OLSM caps historic season with win over GPN in D1 title game
EAST LANSING » The job is finished. The three-peat is complete.
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s finished off an unbeaten season with a staterecord 44th win, claiming their third straight state title.
But boy what a finish it took, as the Eaglets had to gut out a 1-0 win over Grosse Pointe North in Saturday’s Division 1 championship game at Michigan State’s McLean Stadium, getting a pair of sterling defensive plays in the final two innings to seal the win.
“Yeah, for sure. The job is done. We were saying last week, ‘Job’s not finished. Job’s not finished,’” said senior Ciaran Caughey, who combined with Jasen Oliver on a four-hit shutout, the second straight championship game in which he’s been the winning pitcher. “So now that the job is done, we can finally celebrate.”
The final out, a grounder to Blake Grimmer at first did spark off the first big celebration of the season — a huge dogpile on the infield — for the Eaglets, who until now had been very business-like in their demeanor throughout the season, which saw them push their winning streak to 66 games, the second longest in state history.
“There’s so much pressure building up and then finally getting that dogpile, it feels like a million pounds just lifted off your shoulders,” Caughey said.
Caughey was lifted with one out in the sixth, after a failed pickoff attempt allowed North’s James MacAuley to go from first to third, putting the potential tying run 90 feet away.
That’s when Oliver sparked the first of two key defensive plays that sealed the win.
“We practiced that stuff where they walk off the bag, hundreds of times during practice just for that moment. So it feels great to be able to put that play into action, especially in the game like that,” Oliver said, admitting it was a relief to him, as the pitcher. “Oh, it was great. We got to keep the runners off of the bases. In that situation, the guy on second, that’s all care about, is that guy .So if we keep from going all the way to third base — far behind 90 feet (away) — that’s all we could ask for. And that’s the main focus.”
In the sixth, the Norsemen tried the first-third steal, and Oliver stepped off the rubber, and threw to second baseman Will Boisineau, who ran at the runner caught between third and home, eventually throwing to Jack Crighton at third to complete the pickoff. Oliver struck out the next batter to end the threat.
“I mean, that’s something I tell the guys, that first-and-third plays where the guy takes off early, we practice it all the time, you know, for years and it’s never once come into play. We actually went over it earlier this week. And then we actually went over it in a chalk talk session this morning right after batting practice with all my pitchers and my middle infielders, and I’m like, ‘They did this yesterday. They’re gonna do it today,’” OLSM coach Matt Petry said. ‘And we executed it flawlessly.”
But the Norsemen (23-8) would threaten again in the top of the seventh, requiring another key defensive play to get out of it. A leadoff single by North’s Brennan Hill put the potential tying run on again. After a groundout moved the runner to second, a comebacker to Oliver — normally the starting shortstop — allowed him to get the lead runner trapped between second and third, with both of North’s runners eventually ending up in a fourplayer collision on the bag at second base.
The end result was another momentum-killing out. Two batters later, Oliver induced the game-ending groundout to finish it.
The only run of the game came in the first, when Nolan Schubart reached on a one-out single, and went to third on a similar failed pickoff. Ike Irish drove him in with a groundout to short to put the Eaglets up, 1-0.
It would stay that way, though, as Caughey and Brennan Hill matched out-for-out through the remainder of the game. Caughey struck out nine and walked two, while Hill struck out nine and walked one, holding St. Mary’s to just three hits.
“Credit to Brennan Hill from Grosse Pointe North shutting down our lineup, he was excellent. You know, we got that one early,” Petry said. “To be honest with you, I didn’t think one run was gonna hold up. But Ciaran and Jason both did a great job keeping them at zero we wiggled our way out some jams there and obviously got the win.”
The Eaglets tied the state record for wins in Friday’s semifinal, and then broke it in Saturday’s win.
“I mean, we’re 44-0, nobody’s ever done that. We’re state champions. We’ve beaten anybody in the state. I mean, we can’t play nationally because the some rules but outside of that, like we’ll compete with anybody. And you know, I’ll put our team up against anybody,” Irish said, “but at the end of the day, like comparisons are OK. Like whatever you can compare, but I mean, we’re just Orchard Lake St. Mary’s. … We’re just a small high school, and we just want the best for each other.”