Hartland upsets Dakota: Roundup from Michigan high school baseball state championships

Lance Smith

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Hartland upsets Dakota: Roundup from Michigan high school baseball state championships image

Timothy Arrick/Livingston Daily Press-Argus / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn

Michigan high school baseball ended with a bang on Saturday.

The four MHSAA divisional state title tilts included a couple thrillers, a huge upset, and one game that wasn't exactly either of those.

Here's a quick look at Saturday's state baseball championships.

DIVISION 1: Hartland 5, Dakota 3 (nine innings)

Ranked first in the state and 75th in the nation by MaxPreps entering at 36-7-1, Dakota (Macomb) was considered the heavy favorite against Hartland (25-15-1).

But if it was Dakota's game to lose, Hartland didn't get the memo.

Dakota opened the game with a two-spot in the bottom of the first inning and kept the Eagles off the board through two. Luke Kavalick was the game's first run after hitting a single and getting driven in by Evan Kavalick, who scored as well on a double from Luke DeMasse.

The only other runs scored in regulation belonged to Hartland, however. The Eagles struck in the top of the third when Caden See drove in Logan Randall with a double and starting pitcher Michael Zielinski sent him in to score with a base hit.

Both teams scored one run in the eighth inning, and fielding errors allowed See and Zielinski to score in the top of the ninth after they'd reached on singles. Randall shut the door in the bottom of the ninth without much drama, earning the win with one run allowed in four innings of work.

DIVISION 2: Forest Hills Eastern 5, Standing-Sterlish 2

A 41-game winning streak is phenomenal at any time in any sport. When it comes to high school baseball, such a feat almost always leads to winning hardware, and thus was the case for Forest Hills Eastern baseball – MHSAA D2 champions for the second time in four years.

Standing-Sterlish opened the game with two runs in the first inning, but it was all Hawks from there. Forest Hills Eastern responded with one run in the bottom of the first, three in the third, and one more in the fifth to eventually cruise to championship glory. Colton Brinks got the win with 4.2 scoreless innings on the mound and Max Ferrick went 2-3 with two RBI and a double. James Dempsey also went 2-3 with an RBI for the Hawks.

DIVISION 3: St. Francis (Traverse City) 5, Marine City 4

Traverse City St. Francis baseball

Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn

St. Francis struck early and held on for dear life, and is now a state baseball champion for the first time since 1990. Matthew Kane drove in the game's first two runs as the Gladiators went up 1-0 in the first inning, 4-0 in the third, and 5-0 in the fourth. Marine City showed its meddle scoring all four of its runs with two outs in the fifth inning, but that was all St. Francis would allow.

Kane's two hits and two RBI were both game-highs. Tyler Endres allowed two earned runs on just three hits in 4.2 innings as the Gladiators' starting pitcher, and Lanse Vos came in and mopped up during Marin City's fifth-inning rally. Vos allowed no hits and one walk in 2.1 innings of relief.

DIVISION 4: St. Patrick (Portland) 5, Plymouth Christian 0 (five innings)

In more or less the opposite result of the Division 1 game, Division 4's was cut short by mercy rule with the favorite winning handily. St. Patrick led 3-0 after one inning, 4-0 after two, 6-0 after three, and 8-0 after four before "walking it off" in a sense upon going up 10-0 in inning five.

The Shamrocks finished with just one loss on the season, which came against Sacred Heart Academy – against whom it got revenge in the second round of the playoffs.

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Lance Smith

Lance has covered high school basketball, football and softball since 2019. A graduate of The USC Marshall School of Business, Smith dabbles in linear algebra and football and basketball computer rankings.