Swing of a lifetime by Oxley gives Lakeview big win over Okemos in regional semifinal
Cade Oxley took the best swing of his life.
And it led to an even better feeling.
Oxley, a senior, hit a home run for the first time in his high school career and that swing gave Lakeview all the momentum it needed to roll into a regional final.
No. 9-ranked Lakeview defeated Okemos, 11-2, in a Division 1 baseball regional semifinal at DeWitt High School on Wednesday. Lakeview (34-6) advances to see Livonia Franklin (21-9) in a regional final at 10 a.m. Saturday at Novi.
Trailing 1-0 early, Oxley set the tone for the rest of the game in the second inning, when he hit a long two-run home run over the left field fence to give Lakeview a lead it would never give up as the Spartans advance to the regional finals for the second year in a row.
"That's my first home run of the year. I haven't hit one in about 10 years. Last time was probably 12-U, been a long time," Oxley said. "The guys were excited to see that one go ... got us some momentum, got us hyped out of our minds.
"When I hit it, it was like, 'Whoa, that felt good.' That was the best at-bat of my life."
Lakeview coach Kyle Kracht has been used to seeing his team score early lately, but when the Spartans failed to get a hit or a run in the first inning against a quality Okemos team, he was wondering what kind of day this was going to be.
However, he didn't have to wait long.
"The hope was, let's score early like we have been doing and then we go out in the first inning and we get three straight pop ups. Then they score early. So their confidence was up and ours could've been down," Kracht said. "But then Cade hit that big, big, big home run, and it was a no-doubter, and that was a huge momentum swing."
Lakeview added a run in the second inning on an RBI single by Zach Kucharczyk and the Spartans were up 3-1.
That lead held up through the first three innings as the Spartans' starter Jackson Haywood had held Okemos hitless through three frames, with the only run coming as the Wolves' Caleb Bonemer came home on a passed ball in the first.
Okemos would get the bats going in the fourth with three hits in the inning as Dominic Eastman added an RBI single to cut the lead to 3-2.
But the Okemos pitching staff would struggle from there, as Lakeview would add four runs in the fifth. The Spartans took a 4-2 lead on an RBI single by Malachi Goss. Lakeview would then score on a back-to-back bases-loaded walks and a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Keegan Hutchinson for a 7-2 advantage.
For the game, Okemos needed five pitchers as Lakeview put together 14 hits.
"The thing I was a little bit disappointed with is, we didn't come out hitting on all cylinders on the mound. And that's been a staple of our team all year long, and we just didn't get it done today," Okemos coach Raul Presas said. "That's not a criticism of any of the guys I threw out there today, but we just didn't get it done on the bump today."
With Jacob Kucharczyk coming in to pitch for Lakeview in the fifth, he held Okemos scoreless the rest of the way.
The Wolves end the year at 23-6-1.
"Lakeview is a great club, they earned it and they deserved the win," Presas said. "We lost to a good team today and somebody has to lose and it was our turn to do that.
"But 23-6-1 is nothing to be disappointed about. I can't say enough about our seniors and the leadership they provided. We are going to miss them. This was a special group this year."
The Spartans tacked on four runs in the seventh as Lakeview gets ready to head to the regional finals.
"The nice part about this group, is that they have played a lot of baseball and they are used to playing at a high level. They knew they would have to step it up today because they were playing a team in Okemos that was a better team than we have seen so far in the tournament," Kracht said. "And now, we get to play another day and we get to continue to go to practice. That's what this group wants. They aren't looking forward to summer break. They just want to keep playing baseball and to keep winning."
More Regional Baseball
Division 2 at Lakewood Lake Odessa
Olivet, winners of the Diamond Classic in Lansing, stayed hot and advanced with an 8-1 win over Coldwater in a Division 2 regional semifinal at Lakewood Lake Odessa. Olivet, ranked No. 11 at 35-3-1 overall, advances to a regional final at Kalamazoo College to face Hamilton (22-13).
Division 2 at Hamilton
Gull Lake saw its season come to an end with a 3-1 loss to host Hamilton in a regional semifinal. Gull Lake finishes at 20-16-1. Hamilton advances to face Olivet in a regional final at Kalamazoo College, 12:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Division 4 at Colon
Tekonsha, which rolled to two mercy-rule wins on its way to a district title, was shut out in this Division 4 regional semifinal, falling to Concord, 10-0, in six innings. Concord advances to play No. 6 Decatur in a regional final at Lumen Christi.
Regional Soccer
No. 9-ranked Gull Lake lost to No. 5 Pinckney, 1-0, in a regional semifinal at Vicksburg on Wednesday. Gull Lake, which had advanced to the state semifinals a year ago, finishes the season at 12-6-1.
Contact Bill Broderick at bbroderi@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter @billbroderick.
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Swing of a lifetime gives Lakeview big win over Okemos in regional
