BASEBALL: Oakland Christian enjoying turnaround season, wins first league title since 1996

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

Twitter: @LocalSportsFans

AUBURN HILLS — Winning championships and baseball have not gone hand-in-hand in recent times when referring to Auburn Hills Oakland Christian

While the Lancers have been known for its boys soccer and boys basketball teams during the past couple of decades, Oakland Christian has not been able to raise any type of banner in baseball in many years.

That came to a crashing halt Thursday.

The Lancers swept host Ypsilanti Calvary Christian Thursday to claim the Michigan Independent Athletic Conference Red Division title, the school’s first league crown since 1996.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve won anything here, for baseball,” noted second-year coach Brad Pyke, a former assistant at Troy Athens. “I know they won a district in 1992 and a league in 1996, but there has been a drought ever since then.”

Oakland Christian defeated Calvary Christian 12-2 in the opener and 17-1 in the nightcap to cap the league season with 13 straight wins.

“We lost our league opener to Plymouth Christian, but we beat them the second time,” said Pyke. “We have been on quite a roll in the league.”

In the opener against Calvary Christian, Collin O’Connor picked up his seventh pitching win of the year. Josh Crane and Chris Golus both contributed a hit and an RBI.

In Game 2, Rafael Eigenmann belted a grand slam and finished with six RBI in the rout.

Between both games, Jake Vandervent was 5-for-7 with four doubles and six RBI.

At 19-6 overall, Oakland Christian already has already recorded its most wins in nearly two decades. After reaching the Class D Final Four in 1991 and being a top-10 team in 1992 with a league and district title in hand, the Lancers have played through years of mediocrity with only the league title 16 years ago. Pyke hopes to change that.

“I’ve heard about those teams from 20 years ago,” said Pyke. “But I think the problem we’ve had here lately is we have been unable to keep a lot of our better players here at Oakland Christian. We’ve had several kids come up through our middle school, then they go to another school in the area for baseball. I guess that’s a battle they have been fighting here for years and I hope to change that.”

Pyke and his staff have already started to right the ship. The Lancers will compete in a tough district this Saturday that includes host Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes and state-ranked Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest, which won the district and reached the Division 4 state quarterfinals last season. WOLL won its division in the CHSL.

“I think that we might have a chance. We have to got to get the players believing they can win,” said Pyke. “It’s not going to be easy because both Lakes and Lutheran Northwest have had good years. But we b eat Northwest early in the season when they were ranked in the top 10. We hadn’t beaten them in years.”

There are several reasons for Oakland Christian’s turnaround this season. The Lancers were 6-22 overall in Pyke’s debut campaign at the school and 1-13 in the MIAC Blue Division, which caused the Lancers to be demoted to the league’s second division this season.

“We have some good pitching and we have some kids that can really hit the ball,” said Pyke. “We have three players from this team already signed to play in college next year — and that hasn’t happened very often around here.”

Eigenmann, a transfer from Waterford Kettering, has had a highlight season, batting .480 with over 30 RBI. Senior infielder-relief pitcher Luke Combs has been a sturdy closer and sharp with the bat hitting around .400, and fellow senior first baseman Jake Vandevent is hitting well over .400 with 30 RBI.

Sophomore Collin O’Connor has emerged as the ace of the pitching staff, while Bobby Carson has added five pitching wins this season. The two are expected to start games Saturday in the district at Waterford Lakes.

“That’s two young pitchers out there, so we’ll see how they handle it,” said Pyke, hoping his team can spring an upset on WOLL in the district semifinals. Lutheran Northwest and second-year program Kimball Landmark Academy will play in the other district semifinal.

“We have a good lineup and our pitching is much improved,” added Pyke. “If we can put it all together Saturday, then we’ll have a chance.”

Junior third baseman Chris Golus, junior pitcher-outfielder Josh Crane, senior pitcher-catcher Stu Sutherland and senior pitcher-outfielder Cliff Baxter have also had strong seasons.

“This is a good group of kids,” said Pyke. “We’ll lose six to graduation and that will hurt. Those guys have put a lot of time in to help us turn this program around. But we have good young players coming up. We have nine eighth graders signed up to play next season and that’s a good sign. I said I would like to have a junior varsity team here by my third season. If we get enough kids to come out, then we might be able to have a JV.”

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