District Baseball: Milan wins first District title since '13; Dundee, Carlson, Summerfield out

ANN ARBOR – Milan's baseball team needed a plan of attack.

The Big Reds were facing one of southeast Michigan's toughest pitchers in Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard's Jake Brown – a Division 1 commit to West Virginia.

Fortunately, coach Adam Gilles knew his team had a slight advantage.

"In the Catholic League where they play, they start each at bat with a 1-1 count," Gilles said. "There's not much bunting there, so that's how we needed to put the ball in play."

The plan worked flawlessly as Milan rolled past Gabriel Richard 5-1 in the Division 2 District semifinals before taking down Pinckney 9-3 in the finals. It is the first District title for the Big Reds since 2013.

Getting past Gabriel Richard and Brown were the real challenge, Gilles said.

"We hit him extremely well," Gilles said. "We got our bunts down and they're just not used to that. ... They don't know what to do because they never have to deal with that. They started throwing the ball around and next thing you know, we're up 5-1."

Connor Dessellier earned the win, allowing no earned runs on five hits with eight strikeouts. Ryder Knox provided a big hit with a two-out, two-run single.

Luke Gebhardt came in to get the save and then stayed on the mound for the title game against Pinckney. He rolled through the first five innings while the Big Reds built a 9-0 lead. He gave up three runs in the sixth but earned the win, allowing five hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

"Pinckney is a very young team and Luke just threw strikes and we got out in front right away and never looked back," Gilles said.

William Gaskell V had three hits and two RBI against Pinckney and finished with five hits on the day, while Dessellier had four. Cody Wikaryasz (2 hits, 3 RBI) and Evan Morelock (2 hits, 2 RBI) also had big moments in the championship game.

Milan advances to Wednesday's Regional semifinal against Jackson Northwest at 6 p.m. at Eastern Michigan University's Oestrike Stadium. The Big Reds improved to 16-14 overall.

"We're probably a 25-win team if not for all the rainouts this year," Gilles said. "Our record doesn't show what we really are. We're a good team. I've known that all year and the boys know it too."

Pinckney advanced to the championship after defeating Dundee 5-2 in the semifinals.

The Vikings led 2-1 before Pinckney scored three runs in the fifth inning on a two-out triple and a passed ball.

Dundee left 11 runners on base in the game.

"We just couldn't get the big hit at the right time," Vikings' coach Paul Walters said. "We just missed our opportunities. ... We had the bases loaded in the fourth with nobody out and failed to score a run. We felt like that was a moment where we could've put the game away, but we had two strikeouts and a groundout and failed to capitalize on anything."

Drew Bolster, Ryan Zanger, and Trevor Schroeder had two hits apiece for Dundee, which finished the season 12-13.

"The record doesn't reflect the success we had," Walters said. "We have a young team. We have zero seniors on this team, so the future is very bright. The kids learned a lot and we're super excited about the future."

Division 1 at Woodhaven 

It was an all-too-familiar story for Gibraltar Carlson in the semifinals of the Division 1 District at Woodhaven Saturday.

All the runs the Marauders gave up were unearned in a 3-2 loss to Taylor.

“We’re still making in-game mistakes,” Carlson coach Matt Kolak said. “We had two errors. That was our demise.”

Blake Gant had a clutch, two-out single to score two runs, and John Hojnowski and Robert MacAleese had two hits each for Carlson. Hojnowski pitched well.

Carlson, which finished 9-30, will lose 10 seniors to graduation.

"I see a lot of young talent coming up,” Kolak said. “We have to play cleaner baseball.”

Woodhaven beat Taylor 12-0 in the District finals.

Division 4 at Addison

Summerfield made its season in the semifinals of the Division 4 District at Addison, beating the host team 5-4 for its first win of the season.

Then the Bulldogs went on to fall 6-5 to Britton Deerfield in the finals.

“I'm really proud of how the guys competed today and we were right there until the end,” Summerfield coach Reid Olmstead said. “We played our best baseball of the spring today and hope to carry it over into next season.”

Logan Keane and Keegan Sieler had two hits each in the semifinals and Brendan Myshock doubled to support solid pitching by Jacob Wadsworth and Keane.

Bryce Kalb went 4-for-4 with three doubles in the finals.

The Bulldogs, who had just one senior on the roster, finish 1-18-2.

“This felt good for everyone,” Olmstead said. “We were a lot better than our record and the kids all knew it.”

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Milan wins District baseball title; Dundee, Carlson, Summerfield out