Beginning Another Tourney Journey
August 8, 2016
Below is the introductory commentary to the MHSAA's spring issue of benchmarks. Histories of MHSAA tournaments published in that issue have been appearing on Second Half every Tuesday and Friday.
By Jack Roberts
MHSAA Executive Director
Concussions and cutbacks. Participation fees and part-time employment. Student safety and specialization. International students and interstate travel. Transfers and trials.
Through a myriad of issues which periodically cloud our mission, the foundation on which the MHSAA was built still shines brightest three times each year: Tournament Time!
It can be daunting and overwhelming to make a living at this business of interscholastic athletics these days, not to mention a tad confusing. Do we need legal degrees? Medical degrees? Business degrees? Marketing degrees? There seems to be no escape from threat of legislative mandates which continually change the landscape of our product and how it’s delivered. Demands pile up, resources dwindle.
Add the daily challenges of scheduling issues, inclement weather and pleasing teenagers and their parents on a daily basis, and it’s easy to lose focus of the primary missions for the MHSAA and its member schools.
And then, scenes like this happen:
• Holly Bullough, a senior cross country runner from Traverse City St. Francis takes her second straight Division 3 championship, winning by 36.4 seconds ... with a stress fracture in her left foot.
• Detroit Martin Luther King QB Armani Posey directs a game-winning drive to give his school the Division 2 football championship ... a drive which started on his own 3-yard line with 37 seconds left and ended with a 40-yard heave to receiver Donnie Corley on the final play of the game.
• Leland sweeps the Class D volleyball title match 3-0 over Battle Creek St. Philip ... ending a string of nine straight titles for St. Phil, the 10th longest national streak in history.
• Davison’s Taylor Davis becomes only the fourth person in MHSAA Girls Bowling history to roll a 300 game in the Singles portion of the tournament ... and the first ever in the championship match.
• The Upper Peninsula’s Hancock HS wins the Division 3 ice hockey title in its first trip to the Final since 2000 ... a trip funded in part from a “Go Fund Me” web page that raised $6,620 from 99 donors in two days.
• Junior Kierra Fletcher of Warren Cousino carries her team to the Class A girls basketball championship with 27 points in the Final ... after scoring 37 of her team’s 60 points in the Semifinals and totaling 198 during eight tournament games.
That’s just a sampling of the magic from last fall and winter.
These moments shine through the current challenges and the unseen future that awaits us as they always have. The uniforms and faces are different, but the tournaments have always yielded the fruits of our labors, and the memories for our mental scrapbooks.
PHOTO: Leland's volleyball team hoists its Class D championship trophy last fall at Kellogg Arena.
Bridgman Finishes 'Miracle' Title Pursuit with 1st Championship since 1987
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 17, 2023
EAST LANSING - There’s exceeding a coach’s expectations, and then there is exceeding the expectations Bridgman head coach Justin Hahaj had for his team when the 2023 season started.
“I went through the schedule and thought we’d be a .500 baseball team,” Hahaj said.
Bridgman ended up being 24 games – and a Division 3 championship – better than that.
The Bees ended up 33-9, with the last win a 7-1 victory over No. 1-ranked Algonac in the Final on Saturday at Michigan State University’s McLane Stadium.
The title was Bridgman baseball’s first since 1987.
“This is a miracle what happened with this group,” Hahaj said. “It’s just a testament to what happens when people play for each other.”
It was the second time Hahaj had coached Bridgman in Final, with the first in 2013 when the Bees lost to Madison Heights Bishop Foley.
Bridgman hadn’t been beyond the District round of the MHSAA Tournament since, with hurdles such as 2022 Division 3 champion Buchanan and Niles Brandywine always standing in the way during the opening week.
In a District Final this year, Bridgman used an incredible comeback against Niles Brandywine to get past that barrier. The Bees rallied from a 9-1 deficit to beat Brandywine in 10 innings, 10-9.
Bridgman then recorded one-run wins in a Regional Final (4-3 over Grass Lake), Quarterfinal (4-3 over Ottawa Lake Whiteford in nine innings) and Semifinal (3-2 over Standish-Sterling) to earn a shot at Algonac.
“The team that comes out of that District — because we play such good baseball against each other — is just primed and ready for tournament runs,” Hahaj said.
Bridgman completed its long tournament run thanks to the pitching of sophomore Charlie Pagel. By no means a hard thrower, Pagel confounded Algonac with guile and an assortment of breaking pitches, tossing a 3-hitter.
He struck out five and walked one.
“I don’t throw very fast, so I just wanted to keep them off-balance with the off-speed and that was about it,” Pagel said.
Making its first appearance in a Final, Algonac finished 38-4.
In addition to not being able to figure out Pagel, defensive miscues also proved costly for the Muskrats.
“You know every pitcher is going to be a strike thrower when you get to this situation,” Algonac head coach Scott Thaler said of Pagel. “I thought he did a nice job of getting strike one over. His curveball was working, so he was able to get some groundballs. We didn’t really do a good job of adjusting to those curveballs and off-speed pitches.”
Bridgman opened the scoring with three runs in the bottom of the third inning, taking a 1-0 lead after loading the bases with one out.
An infield popup eluded Algonac and landed fair, and while the batter was out due to the infield fly rule, a run was able to score. Senior Riley Gloe then singled up the middle to score two runs, one of which was earned and another unearned following an Algonac throwing error. Senior Nolan Roberts then blooped a double down the right-field line to score a run and make it 4-0 Bees.
Bridgman added two runs in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Roberts and a fielder’s choice.
Algonac finally broke through in its half of the sixth, cutting Bridgman’s lead to 6-1 on an RBI single by junior Evan Sadler. But Bridgman got that run back in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double by Pagel to make it 7-1.
Pagel, Gloe, Roberts and junior Alec MacMartin each had two hits to lead the 10-hit attack for Bridgman.
PHOTOS (Top) Bridgman scores one of its seven runs during Saturday’s Division 3 championship game. (Middle) Nolan Roberts (2) and a teammate celebrate. (Below) Bridgman’s Charlie Pagel delivers a pitch. (Photos by John Castine/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)