series - Report
July 22: TC West's Wheelock Still 'Living My Dreams' as CMU Assistant Soccer Coach - Report
July 17: Stevenson's Travels Following Lake Orion Success Include Space Force, Penn, NYC - Report
July 15: 'Who Will Cheer for the Nimrods?' Peterson IV, Watersmeet Found Fans Worldwide - Report
July 10: Feeding 'Drive to Win,' Loy Norrix Grad Morgan Impresses with Strong USBC Showing - Report
July 9: After Blazing Multiple Volleyball Trails, Bastianelli Charting Next Career Path - Report
PHOTOS (Top) At left, Warren Kent III sits in the front row of a team photo as manager for dad Warren Kent Jr.'s 1979 Fulton baseball team; Kent Jr. is sitting far left of second row from bottom. At right, Kent III today. (Middle) "Turn & Burn" is Kent III's first published book. (Below) The Kents anchor a photo with North Muskegon players and their District championship trophy in 2009. (Photos provided by Warren Kent III.)