Baseball roundup: Gaylord finishes undefeated week, St. Mary's Nowicki gets win No. 300

GAYLORD ― Does it feel like baseball season yet?

For us living in Northern Michigan, we are used to waiting well into April for weather even close to being considered warm and, as a result, we are also used to a litany of canceled baseball games. This year, however, temperatures have been soaring into the eighties throughout the first half of the month, giving the area prep sports teams a week of nice weather to knock out the early portions of their schedules.

And, as the busy week wound down on Saturday, the area baseball teams walked away with quite a few positives to hang their hats on.

Gaylord, St. Mary's and Johannesburg-Lewiston all had successful weeks, with GHS finding success in its first weekend tournament, GSM helping its head coach reach an impressive milestone and JoBurg picking up some key victories in its first action.

Here is how area teams wrapped up the week:

Gaylord sweeps Shepherd, wins two at St. Johns Invite

The Gaylord boys were back in action in the second half of the week after their sweep of Rudyard, hosting a doubleheader with Shepherd on Thursday, April 13 before traveling south for another two games at the St. John's Invite on Saturday, April 15.

And, after four games in three days, things turned out as well as any Blue Devil could've asked for, with Gaylord sweeping the Shepherd doubleheader before winning both games on Saturday, finishing the week on a six-game winning streak.

The Blue Devils have made it a habit to get their offense going early, and the games with Shepherd were a great example of that as they jumped all over the Blue Jays in the first inning of game one, eventually finishing off a 6-5 win, while piling up double-digit runs in four innings for a 19-3 victory in game two.

Torino Lamerato and Louden Stradling both stood out from the plate all day, playing major factors in the 25 Gaylord runs scored between the two games. Stradling had five hits including two doubles, six runs scored and five runs batted in between the two games, while Lamerato had three hits, four runs scored and an RBI.

In game two, Luke Enders had two hits, two runs scored and two RBI, while Aidan Locker tallied three in three at-bats with three runs scored and three RBI.

The Blue Devils rode that momentum into the weekend and delivered at the plate yet again, scoring seven runs against Harper Creek and 21 against Grayling for a 2-0 finish at the St. John's Invitational on Saturday.

Torino Lamerato led the way in the game one victory over the Haper Creek Beavers, tallying two hits with two RBI and a run scored. Enders, Stradling, Locker, Will Stephenson, Isaac Hopp and Will Bethuy all had hits as well, with Enders and Hopp doubling and Stephenson tripling in the Blue Devils' 7-3 victory.

Game two was a dominant effort, with six Gaylord players putting up multi-hit performances in a 21-6, four-inning victory over the Grayling Vikings.

Stephenson tallied three hits along with four RBI, while Hopp had three hits including two doubles, three RBI and three runs scored. Lamerato (2-4, two RBI), Stradling (3-3, one RBI) and Enders (2-3, three RBI) doubled in the game as well.

That wrapped up an undefeated week for the Blue Devils, outscoring opponents 81-31 over what is now a six-game winning streak. Their record sits at 7-3 overall in the early part of the season.

St. Mary's captures milestone victory for coach

While Gaylord's season had been off and running the previous week, the other two area teams got their seasons started this past week as the St. Mary's Snowbirds kicked their 2023 campaign with back-to-back doubleheaders on Friday, April 14 and Saturday, April 16, hosting Harbor Light Christian before traveling to McBain.

The Snowbirds have been among the most successful baseball teams in the Ski Valley in recent years, and, while still early in the season, they are already picking up milestones with key victories as head coach Matt Nowicki picked up his 300th career win as St. Mary's head coach during back-to-back sweeps to start the season 4-0.

The Snowbirds put up 22 runs in the two games with Harbor Light Christian, winning a close game one 6-0 before cruising to a 16-1, four-inning victory in game two. Donovan Blust and Brett Koscielniak led the way in game one, tallying two hits apiece with a double and an RBI each, while Blust added another three hits and three RBI in game two.

Dillon Croff got the win on the mound in game one, pitching six shutout innings with eight strikeouts while providing three hits and four RBI with a double in game two.

The offense was clicking again on Saturday, tallying another 37 runs in two games with McBain en route to two more victories.

Gavin Bebble was the standout in the 22-1 victory in game one, tallying three hits and five runs scored from the plate while earning the win on the mound with one earned run and six strikeouts in four innings pitched. Croff (2-4, two RBI) and Blust (2-5, three RBI) were standouts again, while Brody Jeffers (1-3, three RBI) had his hand in the victory.

Game two was a bit closer, but the Snowbirds' offense came out on top again in a 15-10 GSM victory to complete another sweep. Blust had another three-hit performance with another three RBI, while Croff (2-4, three RBI), Jeffers (2-3, one RBI), Koscielniak (2-4, four RBI) and Daniel Jacobson (2-4, three RBI) all had two-hit games.

The Snowbirds start their season 4-0 overall, starting off a season with high expectations on strong footing.

JoBurg scores 24 runs in two games, sweeps Lake City

JoBurg got their season started with a doubleheader with Lake City on Friday, April 14, and they stuck with the theme of the week; high temperatures along with high-scoring affairs, putting together a 10-0 victory in game one and 14-2 victory in game two to start the season 2-0.

Riley McVannel led the Cardinals in the game-one victory, tallying two hits, two RBI and two runs scored while picking up the win on the mound, allowing no runs and just one hit in 4.2 innings of work, striking out eight.

McVannel had another two hits, two RBI and two runs scored in game two, adding a double to his totals. Eli Lindbert got the win on the mound, allowing two runs and striking out seven in 3.2 innings of work.

Rylan Rosso doubled in each game as well, adding an RBI in game one and two runs scored in game two.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Baseball roundup: Gaylord finishes undefeated week, St. Mary's Nowicki gets win No. 300