By John Raffel
Beal City desperately wanted to get that elusive state title for its seniors when its baseball team matched talents with New Lothrop in the Division 4 state championship game.
But New Lothrop had other plans in posting the 5-0 victory June 14 at Michigan State University.
New Lothrop was superior in soaring to its first state title. Grant Steinborn threw a seven-hit shutout for the victors.
“It’s like the baseball gods were not with us today,” Beal City coach Brad Antcliff said. “We didn’t play our best game, and that’s a reflection by the score. We lost 5-0.”
Kurt Gross started and went two innings, allowing one run. Ty Rollin went the final six and allowed four runs on eight hits.
“Their kid threw very well,” Antcliff said. “Kurt Gross did a great job. It was a tough call, and I had to make the call.”
Antcliff was asked if he felt snakebitten after four straight seasons of falling short. “Baseball’s a funny game,” he said. “You can’t walk people, you can’t hit people. When you get the opportunity, you have to score. New Lothrop did that.”
As a student at Chippewa Hills, Antcliff was a standout in other sports, including football. But his baseball coaching career that started eight years ago in Beal City has been one amazing success story for the former Warrior.
The Aggies ended this season at 36-4. Antcliff’s eight-year record is a glittering 260-43-3 and includes state titles in 2009 and 2010.
The Aggies played a relatively easy semifinal and chalked up an 11-1 victory over Kalamazoo Christian. A six-run fourth inning blew it open. The Aggies ended the game after six innings on the mercy rule. Gross had a hit and two RBI while Ryan Tilmann contributed two hits.
Antcliff used Rollin for four shutout innings and had Gross finish up the final two.
“We’ve been an aggressive team since I’ve been here, and we’re going to stay aggressive,” Antcliff said. “We’re going to make the other team make plays. We talked about that since Tuesday [in the quarterfinal 7-0 win over All Saints Catholic] that we need to put the ball in play and make them make the plays. We had a few flyouts that I’m not happy real about. But the kids played great baseball. They did exactly what I wanted them to do.”
Getting early leads is important for the Aggies. That why Antcliff called for a suicide squeeze with runners on third and no outs against Kalamazoo Christian.
“We’re going to score as quickly and as many as possible, because now I have Ty for six innings [Saturday],” he said.
Rollin was pitching on two days rest and gave up some hits early.
“I’m sure he was tired,” Antcliff said. “But he wants the ball. He wants to throw [in the title game]. That’s all I could ask. This is a totally different atmosphere. You’re playing at East Lansing at a Big Ten school. We’re not playing in rural Beal City. I’m sure he had a little bit of jitters. But he threw fine. He only was at 54 pitches, a little higher than on Tuesday. He still threw well.”
Antcliff and his players couldn’t deny how badly they wanted this title. “The drive is to win a state championship,” Antcliff said. “These guys have finished runner-up three times [twice in football, once in baseball]. That’s all we’ve talked about. There’s people who have doubted them. They’ve responded every time. We played one of the best teams in the state in Muskegon Catholic. In the seventh inning, we could have folded. But these kids responded. That’s all I can ask.”
The Aggies beat Muskegon Catholic Central 3-1 in the regional final.
“That was the plan and what I wanted to do,” Rollin said of his four innings against Kalamazoo Christian. “My [arm] feels great. [Velocity] was the same as normal. No problem there.”
He’s 5’7½”, 155 pounds and maintains a lot of talent.
“I make sure I hit my spots,” Rollin said. “That’s the most important job of pitching.”
But against New Lothrop, Rollin and his teammates couldn’t get over the hump and again had to settle for the state runner-up trophy.