FRIENDLY FOES
Clarkston’s Trevor Busyn gets upper hand on Lake Orion’s Evan Waters in duel between CMU-bound aces, good friends
LAKE ORION » The quick greeting and grin that Clarkston’s Trevor Busyn and Lake Orion’s Evan Waters exchanged between games of Monday’s doubleheader was pretty emblematic of the competitive nature of the close friendship between the two Central Michigan-bound aces.
And each of them could rightfully claim a little bit of ‘gotcha’ against the other, after both shoved in a series-opening pitchers’ duel that wound up a 2-1 Clarkston win.
Waters, the Dragons’ lefty ace, doubled and drove in a first-inning run to tie up the game at 1-1, but Busyn retired him the next two times at bat — and seven of the final eight Dragon batters he faced — to close out the win.
“I mean, it was a helluva game. Both went complete-game. He had 12 strikeouts. He just kinda threw to us, and we just kind of found the holes,” said Busyn. “But yeah, we both had high expectations going into this game, just kind of one up each other. Thankfully, came out on top.”
Clarkston’s win snapped a six-game win streak for the Dragons (17-4, 6-2 OAA Red), which included a doubleheader sweep of No. 3-ranked Northville over the weekend. Lake Orion was leading 2-1 in Monday’s nightcap when it was suspended after four innings. It will be picked up there when the series resumes at Clarkston on Wednesday.
That lead, though, leaves the Dragons with a slightly better feel than they had between games, when they honored the 2022 class that had gone 47-11 over the last two seasons, coming into Monday.
“You know, we were talking about that the other day when we split a doubleheader, we won the second game. It sure is a better, much better feeling. But yeah … it’s gonna be a good series. We have great teams in our league all the way through, so … I guess we’re a little bit happier but we’re not contented. We don’t think it’s over,” Lake Orion coach Andy Schramek said, admitting that he knew early on the opener was gonna be one of those games where you just sit back and watch your aces dominate. “Once I saw the first inning, I knew it was going to be like that. Busyn had a really good breaking ball today … We tried to get on the fastball, but he was tough. I mean, he located really well today. And so did Evan. Evan was great.”
As befits a game between two top-notch pitchers, the first one was decided not by big booming hits, but by wind-blown fly balls and little bleeders to the outfield.
Clarkston (11-7, 6-4 OAA Red) struck first, getting a runner on when a pop-up eluded the Lake Orion infield. Two batters later, Ben Bacon’s RBI single scored Luke Spicer from third for a 1-0 Wolves lead.
Connor McCartan led off with a walk in the bottom of the first, and Waters plated him with a double he sliced to left, getting it up into the jet stream, but after that, it stayed tied until the sixth.
Busyn retired the next nine straight, then used a pickoff to erase a Dragons runner in the fourth that reached on an error. His only real jam was in the fifth, when he got a flyout to right after an Antonio Grazioli double and a walk to Carson Devendorf put two on with two outs.
Fly balls to right and center were hanging up in the wind, while shots to left were slicing and carrying, and Busyn took advantage, getting 10 flyouts/pop-ups to go with six strikeouts — including a game-ending pop-up in the seventh that nearly turned dangerous.
“Throwing in the bullpen and warm up, just knew the slider just wasn’t biting and I knew that kind of going in. I was like, this wind’s gonna play with it. So, thankfully out here it wasn’t as bad. … I had command of everything. Just getting those fly balls,” Busyn said. “So thankfully, everyone behind me was making piays because I know that
ball was just moving. Kind of gave me a heart attack on that last play, because they both (the outfielders) were very close to hitting each other.”
It was something that Clarkston coach Addison Turk had warned his outfielders about.
“It was an adventure when the ball got up there. And we talked to the kids before the game. No fly ball is guaranteed to go to one guy — everybody’s got to be moving. And that happened … (on the last play) of the game. You know, our centerfielder came all the way over the left fielder made the catch, but we told everybody, they gotta be moving on every ball in the air,” Turk said. “In games like that, that’s what it comes down to: timely hitting and good defense. And we used both to come out on top.”
Brady Krzciok had the game’s timeliest hit, following a single to left by Luke Spicer with one of his own, driving in the goahead run with one out in the sixth. Waters got out of the jam with a double play, but the damage was done.
Krzciok put Clarkston up in the night with a first-inning RBI double to left-center, but the Dragons responded with a second-inning bases-loaded double by Ricky Green that scored two — and nearly three, had a nearperfect relay throw not cut down the trail runner at the plate.
The duel between Waters and Busyn was hardly unexpected, given their competitive friendship.
“We’re very close. I mean, we throw with each other during the offseason. We’ve been throwing against each other for probably the last three years. It’s kind of just been a back-and-forth battle,” Busyn said “It was really first to hit 90 (mph) because we were at 89. And then one bullpen we were throwing in Oxford. I had 92 that night. And he was like, kind of just right, there, like 89, he ended up hitting it probably about a month later. So it’s kind of just been that back-andforth battle.”
When the two future Chippewas knew they were going to face each other Monday, they tried to see if CMU head coach Jordan Bischel could come watch.
“We talk to each other all the time. And I mean, we were last night. We were seeing if coach Bischel would come out and watch. Unfortunately, couldn’t. But he was like, ‘I expect it to be a 0-0 game until the bullpen comes in. I was joking. I was like, ‘Ah, I’ll come and pinch hit and and make it a 1-0 game.’ So yeah, it’s kind of just that back and forth stuff. But yeah, we’re extremely close and just looking forward to next year,” Busyn said. “I threw him a change-up in his last at-bat, and we both kind of smiled at each other, because he knew it was gross.”
Turk never worries about the friendship being an issue in between the lines.
“They do a good job of turning it off when a game starts, and then as soon as the game’s over, you know, everything’s good,” Turk said “That’s what good competitors do. You turn it off being friends with kids during the game and as soon as the game’s over, you can be friends again.”