Bay City Western accomplished a rare, but not unheard of, feat when it won won state titles in both baseball and softball in the same season June 14 at Michigan State University.
Bay City Western’s baseball team, however, became the first repeat champion in Division 1 when it edged Grosse Pointe South 6-2.
The girls, who were runners-up last season, came out on top this time with a 4-2 win over Portage Central.
Hannah Leppek allowed two runs on three hits and struck out six to lead Western to its first Division 1 softball title. Kaylynn Carpenter, Blair Miller, and Melissa Wegner had one hit and one RBI apiece for Bay City Western, which ended the year with a 41-3 record.
Rick Garlinghouse, with a 10-year record of 326-77-3 at Western, was finally able to clutch the state trophy.
His team had gotten off to a 2-0 lead in the final. “Two runs, I thought, might be enough,” he said, adding that he was confident that the Warriors would hold back a late-game Portage Central rally. “We were in the championship game last year. We played a tough schedule this year. Beating Hudsonville, Romeo, and Portage Central, we deserved what we got here. No one can say we backed in.”
Garlinghouse admitted that as soon as the 2013 season ended, his girls were thinking about 2014.
“They came right in the first day of tryouts, and after we picked our team, we went over our goals, and that was our goal to win the state championship,” he said. “We lost two games back-to-back in a tournament after we beat the state champs from last year, Mattawan, in a tournament. Then we lost to Bullock Creek and Sanford Meridian. I think they went down there just to beat Mattawan. That sent me a message right there that if they want to come out, they can play.”
The Warriors definitely appeared ready to go.
“The only thing I ask them to do is play all 21 outs, don’t give up, and play hard,” Garlinghouse said. “I think we’ve been doing that.”
Bay City Western’s baseball team joined the girls’ squad as state champion a few hours later. Justin Gorr had two hits and two RBI for Western.
Jason Clark, sophomore, threw a three-hitter for a Western team that’s the first in Division 1 to win back-to-back baseball state titles and that finished the year with a 38-7 record.
Western scored three runs in the first inning and built a 6-0 lead.
“Getting those three runs early were humongus,” said coach Tim McDonald. “We had some great at-bats the first two innings. Their pitcher made some good pitches. We had two out-hits, which are so huge.”
Gorr, a senior, loved every moment of it.
“We only had two returners; it’s a whole new team,” he said. “We didn’t have any returning pitchers from last year. To get the support of the young kids, all the contributions were great.”
Gorr was on the team last season but was hurt and unable to play.
“Last year, everyone expected us to be in the state championship, but this year, everyone was looking down on us that we couldn’t do it,” he said. “To prove them wrong is an amazing feeling.”
The state title win was a sweet one for McDonald, who is 602-205-7 over 22 seasons.
“It was an almost flawless performance from one through nine,” he said. “You dream of coming out and playing like that, but you never know how high school kids are going to react.”
The Warriors blanked Lapeer West 5-0 and Flushing 6-0 in the regionals and Jenison 2-0 in the quarterfinal. Against Clarkston in the semifinal, the Warriors prevailed 6-1. That equates to a 25-3 scoring advantage in the final five games.
“We’ve played our best in the biggest games this year,” McDonald said. “We’ve had big games in our conference to help us win our conference. When the tournament started, I don’t think they felt pressure because of last year. It was pressure because it’s a one-and-done tournament. That’s why some really good teams slip up and get knocked off. These guys never ever even flinched, and they deserve it. There’s more talented teams, but you can’t play better than they did.
“Seniors, they know this can be their last game in high school. Sometimes the underclassmen know there’s always a tomorrow. But for seven tournament games, that was as good a display of baseball that you’re going to see.”
McDonald acknowledged that expectations were different between the 2013 and the 2014 state championship runs. “Last year, it wasn’t as surprising,” he said. “The state championship has sort of a numb feeling to it. I’ve won some championships as a player back in the day, but it’s different as a coach. We told them at our meeting [Friday] night that a lot of these guys have won championships, but there’s something special about winning with your buddies and kids you’ve grown up with. Now maybe they’ll know what I mean.”
McDonald had to admit that after winning the 2013 title, he wasn’t exactly making guarantees of another one in 2014.
“I treasured last year’s championship for a long time, and every time I see the guys from last year, there’s a bond that will never be broken,” McDonald said. “Now this year’s group gets to enjoy that. I’ll never say either one was better. It’s different. It’s so hard to do. You have to be able to perform and do all the things championship teams do to win it.”
McDonald admitted to treasuring the fact that he has the first team to win back-to-back titles.
“We’ve had other teams good enough to contend for a state title, but we’d run into other good teams at some point,” he said. “Or you just don’t get a break. There’s a certain culture of success for our baseball program. Even though there’s lot of new faces, there was some carry over from last year to this year. I told reporters over the course of the year that I had to walk a fine line all year, that you don’t want to dwell on last year. You need to turn the page. We had to establish our own identity. We did it the same way.”
It’s not inconceivable that both the boys’ and the girls’ Western teams could make another run at state titles next season.
“We’re sitting good,” Garlinghouse said. “This was a whole new infield for us, except for shortstop and pitcher. We lose four seniors, by no means easy to replace. But every year, there’s 25 percent turnover on a team.”
“It feels really great,” said sophomore second baseman Kelsie Popp. “There’s a lot of girls that have a lot of things going for them in softball. To be a part of a team that’s so family-oriented and we are all kind of like sisters, it’s great to be on this team. It’s our team chemistry. If we didn’t have that and each other’s back, I feel we wouldn’t have been able to come as far as we have.
“We felt we were good. We hoped we could show it. The [opposing] teams never gave up. We knew they were not going to go down without a fight. So were we.”
The baseball-softball sweep “was fun,” Popp said. “We both wanted it. We both have support for each other. We watch theirs, they watch ours.”
“The girls were there last year, couldn’t finish it off, but got it this year,” Gorr said. “To have two state championships in the same year for Bay City Western is great.”
“It’s a good day to be a Warrior,” McDonald said. “I’ll probably say that a hundred times. The girls had a lot of pressure on them. They made no secret about what their goal was this year. We really took this one goal at a time. That’s what we did last year.”