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Baseball finals weekend at McLane Stadium offers historic guarantee

Norway fans Jackie and Avery Baij send the Knights off to East Lansing with posters Thursday. (Terri Castelaz/Daily News photo)

Nearly one-third of the field at this weekend’s MHSAA Baseball Semifinals and Finals — five of 16 teams — are hoping to play in their first championship game Saturday.

Two are guaranteed to do so.

Two of Thursday’s Semifinal matchups at McLane Stadium featured faceoffs of first-time hopefuls, with Standish-Sterling defeating Mason in Division 2 and Marine City outlasting Olivet in Division 3. The winners earned long-awaited debuts on the final day of the 2024-25 MHSAA sports year.

There will be no repeat champions this time around. But last season’s Division 4 runner-up Norway is back for another attempt at a first title. Bay City Western also is a making a repeat trip, advancing again to the Division 1 semifinals.

This weekend’s Division 4 schedule is as follows, with all times Central:

Norway’s Landon Ross bats against Painesdale-Jeffers in the Knights’ regional semifinal victory June 4 in Felch. Norway faces top-ranked Portland St. Patrick at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time today in an MHSAA Division 4 state semifinal in East Lansing. (Betsy Bloom/Daily News photo)

Division 4 — Today

Portland St. Patrick vs. Norway — 1:30 p.m.

Plymouth Christian Academy vs. Petersburg-Summerfield — 4 p.m.

FINALS — Saturday

Division 4 — 4 p.m.

Tickets cost $11 and may be purchased online only at GoFan. One ticket is good for all baseball, softball and girls soccer games at MSU’s Old College Field that day. All Semifinals and Finals will be broadcast and available with subscription from MHSAA.tv.

Here is a glance of the Division 4 teams taking the field:

NORWAY

Record/rank: 28-4-1, No. 9

Coach: Tony Adams, 11th season (200-86-4)

League finish: First in Skyline Central Conference

Championship history: Division 4 runner-up 2024.

Players to watch: Cameron Varda, jr. OF/P (.568, 52 R, 32 RBI, 40 SB); Cole Baij, sr. IF/P (12-2, 1.11 ERA, 130 K/63 IP, .307, 15 SB); Landon Amundson, sr. IF/P (.505, 41 R, 42 RBI, 23 SB); Owen Baij, jr. IF/P (.524, 38 R, 15 2B, 48 RBI, 39 SB, 6-1 pitching, 0.53 ERA, 73 K/40 IP).

Outlook: Six starters are back from the team that made its first Semifinals run and made last season’s final day. Cole Baij, Varda and Amundson all made the all-state first team, and Owen Baij made the second team. The Knights’ only losses this season were a pair to Division 2 Escanaba and one apiece to No. 4 Plymouth Christian Academy and Bonduel of Wisconsin. Four of the team’s six postseason wins ended early because of run differential, and for the entire spring Norway is averaging 10 runs per game. The team’s 183 stolen bases (in 195 attempts) ranks 11th in MHSAA history.

PORTLAND ST. PATRICK

Record/rank: 32-1, No. 1

Coach: Bryan Scheurer, 20th season (475-150)

League finish: First in Central Michigan Athletic Conference

Championship history: Division 4 champion 2017, four runner-up finishes.

Players to watch: Jerryd Scheurer, soph. SS/P (7-0, 0.22 ERA); Brady Leonard, jr. P/CF (11-0, 0.89 ERA, 90 K/55 1/3 IP); Charlie Thelen, jr. C/IF. (Hitting statistics not submitted.)

Outlook: The Shamrocks’ lone defeat this season came to No. 2 Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart – and St. Patrick avenged it with a 5-4, 12-inning Regional Final victory. The Shamrocks also have defeated No. 11 Fowler, No. 6 Fulton, Dansville and No. 18 Maple City Glen Lake during the postseason. Jerryd Scheurer made the all-state first team, and Thelen made the second team last season. Senior Brayden Simon (6-0, 0.48 ERA, 70 K/44 IP) and sophomore Sean Fedewa (4-0, 0.00 ERA) give St. Patrick two more high-performing arms. Simon is one of only four seniors on the roster.

PETERSBURG SUMMERFIELD

Record/rank: 21-10, unranked

Coach: Reid Olmstead, fourth season (49-57-2)

League finish: Third in Tri-County Conference

Championship history: Division 4 champion 2019.

Players to watch: Jude Flowers, soph. P/IF (5-2, 1.59 ERA, 59 K/48 1/3 IP, .270, 41 R, 39 SB); Reece Kalb, jr. P/IF (8-5, 1.36 ERA, 88 K/67 IP, .286, 30 RBI, 13 SB); Tyler Dafoe, sr. IF (.347, 27 R, 29 SB).

Outlook: Summerfield is returning to the Semifinals after winning all of its postseason games by at least five runs, the closest a 5-0 Quarterfinal victory over No. 10 Decatur. The 10-2 District Final win over Britton Deerfield avenged a regular-season sweep. Summerfield finished only 12-17 a year ago but has won 11 straight games to get to championship weekend. Dafoe at shortstop and Brendan Myshock (.302) at first base are the team’s only seniors, and junior Russell LaRocca has been another top hitter at .333 with 26 runs scored and 27 stolen bases.

PLYMOUTH CHRISTIAN ACADEMY

Record/rank: 28-7, No. 4

Coach: Eero Perkola, second season (50-19)

League finish: First in Michigan Independent Athletic Conference

Championship history: Division 4 runner-up 2023.

Players to watch: Cooper Weaver, sr. 3B (.379, 32 R, 28 RBI, 12 SB); Dylan Beasley, jr. UTY (.374, 39 R, 15 2B, 34 RBI, 16 SB); Michael Fernandez, jr. SS/P (.353, 11 2B, 34 RBI, 9-1 pitching, 0.78 ERA, 85 K/53 2/3 IP).

Outlook: Perkola took over following Plymouth Christian’s run to the Finals in 2023 and has the Eagles back two seasons later with a group that should return several contributors next spring. PCA downed No. 8 Royal Oak Shrine in the Regional Final and No. 15 Marine City Cardinal Mooney in the Quarterfinal, and has won 20 of its last 21 games. Senior Micah Lavigne (.344, 34 R, 32 RBI, 11 SB, 5-0 pitching) made the all-state second team last season and is among several more contributors; others include sophomores Carter Dattilio (.419, 33 R, 23 RBI) and Justin Shollack (.370, 14 SB) and junior Luke Janigan (.360, 41 R, 24 SB, 5-2 pitching).

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