Clinton, Britton Deerfield win first baseball regional titles since 2014

ADRIAN –– On a near perfect early summer afternoon at Nicolay Field, Clinton baseball picked up its first Division 3 regional title since 2014 by besting Hudson, 7-0, before falling in the state quarterfinals to Buchanan, 9-0.

“We’ve got two mittens: we got a district title and we got a regional title,” said Clinton head coach Joe Gillies. “This was a hugely successful year (and) great building block.”

In the first regional final of the day, Onsted’s dream season came to an abrupt end with a 10-0 mercy loss to Buchanan in five innings.

The Wildcats (30-5) struggled from the get-go, giving up three runs in the first and four in the second. Down 7-0 through two, the Bucks leaned on Matthew Hoover (two innings, no hits, no runs, three strikeouts) and Drew Glavin’s (three innings, one hit, no runs, four strikeouts) dominant performances on the mound to advance to the state quarterfinals.

Quinn Hiram quietly managed the Wildcats’ lone hit of the day, a one-out double in the bottom of the fifth to prevent the combined perfect game.

Losing seven seniors to graduation, the Wildcats promise to be one of the younger teams in the LCAA following up their best season in program history. Onsted head coach Matt Randall took solace in the valuable experience his underclassmen gained this season despite the gutting finish and tearful goodbye.

“The future is very bright and the seniors definitely showed these underclassmen exactly what it takes to get better during the season and in the offseason,” he said. “We’re gonna continue to do that.

“Onsted baseball is here to stay.”

In the second regional final of the day, Clinton took the rubbermatch with rival Hudson after the two split in the regular season doubleheader.

After starters Derek Tomalak and Anthony Arredondo pitched four scoreless innings, the Redwolves batted through for seven runs off six hits, a walk and an error with two outs in the fifth.

Ben Kennedy kicked the scoring off with an RBI triple to get Clinton on the board. Then, Ryan Tschirhart drove in Kennedy with a single to left center.

As Arredondo’s command continued to slip, he proceeded to hit Derek Tomalak with a pitch and was subsequently replaced by Ambrose Horwath in relief. Jalen Stelzer drove in both base runners with a long 2-run double landing squarely in the right field corner.

The hits kept coming. Nik Shadley picked up an RBI single of his own to score Stelzer, Kaden Settles reached on a dropped third strike and Kyle Wenk singled as Shadley advanced on an error by the shortstop.

After Sam Brown drove in Settles with a double to center field, the Redwolves held a 7-0 lead Hudson (31-9) wouldn’t crack into.

“Credit to Clinton, they just kept hitting the baseball,” said Hudson head coach Jeremy Beal. “For us, we just had to get a hit early on there when we had opportunities. We just didn’t.”

Tomalak (seven innings, six hits, no runs, six strikeouts) held on for the final two innings and picked up the complete game win in his first start since he suffered an injury in late April.

“I was just trying to get the ball in the strike zone,” he said. “If we were going to lose, they were going to beat me by hitting the ball. I was just trying to put it in the strike zone as much as I could and let my defense work.”

Stelzer led the Redwolves’ offense once again, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and one run scored.

Arredondo, Bronson Marry, Payton Rogers, Blake Tremaine, Kannon Marry and Jackson Miller each managed a hit for the Tigers.

In the state quarterfinal between Buchanan and Clinton, the Bucks jumped on Tschirhart almost immediately as Hoover drove in Glavin with a double to deep left field to give Buchanan the early 1-0 lead.

Buchanan tacked on a run in the third and four in the fourth before Macoy West smacked an RBI triple to right center field to highlight a three run sixth inning that made it 9-0.

The Redwolves were unable to find the offensive firepower that’s defined their playoff run, with Kennedy’s single in the third marking their only hit through five innings. Shadley and Brown each added a hit apiece.

Risking a mercy late into the game, Andy Fair (one inning pitched, two hits, 0 runs, two strikeouts) held the Bucks off in a 9-0 loss to end a season to remember for the Redwolves.

“Win a state championship or lose early, I feel like we’re always gonna be happy with what we did,” Tomalak said. “The people around me made it fun to (the point) where we wouldn’t go home sad and we would have a good time, even if we lost.”

Britton Deerfield at Division 4 Regional: At Kalamazoo, a remarkable state tournament run came to a halt Britton Deerfield, but not before the Patriots captured a second trophy of the season.

The Patriots came from behind to beat Gobles, 6-4, to win the Division 4 regional title, but lost 11-5 to Whitmore Lake in the quarterfinal later in the day. The loss ended BD’s state tournament run, but showed how far the team had come from a 1-11 start.

"I'm very happy for the kids," BD head coach Andy Clark said. "I think maybe they don't really understand where we are at right now - and that's a good thing. They played with a lot of confidence."

BD fell behind 2-0 after Gobles put up one run in each of the first two innings but tied the game in the bottom of the second, took a lead, lost the lead, then scratched out a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth with some timely hits and a Tiger error.

Nico Johnson started and pitched 3 2/3 innings. Mason Mueller, who got the win, pitched the rest of the game.

"He pitched a great game," Clark said. "We felt like Mason would be able to come in and close it out."

Johnson ended it with a diving catch in shallow left field from his shortstop position.

Noah McRobert and Hunter Wynn each had two hits for BD. McRobert had two RBIs.

With the game knotted at 4-4, Karl Wielfaert singled to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Jessie Null moved pinch runner Brayden Shiels to second on a bunt. With two outs, Mueller hit a ground ball that Gobles couldn't come up with, scoring Shiels. Mueller went to third on the throw, then McRobert was safe on an infield single, scoring Mueller for a 6-4 lead.

"The bottom half of our lineup was really hitting the ball well and everyone was making contact," Clark said. "We didn't strikeout a lot (three times). We put the ball in play."

McRobert, the BD catcher, made an outstanding diving catch of a foul ball behind the plate to end the sixth inning for Gobles.

"That was huge for us," Clark said.

In the quarterfinal game, the Patriots jumped out early to a 4-0 lead but couldn’t hold it. Whitmore Lake scored five times in the second inning and four in the third to build an insurmountable lead. BD used five pitchers in the game.

Gavin Schroen and Wynn had doubles in the quarterfinal game. McRobert had three hits while Mueller, Johnson and Schroen each had two hits. Whitmore Lake’s pitchers combined for five strikeouts.

BD ends the season 15-15 with the second regional championship in school history and first since 2014.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Clinton, Britton Deerfield each claimed MHSAA regional baseball titles