EAST LANSING — After a pair of dramatic victories in their final at-bats last week in the regional final and quarterfinal round of the state playoffs, the quest towards a state championship for the Trenton baseball team resumed on Friday in East Lansing on the campus of Michigan State University.
In the first of two Division 2 state semifinals, the Trojans battled Flint Powers Catholic in what was a top-5 showdown. Powers came into the tilt with a strong 35-6 record overall including five playoff victories thus far in which they have outscored the opposition, 42-10.
After falling behind early, Trenton put together some theatrics once more to tie the game and force extra innings. Unfortunatey for the Trojans, the magic eventually ran out as they saw Powers use some late-game drama of their own.
With a 4-3 victory in eight innings, the top-ranked Chargers ousted the locals from the state tournament.
PHOTO GALLERY: Baseball State Semifinals – Trenton vs Flint Powers Catholic
It certainly was not the greatest of starts for Trenton, who saw their first 12 batters retired in order by Powers starting pitcher and University of Oakland signee Grant Garman. During that time, the Chargers built up an early 3-0 cushion with two of those runs coming on sacrifice fly ball outs and a third on a bases-loaded walk.
“Garman did a heck of a job on the mound,” Trenton head coach Todd Szalka said.” Coming into the fifth inning, we didn’t have any hits. But we strung together some hits and tied it up there.”
And it was a notable change in hitting approaches that fueled the big comeback to tie things up. The Trojans ended up batting around in the fifth, scoring three times on five hits.
RBI hits from Zach LaMay and Carson Boike out of the No. 8 and 9 spots of the bottom of the order tied the game at 3-3.
“We tried to shorten things up and go with more of a two-strike approach,” Szalka said. “We came out for that fifth inning and I challenged them. I told them that every at-bat was the most important at-bat of your life and you have to battle every pitch.”
While not ideal to fall behind in a state semifinal affair, Szalka spoke highly of his team’s ability to not get overwhelmed by the moment and grind things out in a do-or-die situation.
“That’s the thing I am happiest about and most proud of,” Szalka said. “You’re in the state semifinals and you go down 3-0 to the No. 1 team in the state. And they just stuck with it and were able to force extra innings.”
That tied score held true all the way through the regulation seven innings. Both teams, however, did squander some opportunities to cash in opportunities earlier in the game. Powers, in particular, stranded at least one runner in every inning on Friday, a total of 10 on the afternoon.
Both teams left the bases loaded in the fifth inning.
“We had some shots to get the go-ahead run and so did (Powers),” Szalka said. “And then in the eighth inning, it just went in their favor.”
The traffic on the basepaths from the Chargers was part of a collectively gritty pitching effort from Trenton’s Caleb Kidd and Joel Mator. Kidd started for the Trojans, going four innings plus two batters into the fifth before giving way to Mator.
Whenever he needed them most to extend the game and give the team a chance to take a lead, Szalka was able to lean on his go-to 1-2 punch on the rubber.
“When you make it this far, the moments get bigger,” Szalka said. “You want to try and stay calm but it is tough to do. Sometimes that means you are going to let some pitches go high. But they both responded and came back. It was one heck of a game.”
The moments both on Friday and over the course of the marathon spring season, coupled with the overall makeup of his team, allowed for Szalka to feel confident in his team’s potential from the jump back in late March.
“We faced some tough times during the season and had some tough losses,” Szalka said. “It seemed like a lot of those losses were close games, but we learned from them and kept grinding. We were in a lot of moments this season where these moments (like today) hit, we had already been in those moments before so it wasn’t ever too big for them.”
“I kind of felt from the beginning of the season that this team could be special,” Szalka added. “But they are still high school kids and I’ve felt that before. It’s my job to get the best out of them.”
After both teams stranded one runner in the seventh, Trenton in the top of the eighth saw both Ashton Rooney and Caleb Kidd line out on a hard-hit balls in what was otherwise a quick 10-pitch inning.
In the home half, Powers put themselves in prime position to win in walk-off fashion when Eli and Isaac Sturgess drew back-to-back walks to lead off the inning. The former of those brothers is signed on to play next year on the very field where the state finals are held annually.
A groundball out followed by an intentional walk issued to Connor Kelly loaded the bases up for Powers. That brought to the plate Gavin Darling, who on the first pitch he saw from Mator lifted a ball to left field and dropped in to score Eli Sturgess and seal the win for the Chargers.
Powers (36-6) with the win advanced to the state championship game for the third time in school history and the first in 40 years. That D2 final is set to take place on Saturday, June 15 at approximately 5:00p.
As for Trenton (30-11-1), the loss caps off a run that earned the program’s fourth-ever trip to the state semifinals. It also marks the end of career for five seniors with Kidd being among that bunch.
“It’s going to be tough losing those guys,” Szalka said. “They all got a lot of playing time and came up with big hits. A couple of them were here in 2019 when they had brothers on the team, they came here and had a chance to see it.
“I’m going to miss them tremendously,” Szalka concluded. “We had great leadership from our senior class this year.”
