BASEBALL: Lake Orion wins fifth regional in 15 years
End of the road for Rochester Adams, Rochester Stoney Creek
FOR MORE BASEBALL COVERAGE: http://northoaklandsports.com/?s=Baseball&x=16&y=13
NOTE: Have photos or video of this event you would like to share with digital daily www.northoaklandsports.com?Email pertinent information to results@northoaklandsports.com or to Senior Editor Dan Stickradt at Dan.Stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
ROCHESTER HILLS — Nick Deeg was delivered some good news Saturday evening: He had been drafted in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft earlier in the day.
The Lake Orion senior also helped deliver the Dragons claim their fifth regional championship in 15 years.
Lake Orion downed both Hartland (4-0) and Rochester Stoney Creek (10-2) in a Division 1 regional at Rochester High to reach the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2007, the same year the Dragons won the D-1 state championship.
The Dragons (32-8) will face fellow state power Birmingham Brother Rice at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the state quarterfinals. Lake Orion earned that right by having three pitchers scatter just two runs and five hits over 14 innings of work Saturday.
“Our pitching was very good,” admitted Lake Orion coach Andy Schramek. “Whenever you only give up two runs (in the regionals), it shows that your pitchers are doing a great job.”
Junior left-hander Brad Schaenzer pitched five solid innings for Lake Orion against Stoney Creek in the regional finals, striking out three and allowing three hits. Junior Josh Bays pitched the final two frames in relief, striking out three Cougars and not yielding a hit.
That was preceded by Deeg’s two-hit gem in the regional semifinals.
Lake Orion took advantage of a pair of throwing errors during the first three innings to build a 3-0 advantage on Stoney Creek. In the fourth, Nick Vogelmeier and Ryan Lambrecht laced RBI singles for a 5-0 advantage to break the game open.
The Cougars fought back to trim the deficit down to 5-2 in the top of the fifth, when Jake Hazelton ripped an RBI double to right-center and Justin Allor followed with an RBI single.
Lake Orion quickly silenced that rally in the bottom of the fifth, when the Dragons sent eight batters to the plate in the frame and combined for four hits and two walks. Vogelmeier belted a two-run single up the middle and Deeg supplied a two-run double to build the 10-2 lead for the Dragons (32-8).
“We got a lot of timely hitting and we knew that would have to happen in order for us to win,” noted Schramek, whose team lost to Hartland in the regional finals last season. “Our pitching has been a strength all season and we played (solid) defense behind them today.”
Pitching has been the Dragons’ bread and butter all season, with three Division I-caliber pitchers on the roster — all whom saw action Saturday.
“There’s nobody on the team that can’t pitch,” smiled Deeg. “We can put anyone on the mound, our defense will back them, we’ll get them out and we’ll get off the field and go back to hitting.”
The regional finals appearance against Lake Orion marked the furthest that Stoney Creek has ever advanced in the postseason. The Cougars just fell into a 5-0 hole and could never dig their way out of it against Lake Orion.
“A couple of bad throws, a couple of bad errors and were pretty much done there,” admitted Stoney Creek coach Clint Rodger of the early deficit. “You can’t spot a team like Lake Orion runs.”
Stoney Creek (21-15), which just completed its 11th season, won its first postseason game two years ago but lost in the district finals. Last season, the Cougars captured their first district crown and this year reached the regional finals for the first time.
“I was telling the boys that two years ago we won our first postseason game, 2012 we won two postseason games and our first district and this year we won one more (postseason) game,” noted Rodger. It’s a step in the right direction.”
LAKE ORION 4, HARTLAND 0: Nick Deeg outdueled Hartland’s Jake Lowery, headed for Michigan State, in this regional semifinal Saturday morning.
Deeg struck out eight, walked five and hit one batter. He pitched out of two jams in the contest, including runners on second and third in the fourth and runners on first and third in the sixth.
Lowery suffered the loss despite fanning 10 and walking three.
“Brad does not like runs scored against him,” offered Schramek. “Brad was very sharp today, he just had one inning where he got behind a couple hitters, but he was fantastic.”
Lake Orion scored two runs in the first to give Deeg some breathing room, then tacked on single runs in the third and sixth innings to prevail.
Connor Grant gave the Dragons a 2-0 lead with a two-run double in the first. Nick Vogelmeier walked and later scored on a throwing error in the third, while the fourth run came in the sixth when Roman Kuster also reached on an error and later scored on a wild pitch.
ROCHESTER STONEY CREEK 6, ROCHESTER ADAMS 5: Stoney Creek carried a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh, only to see Adams rally back with five runs before stranding a runner on third at the end of the game.
Kyle Schweiger kept the Highlanders off the board until the seventh frame and reliever Joe Cox eventually shut the door on Adams’ season, but not before some tense moments.
Schweiger helped his own cause with three RBI at the plate for the Cougars.
“Schweiger was really good and we were overmatched for most of the game, but we did a nice job coming back on them. We just came up short, maybe a hit away,” sighed Adams coach Jeff Hall, whose team played in the regional round for the third time in four seasons. “Stoney Creek started to get a little tired, a little wild (in the seventh) and we were just a hit away. I am proud of the way we came back.
“I think we play one of the toughest schedules in the state, which is why we made it back to the regionals,” added Hall. “We play in one of the toughest leagues in the state and our non-league schedule is really tough. Playing a weak schedule and winning a bunch of games doesn’t do you any good if you can’t make it at least this far.”
Stoney Creek scored two in the fourth and another in the fifth before tacking one three more important runs in the seventh for its 6-0 lead.
Adams countered with a series of three walks, two hits, a hits batsman and a couple of wild pitches rallied in the bottom of the seventh, only to come agonizingly short in losing to Stoeny Creek for the fourth time this season.
To submit information to www.northoaklandsports.com, e-mail dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com. To advertise, e-mail advertising@northoaklandsports.com . Follow us on Twitter @LocalSportsFans and more than a dozen other social media networks.
FOR MORE BASEBALL COVERAGE: http://northoaklandsports.com/?s=Baseball&x=16&y=13
Have photos or video of this event that you wish to share? E-mail pertinent information to www.northoaklandsports.com Senior Editor Dan Stickradt at dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com or e-mail results@northoaklandsports.com.
Category: Baseball, Featured Articles, High School, High School (M-Z), Lake Orion, Most Recently Updated Stories, Prep Wraps, Rochester Adams, Rochester Stoney Creek, Sport, Top Stories, Uncategorized
