Saline baseball earns No. 1 spot, hopes for league title in makeup with Temperance Bedford
Saline payers gather before the start of a 2012 quarterfinal game.
Jeffrey Smith | AnnArbor.com file
The Saline baseball team had to call the second game of its April 26th doubleheader against Temperance Bedford with the score tied 7-7 after six innings.
Now, it’s hoping to make the trip south sometime next week to finish that game, with a league title on the line.
After Monday’s doubleheader sweep of Monroe, the Hornets are 9-2 in league play, one game behind Bedford. There are two more doubleheaders left in SEC play, Thursday and Monday.
If those games don’t provide more than a game of separation, then the Hornets could be headed back to Bedford to finish up the suspended game with a league title on the line.
"We still have a lot of good teams to play before we hopefully play Bedford again," Saline coach Scott Theisen said Monday. "We're putting things together."
Saline has won seven straight games that count in the SEC standings since that Bedford series. It’s only blip during the past week was a doubleheader loss to Northville Saturday.
But if they can get by Huron Thursday and Pioneer Monday, the Hornets will have proved themselves the best team in this county, and will be headed to Monroe County in search of a league title.
Baseball
1. Saline: The Hornets were swept by Northville Saturday, but stayed in the SEC Red race by sweeping Monroe on Monday.
2. Skyline: The Eagles got a big home split with first-place Temperance Bedford on Monday.
3. Dexter: Dexter swept Pioneer and Huron last week, and are a game back of Tecumseh, their Thursday opponent, in the SEC White standings.
4. Huron: A Monday sweep of Pioneer ended a three-game skid for the River Rats, but couldn’t keep them from moving down a spot in the rankings.
5. Father Gabriel Richard: The Irish lost in the Catholic League semifinals over the weekend to Madison Heights Bishop Foley, the top team in the state.
Softball
Chelsea's Bailey Darwin
Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com file
1. Saline: A Monday sweep of Monroe avenged the only loss on the Hornets’ schedule and clinched the SEC Red title outright.
2. Chelsea: The Bulldogs are playing some of their best softball after a split with Monroe and a convincing sweep of Lincoln in the last week.
3. Dexter: The Dreadnaughts played 11 games in eight days ending Monday, going 7-4.
4. Manchester: The Lady Dutch won in walk-off fashion Saturday over Dexter and are now 7-2 on the season.
5. Lincoln: Stiff competition has been tough on the Railsplitters: they’ve been swept by Saline and Chelsea in their last two SEC doubleheaders.
Boys Track
1. Saline: The Hornets won Friday at Siena Heights and were fourth on Saturday at the River Rat Invitational with a split squad. Andrew Kitto won the 800-meter run on Friday and Logan Wetzel won the 1,600 Saturday.
2. Pioneer: The Pioneers came in sixth at a Davison Invitational on Friday. Galen Burrell was first in the 800 and second in the 1,600, and Tre Brown was the runner-up in both hurdles events.
3. Chelsea: A 14-foot, 9-inch pole vault from Michael Hovater, plus sprint wins from Berkley Edwards, led the day for Chelsea at Huron on Saturday
4. Lincoln: Tyree Waller isn’t the only Splitter who can jump: Lazon Hicks cleared 6-foot-5 in the high jump last week.
5. Ypsilanti: Malik Peacock’s 100 and 200 times trail only Berkley Edwards for best in the county.
Girls Track
Krista Schaefer of Dexter
Courtney Sacco | AnnArbor.com file
1. Saline: After wrapping up an undefeated SEC dual season, the Hornets won at Siena Heights Friday with seven individual event wins.
2. Pioneer: The Pioneer girls came in fourth Friday at Davison and took both hurdles events: Alexis Dubrevil won the 100 and Chinonye Uche won the 300.
3. Chelsea: The Bulldog girls finally lost a dual meet but still had a strong showing in this year’s SEC competitions.
4. Huron: Kennedy Beazley helped the River Rats finish runner-up at their own invitational Saturday.
5. Dexter: The Dreadnaughts took down rival Chelsea last week to spoil the Bulldogs undefeated season.
Girls Soccer
1. Skyline: The Eagles continued rolling going into a showdown with Huron next week.
2. Saline: A 1-0 loss to Northville Saturday was followed by a pair of big SEC wins this week.
3. Dexter: Our former number one team has lost two straight going against tough SEC Red crossover competition.
4. Huron: The River Rats had won three straight heading into a Wednesday matchup with South Lyon East, with a Thursday Pioneer matchup looming.
5. Pioneer: Tuesday’s win over Dexter puts the Pioneers back in this week’s rankings.
Kyle Austin covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kyleaustin@annarbor.com or 734-623-2535. Follow him on Twitter @KAustin_AA.
Comments
Napalm.Morning
Fri, May 17, 2013 : 1:18 p.m.
Agree with Lon. . . but also a little deeper analytically. . . in the smaller communities such as Saline, Chelsea, Dexter, Milan, et. al. the players, coaches, and families all pull together with the athletes essentially playing together in the t-ball, little league, club teams, and the school system for upwards of ten years, particularly with one middle school feeding one high school. In doing so you also build a legacy parent volunteer/support effort for fundraising activities to supplement and build "programs". Meanwhile in AA we celebrate diversity and choice hence spreading the talent pool accross multiple sports such as field hockey, lacrosse, and crew. Hence, Huron can't even field a JV softball team due to lack of interest such as to offer real game developmental opportunities for underclassmen to grow into competitive varsity players. BTW, I'm not dissing the range of alternative sports just analyzing/explaining. . .
SummerSquash
Fri, May 17, 2013 : 12:19 a.m.
Lon - I'm not sure what pool you are talking about as Saline has won the last 4 SEC swim titles for both the boys' and girls' seasons. In addition, Saline has been 1st, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the past four girls' state championships and the boys are the four time defending state champions.
Lon Horwedel
Thu, May 16, 2013 : 8:08 p.m.
Try finding any quality softball, or baseball, in Ann Arbor for younger kids. Part of the problem is there is no place to play. As a coach of the Ann Arbor A's U13 travel baseball team, I can tell you that there are quality ballplayers here in this town, but most, if not all, are forced to play travel ball elsewhere partly because the city way overpriced their fields a few years back to basically turn their backs on anything other than Rec and Ed ball. Every time I drive by Vets, I find myself licking my chops to get my kids out there on those fields if/when it finally reopens, but I fear the cost will be extreme, and I'm sure I'll cringe when I see perfectly manicured fields for the first time 20-years being used for adult co-ed kickball. Go to Saline, Northville, Farmington Hills, Brighton, Hartland, Highland, etc., etc., and you'll see what a good quality youth baseball/softball program looks like. Of course we can kick their butts in the pool, but that's beside that point.
dakabk
Thu, May 16, 2013 : 3:13 p.m.
Kyle - Whats your take on why all the A2 schools are so inept in softball and have been for quite some time? I know Huron and Pioneer have had a fair amount of coaching turnover recently but Skyline has had the same coach since Day 1 and it seems like that program is going down hill. Only 2 wins this year I believe.
Pete Cunningham
Thu, May 16, 2013 : 5:49 p.m.
Having a lot of sports options is definitely a blessing in Ann Arbor, but it also means the pool of athletes gets spread a little thin. It's important to note that Ann Arbor is historically strong in tennis, field hockey, track and field and soccer. Soccer, track and field and tennis have direct high school season conflicts and many of the best field hockey players either play club field hockey in the spring. I'm not saying softball can't improve at the Ann Arbor high schools, but these are some of the "road blocks."
Kyle Austin
Thu, May 16, 2013 : 5:02 p.m.
Well I haven't been around long enough to speak to the history, but I know that the best programs year-in and year-out are seem to be built through strong little league and travel programs. Oftentimes the varsity coach is making sure those programs are all strong and feeding into the high school program. Not sure what Ann Arbor's situation with that is but I know that's what helps a lot of softball programs have sustained success.