Howell Puts Heart Into Memorial Meet

NOVI — Ironically, what’s likely to go down as one of the most accomplished baseball careers in Novi High School history began during football season.

During a fall ball session back in 2021, Novi baseball coach Rick Green was summoned to watch a bullpen session of then-freshman left-hander Uli Fernsler, a player he and others on the coaching staff figured was pegged for a spot on the junior varsity roster. 

“My pitching coach at the time said to ‘come down to the bullpen, you need to see this kid,’” Green said. “He was just so poised when he threw, especially with me there. He didn’t throw hard at the time, but he had good location.”

Come the following spring, Fernsler added some velocity and couldn’t be left off the varsity team. Since then, the Novi community has come to find out why he’ll soon graduate as one of the school’s all-time athletic greats. 

So far this year, Fernsler has 55 strikeouts, four walks and just two earned runs allowed. It’s no wonder pro scouts have flocked to his starts, with Hometown Life reporting more than 20 showed up to watch him pitch against Canton in March. 

Signed to play collegiately for Texas Christian, Fernsler has a shot to establish Novi school records for strikeouts and earned-run average depending on how the rest of the season unfolds.

However, his biggest claim to fame is that he was the winning pitcher for the Wildcats in both the 2023 Division 1 championship game and also Novi’s Semifinal win at McLane Stadium, something that has become rare since pitch-count limits were instituted in 2017.

In an 8-3 championship game win over Woodhaven, Fernsler tossed a complete game, striking out eight, walking none and allowing two earned runs. 

However, his under-the-radar performance in the Semifinal was arguably more important. 

In that game, Novi tied Mattawan 1-1 with two outs in the top of the seventh on an RBI single, and then starter Andrew Abler pitched a scoreless seventh to force extra innings. 

From there Fernsler took over, pitching three scoreless innings of relief under immense pressure. Novi didn’t score in the eighth and ninth innings, so Fernsler couldn’t afford to even let in one run or else the Wildcats’ dream would be over. 

Fernsler held firm, and then after being staked to a three-run lead in the top of the 10th, shut the door in the bottom half to preserve a 4-1 Novi win. He allowed just one hit over his three innings of relief, and more importantly, did so efficiently enough to stay under the 49-pitch limit that would’ve prevented him from taking the mound in the championship game.

Fernsler recalls warming up in the bullpen with Novi still down 1-0, thinking that all he wanted was a chance to pitch on a college mound at Michigan State. 

“I was just really hoping we would score a run, which we did,” he said. “There was definitely some nerves. But it wasn’t too bad. I had some confidence I could do what I was able to do.”

All in all, Fernsler allowed just nine hits, two earned runs and struck out 10 in 10 innings of work on the state’s biggest stage as a sophomore. 

He also had an excellent junior year, but Novi’s hopes of repeating were derailed in a 3-1 loss to rival and eventual Division 1 champion Northville in a District Final. 

He’s been dazzling so far as a senior, helped by a new pitch Green recommended he try after last season to complement his fastball, slider and changeup. 

“I told him to try and throw a curveball to get another pitch to get hitters off-balance in addition to the changeup,” Green said. “We worked on it all summer, and he’s really done a nice job with it this year.”

Fernsler said coaches at TCU have come to see him throw a couple of times this season, but haven’t really offered advice or instructions and have pretty much let him do his thing.

Eventually, Fernsler hopes further doing his thing will result in leading Novi to another appearance at Michigan State for another Finals weekend, although the 2023 run is not familiar to the majority of Novi’s current roster.

“It’s kind of a new team,” Fernsler said. “I don’t think we are carrying momentum from that. We are just trying to figure out what we can do to get back.”

Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Novi pitcher Uli Fernsler makes his move toward the plate this season. (Middle) Fernsler follows through on a pitch during the 2023 Division 1 Final. (Top photo courtesy of the Novi athletic department.)