Paying Tribute with Diamond Donation
May 14, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Rochester Adams and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood baseball players and coaches both had loved ones on their minds when they took the field at Comerica Park earlier this month.
And they paid tribute to those loved ones over their hearts and across the backs of their jerseys.
Together, the teams raised more than $3,500 for the Coaches vs. Cancer research initiative.
Instead of its usual brown and yellow, Adams wore jerseys of light blue with a green ribbon as the middle “A” in its name across the front in honor of those suffering with lymphoma, including 2011 graduate and former standout Matt Williams.
Cranbrook-Kingswood wore dark blue jerseys with a pink ribbon as the “A” in Cranbrook and with lime green writing on the back as the Cranes remembered longtime coach Jack Sanders, who died in 2012 after also battling lymphoma.
Sanders’ was among names adorning the backs of jerseys, along with other cancer victims the players and coaches knew.
Adams won the May 1 game, 18-3. Click to read more from the Oakland Press’ Keith Dunlap, who leading up to the game detailed both Williams’ fight and Sanders’ longtime contributions.
Net finder
Lake Fenton’s Jordan Newman will finish her high school soccer career later this spring as the top goal-scorer in MHSAA girls soccer history.
The Blue Devils’ senior forward broke the career record on April 28, scoring her 169th goal against Perry to pass the mark set by Newaygo’s Jaleen Dingledine from 2004-07. Newman also is a four-year varsity player.
Click to read more on her record run from the Flint Journal's Eric Woodyard.
5 K, 1 IP
The MHSAA doesn't keep a record for most strikeouts in an inning. But if it did, there’s a great chance Brighton’s Garrett Russell would top the list.
Against Ann Arbor Pioneer on April 5, Russell struck out five batters in an inning.
Yes, five.
Here’s how:
Russell struck out the first two batters of the inning swinging, leaving one out to get. He then struck out that third batter as well, but that batter reached first base because the third strike turned into a wild pitch.
The fourth batter of the inning was the only one to not strike out – he walked, putting runners on first and second base with two outs. Those runners advanced to second and third base, respectively, on a wild pitch thrown to the fifth batter of the inning.
That fifth batter then struck out swinging (which made it four strikeouts in the inning), but that third strike turned into a passed ball – and that batter ended up on first base, loading them for the sixth hitter of the inning.
But Russell found enough for one more K, striking out that sixth hitter swinging on a 2-2 pitch.
His line for the inning: 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 bases on balls, 5 strikeouts.
Brighton went on to sweep the doubleheader 12-4 and 11-1.
Family ties
Basketball clearly runs in a pair of families who have come through Corunna High School.
This winter, brothers M.J. and Mikhail Myles both scored their 1,000th career points – M.J., a senior, on Jan. 3 and Mikhail, a junior, in the team’s District Semifinal on March 5.
On Feb. 18, senior Payton Birchmeier became the fifth player in girls program history to score her 1,000th point – despite scoring only four points as a freshman before suffering a season-ending knee injury in her first high school game. She became the first Corunna girl to score 1,000 since her sister Megan finished accomplishing the feat in 2010.
Payton Birchmeier went on to play her final three seasons also on varsity, and M.J. Myles also was a four-year varsity player. Mykhail Myles has played three on varsity with next season still to play. The Myles' stepsister Klarissa Bell this winter finished an outstanding career at Michigan State University and won the Miss Basketball Award as a senior at East Lansing High School in 2010, and stepbrother Devlin Bell also was a Trojans standout.
PHOTOS: (Top) Rochester Adams players congratulate each other during their May 1 game at Comerica Park. (Middle) The Adams' first baseman and a Cranbrook-Kingswood base runner await the next pitch. (Photos courtesy of Rochester Adams baseball.)
'Battle-Tested' Frankenmuth Sweeps Match Play to Clinch 1st Finals Title
By
Jeff Bleiler
Special for MHSAA.com
March 1, 2024
JACKSON – Ron Krueger is old school, so the Frankenmuth High School boys bowling team decided to throw it back to the 1980s.
It worked to perfection as the Eagles pounded the pins at Jax 60 in Jackson on Friday with urethane balls — made popular decades ago and experiencing a resurgence during the past few years — to win the Division 3 championship, the program's first Finals title.
Frankenmuth polished off a perfect day in the match play portion of the Final with a dominating performance over Milan, sweeping the best-of-five Baker match 221-126, 196-154 and 199-156.
“We got a little niche (with urethane), and it worked out really well,” Krueger said. I knew that if we could get in the top eight, with the new format being head-to-head best of five, we were tested throughout the year with Bakers.
“We’ve bowled a lot of tough tournaments and faced a lot of tough teams. And I knew we could compete against the top ones here today.”
The Eagles qualified fifth after eight Baker games and two regular games with 3,393 pins and dispatched Portland in the Quarterfinals with games of 154, 214 and 216. They topped top seed Gladwin in the Semifinals shooting 201, 134 and 201.
In the Final, they opened the first game with five of seven strikes while Milan struggled through seven opens over the first nine frames. About the only thing that could stop the Eagles was the gutter — which came into play at an inauspicious time during the second game. The team had a spare and four strikes in a row before throwing gutters on three of the next four shots.
That could have derailed a lesser team, but Frankenmuth responded with a double to win the second game comfortably.
“That’ll put a little stress on you, but again, that’s what this team is made of,” Krueger said. “The guy that came up behind steps up and throws a strike and we mark behind that and away we go.”
Frankenmuth made up for some of the disappointment from last year’s postseason when the Eagles missed qualifying for the Finals by 11 pins. Krueger said the team responded by returning to the lanes the next week and training the entire summer, showing resolve and commitment.
“I didn’t think from the beginning of the season we’d go on to actually qualify for the state championship,” said senior Mayson Knop, who last weekend won the singles competition at his Regional. “But we just kept qualifying first in tournaments over and over, and it was like, ‘Wow, we actually have a shot at this thing.’ And then absolutely popping off during match play, it’s an unbelievable feeling. There’s no words to even describe it.”
Knop will join junior teammates Miles Paetz and Liam Liddle at the Singles Final on Saturday, a week after they swept the top three Regional positions, and Krueger has a good feeling about how they will fare.
“All have a really good shot,” Krueger said. “They all threw a lot of balls today so they should feel real comfortable going into tomorrow. I think they’re prepared. All you want to do is make that cut.
“Once you get into the cut, the pressure is on and our guys are battle-tested.”
Milan qualified sixth with 3,358 and beat Blissfield in three straight, then advanced to the Final with a 3-1 victory over Midland Bullock Creek.