By John Raffel
MaxPreps.com
Rick Bailey is the principal of Reading High School. He's also the varsity coach of the state's defending Division 4 championship baseball team.
Reading and other baseball teams start the three-week playoff tournament next week in their quest for state titles.
“We had solid hitters one through nine last year,” Bailey said. “But when it came to the baseball tournament, we had enough pitching depth and used different guys to get the job done.”
Reading came into this week with a 17-4 record.
“We only graduated two kids from last year's team, our No. 3 and 4 batters,” Bailey said. “We returned our nucleus.”
Bailey expects his team to go after another state title.
“We can be in contention,” he said. “There's a number of teams that can be right in there.”
Reading hopes to be in contention with several hitters who are batting .380 or better. Max Crawford leads the way at .500. Other top hitters include Shaun Stukey and All-State shortstop Jeremy Southworth.
“We also return four pitchers from last year's team,” Bailey said, noting that Bobby Blythe was 9-0 on the mound last year and is hitting .397 at the plate.
More Baseball
Hillsdale is enjoying a better regular season this spring than it did in 2007. But the defending state Division 3 baseball champions are more concerned with their regular-season successes from last year.
Hillsdale is 16-8 as it goes through the final week of the regular season. Last year, the south-central Michigan school was .500 during the regular season and then was undefeated in the playoffs to become a surprising state champion.
“In the postseason last year, the kids started playing together,” Hillsdale coach Chris Adams said. “We got solid pitching and our kids caught fire and got hot. We hit very well our last eight games.”
Hillsdale also was 9-1 in the Southern Michigan Activities Association.
“We're playing some good teams again,” Adams said. “The next few games will be very challenging for us. It gets competitive for us right into the district tournament. We're looking forward to playing good baseball and hopefully making another run in the playoffs.”
Helping Hillsdale to take another run for a title will be the likes of Mitchell Ganele, who is batting .481 and Scott Lantis, who has a .456 batting average and is the team's top pitcher with a 6-2 record and 0.82 ERA.
Boys Track and Field
Albion is ranked No. 1 in state polls for boys track and field in Division 3, but head coach Mike Jurasek said it won't be easy to win the state championship when the Michigan High School Athletic Association has its title meets May 31 in the Grand Rapids area.
Albion won the Southern Michigan Activities Association title but hopes to add a state championship to the mix. The last time Albion made a strong state title bid was in 2000 when it finished second.
“The last few years, we've finished in the top five in the state meet,” Jurasek said.
Past Albion teams have included discus thrower Carl Brown, who later was ranked among the top throwers in the world.
Standouts on this season's Albion team include Durant Crum, who is the school record holder in the 200 and is strong in the long jump, open 400 and relays. Mike Ridley and Todd Atchison are scoring points in the sprints and relays and Paul Lewis has been strong in the distances.
“At the state meet, we definitely have enough people and a lot of quality people to help us,” Jurasek said. “We've been in the situation before where on paper it looked like we could win the state title. So much can happen.
“On that day, things have to go right for you. In 2000, we came close to taking it. We bobbled a handoff on the relay and lost the state meet by five points. We need to keep everyone healthy.”
Boys Golf
Big Rapids is ranked No. 1 in state Division 3 polls and took a major step toward a state title by winning a district championship on Thursday. The Cardinals play on their home course next Thursday in regional action with hopes of qualifying for the state finals June 6-7 at Michigan State University.
“It's probably the best team I've had,” said Big Rapids co-coach Howard Strom, who has been with the team since the 1993 season. “We have a lot of depth, with two really good golfers, who could be among the tops in the state.”
He was referring to B. Addison Monfils, who had a pair of 36s to finish first in the districts at 72, followed by teammate Paul Goggins, who shot a 76 to take second place. Curtis Hanba has also been a solid golfer for Big Rapids.
“We've competed in all 18-hole tournaments, not nine-hole matches,” Strom said. “That's meant getting home late at night or leaving early in the morning and missing some school time. So they've had to buckle down in their classes. We played four or five of those in a week.”
This marks the first boys golf season in Michigan during the spring, rather than the fall, since 1971.
“The season has fewer weeks so we have our meets crammed into a shorter period of time,” Strom said.
