Foul call needs plenty of review: Sandy Koufax League spat gets uglier than needed

A column of mine that recently ran in the HDN and garnered several strong reactions.

There were three undefeated teams, two district bids available, and only one man to make the decision.

When you factor in the presence of parents and coaches of 13- and 14-year old baseball players and understand that a volunteer of a local rec league had few blueprints or rules to guide him through the decision-making process, you can understand how things could get messy.

Aaron Blair and Kevin Butters, a pair of baseball coaches for the undefeated Homer team in Hillsdale's Sandy Koufax League, have gone public with their cry of injustice — a cry that revolves around their opinion they were snubbed from postseason play without due cause.

They cannot fathom that their group of boys was passed over for two other teams with spotless records, without so much as a phone call or chance to state their case.

And they certainly don't understand why there is no "forfeit rule," when a team no-shows because they can't field a full squad. Instead of being held responsible and taking a loss, the team that cancels is off the hook as if the game was never set to happen.

Blair and Butters' team was ready to take on the Hillsdale and Jonesville boys, but struck out looking when both teams cancelled the scheduled contests.

Interestingly enough though, Jonesville and Hillsdale had plenty of guys in gear for July 8 when they happily accepted their district invites, without once having to take the field against Homer.

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Humbled Hornets: One bad inning costs Hillsdale in heartbreaker

[caption id="attachment_729" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Senior Tyler Vandeberghe and head coach Chris Adams share a moment following Hillsdale's season-ending loss.It is doubtful Chris Adams knew just how fortuitous his words from earlier this week would be in the regional semifinals at Clinton Saturday."][/caption]

It is doubtful Chris Adams knew just how fortuitous his words from earlier this week would be in the regional semifinals at Clinton Saturday.

“I think the team that’s going to come out of our region is the team with the best pitching and the team that makes the fewest mistakes — maybe not the fewest errors, but the fewest mistakes,” the Hillsdale baseball coach said in an interview on Thursday.

For six innings Saturday, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard made a few more mistakes and Hillsdale had a decided advantage in the pitching department.

The Hornets (23-10) built a 4-2 lead and needed just three more outs to advance to the regional finals to help alleviate some of the pain from a 2008 regional semifinals loss.

But two errors, a hit batter and three straight run-scoring hits for the Fighting Irish brought Gabriel Richard fans to their feet and sent the Hornets into an emotional tail-spin at the most inopportune time, ultimately sending them home on the wrong side of a 7-4 final score.

[caption id="attachment_730" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Senior Mitchell Gabriele and head coach Chris Adams mull Saturday's loss in the dugout following the game."][/caption]

“It’s quite possible that we were the better team, and we told the kids that today just wasn’t our day. Unfortunately our mistakes came late and were tougher to overcome,” Adams said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow. The (seniors) are never going to play high school baseball again. I get to come back and coach next year — they don’t, they don’t get a second chance.”

After Hillsdale scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth to break a 2-all tie, on bases-loaded walks to Brad Jenkins and Scott Lantis, Dillon Dirth returned to the mound one final time after allowing just four hits and two runs in the first six innings.

But right away, the Fighting Irish’s nine-hitter Justin Goike got on base thanks to an infield error, Dirth hit Dennis Ostrowski and a wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third.

Nonetheless, Adams stuck by his senior ace, who was 9-0 coming into the game.

“He got out of three (similar situations) in this game. Sometimes something bad has to happen for him to really knuckle down and start pitching,” Adams said. “He did a great  job and I really can’t say enough about all of those seniors.”

This time Dirth was not so fortunate.

Nolan Breymaier knocked an RBI single and Conor Dishman drove a pitch to deep right field, where the Hornet fielder lost the ball in the sun and Dishman made it all the way to third base while two runners came home.

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Hornets go all in: Hillsdale will be tested in loaded regional Saturday

[caption id="attachment_709" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Hillsdale junior Darren Wiseley walks to the plate for an at-bat in a league contest earlier this season. Saturday, Wiseley and his teammates will take on Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard in the regional semifinals."][/caption]

If they’re going to end up in the state quarterfinals a week from this afternoon, the Hillsdale High School baseball team will have to plow through some first-rate competition this weekend.

The three teams in their regional have a combined total of 21 losses.

One of the schools, Lumen Christi, has knocked the Hornets football team out of the state playoffs two of the past four years and rallied from four runs down to beat Hillsdale on the diamond earlier this season.

And the host school Clinton, is 32-5, ranked No. 7 in Division 3 and has lost just once in the last four weeks.

Difficult?

Yes.

But impossible?

Certainly not if you ask head coach Chris Adams.

“Rankings don’t mean anything this time of season. You know, you get to regionals, and once in a while a team will get lucky and win a district, but for the most part you’re dealing with, and I’m not just talking record wise...all good teams,” Adams said. “I think the team that’s going to come out of our region is the team with the best pitching and the team that makes the fewest mistakes — maybe not the fewest errors, but the fewest mistakes.”

At least Hillsdale can wait until the finals to face either the Redskins or Titans, but Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard (30-7) will be no breeze in the semis, fresh off their winningest regular season ever and a thrilling district championship win last weekend.

They toppled Manchester 6-5 with a seventh-inning RBI double at Grass Lake to earn a spot in the regional field, after beating Grass Lake 9-0 behind a 10 strikeout no-hitter from Chris Ostrowski in the semis.

Ostrowski is an all-league sophomore who has thrown several no-hitters this year and struck out 10 or more a handful of times.

“He’s a bigger kid and he throws the ball OK velocity wise,” Adams said. “Grass Lake is down this year, so we didn’t get a real good read on what he did. I think he just pretty much stuck with the fastball and was able to dominate.”

On top of that, coach Greg Lenhoff isn’t afraid to use as many pitchers as he needs to win a contest, evident by him using five in Tuesday’s 2-1 win over Notre Dame Prep.

The Fighting Irish have been pretty good at limiting the opposition this season, holding opponents to one or no runs 11 times in 2009.

And at the plate they’re similar to some teams Hillsdale has faced, according to Adams.

“They match-up with us pretty well and they’re kind of like Jonesville in that they’re free swingers who like to swing the bats. We just want to take the same approach we did last weekend pretty much,” Adams said.

Hillsdale will start Dillon Dirth opposite Ostrowski, not surprising considering he is 9-0 with a 1.37 ERA and was the No. 1 pitcher at districts.

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Thanks Reading and Hillsdale

A column that was published in the June 3 edition of the Hillsdale Daily News.

There have been times throughout my career as a fan and even sportswriter, that the enchanting sport of curling was by far the preferred choice over watching a baseball game.

With expensive “golden brooms”, the strategy equivalents of chess on ice and heart-pounding collisions of polished granite stones with victory on the line, there is something simple, yet exhilarating about the Olympic sport.

Contrastingly, I have felt bogged down and worn out from so much baseball the past few years.

Part of it is the number of high school games I’ve gone to that have been 18-3 and another factor are the contests that have a combined total of 26 walks — where it seems like getting on base is just like passing go in Monopoly.

So many of the current generations’ kids seem to play with a “homer or strikeout” mentality and what made baseball such a compelling sport of gamesmanship, thinking and skill when it was our country’s irrefutable pastime, seems to have become diluted by fans complaining about strike zones, whispers of performance-enhancing drugs and a lack of respect for some of the core essentials of what has made the game so great.

Thankfully, the Reading Rangers and Hillsdale Hornets renewed my passion for the ole’ ball game this past week with inspiring efforts of determination and though-provoking tactic.

I remembered what it was like to feel like a kid again, and although I still much prefer curling on a Nintendo Wii to trying to strike out Alex Rodriguez, I am genuinely excited about this weekend’s regional baseball action.

To the Rangers' credit, Rick Bailey’s troops reminded me of how part of baseball’s mystique is how there is always a belief that a game isn’t over until the final out, in essence making each inning like a mini-game within a greater competition.

Every pitcher and hitter bring individual tendencies and talents to the plate and mound, and some guys can’t hit good curves from lefties, but can crush solid fastballs from righties; and even a dominant ace has a pitch-count ceiling where they go from invincible to hittable.

The Rangers’ role in restoring my confidence came from winning a pair of one-run games to win the district championship at Camden-Frontier.

In the semifinals, C-F charged back from a 2-0 deficit in the top of the seventh inning and the Rangers were forced to outlast the Redskins in a memorable 3-2 win in 11 innings.

The difference between the two teams in the hour-long session of extra innings seemed to simply be the confidence they embodied.

Camden-Frontier is a team still learning how to win, fresh off its first SCAA East title in a long time, and they seemed to be playing not to lose, instead of to win. They were hesitant with their swings at the plate and personified a freshman guy going to the junior-senior prom with one of the school’s most popular girls.

And that’s OK, I was the guy sweating on the bench in JV basketball, it’s just an observation I made.

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Hornet Power: Hillsdale baseball wins third straight district title

[caption id="attachment_667" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The Hillsdale Hornets baseball team celebrates its sixth district championship trophy since 2000."][/caption]

Multimedia: Post-game audio interview with Hornets head coach Chris Adams

Hillsdale Hornets head coach Chris Adams has a lot of expectations for his players, but when they meet his crite­ria some of their own expec­tations are then met — like being crowned district champs.


Using some 'small-ball' tactics to rev the engine up and then putting the pedal to the metal in later innings, Hillsdale beat Jonesville 14-1, then took down Concord 11­-1 Saturday, to win the pro­gram's third straight district title and sixth since the turn of the century.


“The game plan is simply to come out and play solid de­fense, hit the ball, get good pitching, go gap-to-gap, we’re going to move runners and run the bases aggressively… we’re going to do things the right way and we were able to do that today and that’s excit­ing," Adams said. “We have a lot of fun with this group of kids, they come to play and we’ve got a lot of baseball kids and some phenomenal ath­letes too. This is always a goal that goes unspoken, and it’s not even a goal, it’s an expec­tation, an expectation to com­pete for a district champi­onship.”


While the usual suspects, senior stars Mitchell Gabriele and Scott Lantis were their usual productive selves Satur­day, guys like Tyler Vande­berghe and Brad Jenkins came through in the clutch on more than one occasion.


Vandeberghe totaled four hits, four RBIs and four runs and drew three walks while getting on base seven out of a possible eight times.


Jenkins got on base seven of nine trips to the plate and scored five runs, drew two walks, was hit by pitches twice and had three hits in­cluding a double.


“Brad has really stepped it up the last week-and-a-half, and that’s something we re­ally needed from him. He’s kind of been languishing there down in the nine spot and we put him up to two be­cause he’s a good bunter, he had a good weekend at the Adrian Invitational last week, and things just worked out for us today," Adams said.


"And Vandeberghe has been stroking it all year, he was actually leading our team in hitting until this weekend when Lantis kind of ex­ploded. Tyler hit .225 last year and he’s at almost .400 this year, and his defense is much improved. What can you say? Good things happen to good kids and they work hard, they bust their tails in practice.”


As Adams put it though, every guy on the roster was responsible for the success, because they came into dis­tricts prepared thanks to the type of competition that takes place in practice.


In the heavily hyped cross­town showdown with Jonesville, the Comets fought valiantly, but ultimately Hor­nets pitcher Dillon Dirth (9-­0) shut them down in a key fifth-inning spot to stomp out a possible rally and invoke his own team even more.


Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth Jonesville put run­ners on second and third with no outs, but Dirth struck out Jared Jordan, and was able to get John Sigler and Jay Bear­den to pop out and ground out to end the threat.


“A couple of bunts there hurt us, but that’s just how baseball goes. The momen­tum went their way and we couldn’t stop them," Jonesville head coach Dale Steward said. “That was a big play and turning point. If we could’ve got a couple of runs and at least made it tight…it’s a lot easier to bat when you’re ahead."

With the pressure on, the Comets went 1-2-3 with two strikeouts the following in­ning and the Hornets took control with a 10-run seventh inning shortly thereafter.


That inning included three walks and five hits, including an exclamation-point grand­slam from Hornet senior Scott Lantis to cap things off. Lantis was 3-for-3 with six RBIs, including two sacrifice flies in the semifinals rout.


To the surprise of many fans, he was not the starting pitcher though, as Adams went with Dirth, who didn't disappoint.


He got himself in several jams and the Comets made solid contact on him through­out the contest, but he ended up going the distance, giving up just one earned run and eight hits, while striking out six and walking three.


Ben Stemen took the loss for Jonesville, giving up 10 runs and 11 hits, while strik­ing out four, but Steward said he would start his senior again if he could do it all over.

It was a tough way to go out for a Jonesville team that went 21-6 in the regular sea­son and won an outright Big 8 championship, but Steward said he told his boys to keep their heads up and remember that next year only four starters will have graduated and "the cupboard will be far from empty."

“We’re still Big 8 champs, you can’t take that away from us…that’s pretty much what I told them," he said. "It was a good season, we went 22-7, good turnaround for Jonesville baseball and it’s a good way for the seniors to leave.”


Casey Clow had the Comets lone RBI, via a double in the first inning and Chase Jacks added two singles and walk in the loss.


The championship game was only 3-0 in favor of the Hornets, before a 6-run fifth inning did all but start the Yellow Jacket's bus for them.

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Hornets on high: Hillsdale crushes Webberville to gain share of SMAA crown

[caption id="attachment_607" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="Hillsdale senior Scott Lantis is greeted by teammates after his first of three home runs Tuesday. Photo courtesy of Nick Sarles / HDN."][/caption]

By Jim Pruitt / Hillsdale Daily News

The Hillsdale Hornets destroyed an out-matched Webberville team Tuesday night to claim a share of the SMAA baseball conference title.

The Hornets celebrated their win by smashing a piece of cake into the face of coach Chris Adams who celebrated his birthday Tuesday as well. This was the school's fourth conference title in five years.

The Hornets swept the Spartans in two mercy-rule shortened affairs, 12-0 and 18-3, to move 13-1 in the conference and 17-7 overall. Hillsdale's lone league loss was to co-champion Western.

“It's good to be co-champs if you are going to share it with a good team like Western,” Adams said. “We had two decent games against them and managed to run the table.”
The title sets the Hornets up for a deep run in the postseason, which Adams said is the program's goal.

“It's a sign of our success,” he said.

As for the Webberville sweep, Adams was happy to be able play everyone. The team responded with a 30-run, 32-hit attack that featured four home runs, and several extra-base hits.

Scott Lantis led the attack with a 6-for-8 day with three home runs and 10 RBIs to pace Hillsdale.  Dillon Dirth had a two-run homer in the first game.

“What a day at the plate,” Adams said of Lantis' effort. “We need him to start hitting the ball.”

Webberville played with only eight men in the first game due academic ineligibility of two players.

Hillsdale opened the first game by sending 10 men to the plate and scoring six times.

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Cardinals take two from Hornets in cross-county clash

[caption id="attachment_532" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Hillsdale senior Scott Lantis tags out Coldwater junior Seth Szafranski Thursday, but Szafranski would have the final laugh, in a Cardinals sweep. Photo courtesy of Gary Baker / Coldwater Daily Reporter."][/caption]

Coldwater junior Seth Szafranski was too much and the Hillsdale Hornets late-inning rallies weren't quite enough Thursday.


The Cardinals toppled the Hornets 10-8 and 4-1 in a doubleheader in Coldwater. Hillsdale took a 3-2 lead to the fourth inning of the opener, but a five-run in­ning by Coldwater proved to be enough.


The Hornets scored two runs in the seventh to make a 10-6 game just a two-run affair and they even loaded the bases, but they left them that way.

Bobby White was victori­ous for the Cardinals, while Hillsdale's Mitchell Gabriele (1-1) took the loss on the hill, striking out three and walking three.


Szafranski was a home run shy of the cycle for Coldwater, knocking a sin­gle, double and triple to go with an RBI.


Derek Miller added a three-run home run in the fourth for the Cardinals.


Darren Wisely had three hits and two RBI for Hills­dale and Dillon Dirth added a home run and drove in two runs.


Charlie Vear and Mitchell Gabriele also picked up two hits apiece.


Both teams committed five errors in what Hornet head coach Chris Adams called a 'far from perfect contest'. Nonetheless, Adams was pleased with how his troops battled.


"We were down 10-6 and we kept fighting. My guys show they don't quit and they have some mental toughness," he said.


In the nightcap it was more of the same for his squad though.


Szafranski added three more hits, including the homer that eluded him in the opener, and from Adams' recollection the dinger was no puny home run.


"His bomb in the second game is probably still going — it landed somewhere over by the soccer field," he said. "Szafranski is a stud, let me tell ya. He was defi­nitely a Hornet killer today."

The Hornets scored their lone run in the seventh in­ning, when they once again saw the game come to an end with the bases juiced.


Josh Plant earned the pitching victory for Coldwa­ter, allowing just five hits, while Wisely (1-3) suffered the loss, striking out three and walking three.


Wisely and Gabriele both had doubles in the loss.


The 10-6 Hornets turn around and take on league foe Albion in a home dou­bleheader this afternoon, beginning at 4 p.m. The Hornets lead the SMAA.

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Hornets out-slug the Tigers, score 24 runs in sweep

[caption id="attachment_417" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Hillsdale junior Kirk Putnam put this Hudson pitch over the wall in the first inning Thursday, for his first career homerun as a varsity player. Photo by Nick Sarles / HDN."][/caption]

By RJ Walters / Daily News Sports Editor

As published in the Hillsdale Daily News on April 17, 2009

A first-year varsity player hitting his first varsity homer in his very first home at-bat is one way to set the tone.

The Hillsdale Hornets can thank Kirk Putnam for doing just that Thursday.

The junior slugger drilled a pitch over the left field wall as part of a six-run first inning in the first of two Hornet wins over the Hudson Tigers, in a non-conference double-header.

The Hornet bats were alive all evening, as Hillsdale compiled 19 hits and 24 runs in 14-5 and 10-6 victories, evening its record at 2-2.

If conference's gave out Comeback Player of the Year awards, Putnam would be the early front-runner in the SMAA. He didn't play a single game last season, sitting out due to a back injury and he only took a few at-bats over the weekend, yet Hornet head coach Chris Adams said he likes his power in the eight-spot and thinks Putnam is capable of hitting around .280 or .290.

"He's got some pop and he's strong, kind of in the mold of a Drew Berube or Matt Ryan," Adams said.

While he provided some fireworks early on, Dillon Dirth was a hitting machine in the opener, getting three hits, including two doubles and driving in three RBI. He also scored three runs.

While senior stars Scott Lantis and Mitchell Gabriele struggled, going a combined 1-7, plenty of other players picked up the slack.

Kurtis Condon went 3-4 with two runs and an RBI, while Tyler Vanderberghe and Drew Byers both picked up hits off the bench.

"This might be one of the deepest teams I've had," Adams said. "Today Lantis caught, played in the field and at second, and Mitchell pitched and played first, and he's our everyday catcher; there is a lot of competition still taking place at the positions and I told guys not to be surprised when they move around."

One thing that wasn't moving around as much as Adams would've liked in game one was Darren Wisely's fastball.

He earned the victory despite walking nine and allowing five hits and four earned runs. He struggled to get the ball up into the strike zone and he threw 113 pitches in just four innings of work.

Nonetheless, Adams said it is just some minor adjustments that needed to be made.

"He's one of the guys who plays ball year round, and his dad is an assistant, so I'm not worried, we just have to work with him on some mechanics," Adams said. "Four of his walks he had full-counts on, so he was close."

For Hudson (4-4), Alex Middleton showed signs of brilliance, striking out Gabriele and Lantis back-to-back in the fifth, but giving up six runs in the first inning and three more in the third was insurmountable.

He struck out five, but took the loss after allowing 10 earned runs and 11 hits in five-and-a-third innings.

He was also one of Hudson's bright spots at the plate, going 3-3 with two RBI.
Leadoff hitter Taylor Milligan was the definition of an "on-base" guy in the first game, walking five times and scoring three runs.

The nightcap also included a six-run outburst from the Hornets, but this time it was in the bottom of the sixth.

Condon's two-run double put the Hornets ahead, and they added several insurance runs for good measure.

Dirth had another good outing in the second win, picking up a double and single and scoring two more runs.

Jenkins also added an RBI and two runs, while Wisely had two hits.

Gabriele started for Hillsdale and went four innings, allowing four runs (one earned) and striking out two, but it was Condon who picked up the win. He went the final three innings and gave up two runs on two hits.

Mitchell Webb suffered the loss for Hudson and the defense behind him didn't help his cause. He allowed 10 runs, but only three of them were earned, as the Tigers committed four errors.

Luke Milligan led Hudson with three RBI.

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COMING TOMORROW: FINALLY — A SIT DOWN WITH HILLSDALE COLLEGE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR DON BRUBACHER DISCUSSING THE INCIDENT INVOLVING THE COLLEGE NEWSPAPER, CHARGER BASEBALL TEAM AND ANIMAL CARCASSES.

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