By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
STEVENSVILLE — The Cinderella run for Three Rivers’ baseball team through the Division II baseball playoffs reached its highest high and its final conclusion Saturday in Stevensville.
Coming off the heels of an upset win over No. 18 Niles on Wednesday, June 4 to earn their first-ever win in a regional game, the Wildcats pulled off another historic upset to earn the school’s first regional title in baseball, defeating No. 5 Gull Lake 9-2 in the early session.
But just as quickly as the thrill of victory came to be, it went away just as quick, as the Wildcats ran into a buzzsaw in the state quarterfinals immediately after that game, losing by mercy rule 10-0 in five innings to top-ranked Ada Forest Hills Eastern.
Although the loss capped off the furthest a Three Rivers baseball team has ever gotten, the fact they made it that far was something Wildcats manager Scott Muffley was proud of.
“I am so proud of what our boys accomplished today and what we’ve done as a community here,” Muffley said following the loss to Eastern. “I think we’ve done some good things for the district, so it was a good turnout. I’m happy with this. I’m not happy that we lost, but happy with what we accomplished.”
In their matchup against Gull Lake, after the Blue Devils got out to an early 1-0 lead after the top of the first with a Max Markham RBI ground-rule double, Three Rivers exploded on offense in the bottom half of the first, scoring eight runs on five hits, two errors, two walks and a hit by pitch to take an 8-1 lead.
With Gull Lake senior starter Colin Fayle on the mound, Jace Gray led off the inning with a walk, then after Brady Penny struck out looking, Gray stole second, Gabe Young hit a single that advanced Gray to third, then Mason Awe hit a two-run double to left-center field to make it a 2-1 game. Aiden Williams then hit a bunt single to the pitcher that advanced Awe to third, then Drake Dibble hit a hard grounder under first baseman Bryce Wartella’s glove that scored Awe from third to make it 3-1.
After Peyton Hradsky walked to load the bases, Gull Lake switched pitchers to junior Jacob Palmatier, who hit Kaleb Williams with a pitch on a 3-2 to bring in a run to make it 4-1. After Tate Rohrer popped out to second, Gray came back up for his second at-bat of the inning and walloped a bases-clearing double to left-center field to make it 7-1. That was followed by a bunt single from Penny and Young reaching first on an error by the Gull Lake shortstop that scored Gray from third and made it 8-1. Young was caught trying to steal second to end a wild inning.
“We put everything together, we sprayed some hits, we played a little small ball. A lot of times what we like to do is make teams make mistakes, and they did,” Muffley said. “We jumped on them for eight, and that was huge. Baseball’s a game of momentum, and when momentum shifts, we shifted it in our favor and we kept it rolling.”
The 8-1 scoreline would hold for quite a while as both pitching staffs settled down from there. The Wildcats would get a ninth run in the bottom of the sixth via a Hradsky sacrifice fly with the bases loaded and no one out. Gull Lake would get a second run off of Three Rivers starter Kaleb Williams in the top of the seventh on a pitch that grazed Blue Devils shortstop Luke Anderson with the bases loaded, but a flyout to left field on the next batter would end the game and give Three Rivers some regional hardware for the first time.
Wildcats senior Kaleb Williams was masterful on the mound facing a tough Blue Devils team in the final start of his high school career, going all seven innings, giving up seven hits and two runs while striking out two and walking one on 87 pitches.
“He keeps everybody on their heels, and we got the fly balls we needed. If that’s the last game he has to pitch, he did a phenomenal job,” Muffley said of his starting pitcher. “He’s not going to get a ton of K’s, but as long as he’s able to locate and get those ground balls and flyouts, that’s all that matters.”
Gray was 1-for-3 for the game with a double, walk, three RBI and two runs scored. Awe was 1-for-2 with a double, two RBI, two walks and two runs scored. Dibble went 2-for-3 with an RBI, walk and run scored, and Hradsky and Kaleb Williams had an RBI each. Penny and Kaleb Williams also had two-hit games.
For Gull Lake, senior center fielder John Lucki went 2-for-3 with a walk and run scored to lead the way, while Markham and Anderson had the RBIs for the Blue Devils. Fayle gave up three hits and six runs (three earned) in one-third of an inning as the starter, and Palmatier pitched 2.2 innings of relief, giving up five hits, two runs (one earned) and striking out one. Bryce Wartella gave up two hits and one earned run while striking out three and walking four in relief of Palmatier.
Due to how the schedule was arranged, Three Rivers had to play the state quarterfinals game immediately after, and just as the Wildcats got off to a hot start in the first inning against Gull Lake, Forest Hills Eastern did just the same to the Wildcats in the bottom of the first of the nightcap.
Hawks starter Landen Lindley sent down Three Rivers in order on three ground balls in the top of the first, and then Eastern smacked Three Rivers’ pitching around in the bottom half, scoring six runs to take a 6-0 lead.
After a leadoff walk and a single two batters later to put runners on the corners and one out against Three Rivers starter Carson Beuter, Hawks shortstop Brendan Thompson lined a single to center to score the first run of the game and put runners on the corners again. Smart baserunning by the Hawks scored another run, as they pulled off a delayed double steal, with Thompson stealing second and James Dempsey scoring on the throw to second to make it 2-0. Thompson would make it to third on a wild throw from catcher Aidan Williams, and would score two batters later on an infield single by third baseman Kenric Penkevich to make it 3-0.
Drake Graver would replace Beuter after a walk to Cameron Pallo, and would sit down Keegan Penkevich for the second out. But, the floodgates would open up as right fielder Manel Conners would poke a two-run single to short right field to make it 5-0, and another delayed double steal would score a sixth run with the next batter to bring it to 6-0.
Graver would settle down on the mound over the next three innings, giving up just a walk and a single between the second, third and fourth innings, an effort Muffley praised.
“When Grave came in, he came in and kind of offset them a bit, he shut them down, but then they started hitting him [in the fifth],” Muffley said.
On the other side, Three Rivers’ offense was puzzled all afternoon by Lindley, who gave up just two hits and struck out six in a complete game victory, with the Hawks’ defense gobbling up seemingly every ground ball hit by the Wildcats and playing very sound defense.
The stability on the mound with Graver would end in the bottom of the fifth as the Eastern offense finally got to him, with Dempsey singling to lead off the inning followed by an RBI double to left-center field by Thompson to make it 7-0. Young then came in to pitch for Three Rivers, and immediately gave up a towering two-run home run to Max Ferrick that made it 9-0. A couple singles and two outs later, Drew Ferrick would walk it off with a single to center field to score Kenric Penkevich, setting off the celebration for the Hawks and sending them to Lansing for next weekend’s semifinals.
“I’m not taking anything away, they’re a good ballclub,” Muffley said of Eastern. “Hopefully they go on to win the state title and go from there.”
The lone two hits for the Wildcats were singles by Hradsky in the third with one out and Gray in the fourth to lead off the inning.
Hawks head coach Ian Hearn gave kudos to the Wildcats on their run following the quarterfinals.
“Three Rivers is a very good team. Looking back to their tournament run in general, they beat some good teams along the way – I know they beat Niles and an outstanding pitcher on Wednesday, and then Gull Lake’s an outstanding club as well,” Hearn said. “Three Rivers has outstanding coaching, same with Gull Lake, and Three Rivers, they’ve just been rolling. Hats off to them, and today, that second game at that particular time was just our moment, I guess.”
Overall, Muffley said this year’s squad has hopefully set a “foundation” for the program for years to come, after making their first appearance in regional play since 2010.
“They’ve established a firm foundation for us to build a program on. I’m proud of what these guys have done, especially my seniors. Now we’ll just keep building on that, and hopefully we return,” Muffley said.
“I’ve always said from the beginning of this season that this is one of the most talented teams I’ve ever coached, and I’ve coached some good ones. Even though in 2010 I had Derek [Adams] with me and the Shutes boys and stuff like that, a very talented team, but overall, just one of the most talented teams I’ve been able to coach. I knew they were capable of a lot of great things, and now that they’ve proven that to themselves … I think these guys have hopefully learned how to be a good teammate, good individuals, and go on to do some big things in life. What these guys have accomplished this season, I don’t think anybody expected us to be here, but I knew we could.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
