EAST LANSING — Forest Hills Eastern baseball has a simple one-word motto that appears on its warmup shirts and the team yells in unison as it breaks out of a huddle.
Respond.
“They have a no-quit mentality,” Forest Hills Eastern coach Ian Hearn said. “Either way, they are going to come back fighting. That’s for sure.”
That team motto came to fruition on the diamond in the MHSAA Division 2 state semifinals at McLane Stadium — the biggest moment of the season — on Thursday, June 12. Forest Hills Eastern (41-1) jumped on Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (26-13) for a four-run lead in the top of the first inning. The Hawks produced three runs before the first out of the game was recorded, and chased St. Mary’s starter Paul Toovalian after just one out.
But St. Mary’s slowly flipped the momentum from there.
The Eaglets whittled the lead away, one run at a time, while reliever Luke Crighton stumped Forest Hills Eastern to keep the lead from ballooning. After the Eaglets scored one run in the second, fourth and fifth innings, Crighton drove in the game-tying run in the sixth inning on a groundball to shortstop, leading to a throwing error.
Forest Hills Eastern, like it has all season, found another way to produce a response , breaking the tie in a 5-4 win to set up a finals matchup with Standish-Sterling on Saturday, June 14.
In the seventh, Ben Fausey led off with a searing double to left on a first-pitch fastball after shaking off three empty at-bats.
“My first three at-bats were a little rocky, probably getting the nerves out, but throughout the season, I’ve been a really good hitter,” Fausey said. “I went up there with confidence, hunting fastball.”
James Dempsey drove in the game-winning run with a perfectly executed bunt down the third-base line. St. Mary’s tried to make the play at first, but the ball ended up in right field on a throwing error, allowing Fausey to score.
“Our word this year is ‘respond,’ ” Dempsey said. “Whatever happens, just bounce back and be ready to get it next time.”
Dempsey’s perfect bunt execution stems from the hours of practice Forest Hills Eastern puts into small ball at the start of each practice.
“We bunt for probably 20 minutes every day in practice,” Dempsey said. “It’s the first thing we do.”
Colton Brinks, who came on relief with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning, shut the door with a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the seventh, which included a 5-6-3 double play after a lead-off single.
Brinks, who entered Thursday with a 0.52 ERA on the season, escaped the jam by inducing a popout and a flyout, before Orchard Lake St. Mary’s tied it with an unearned run in the sixth inning.
“He’s done that multiple times and he’s been successful,” said Hearn.
Forest Hills Eastern has now won 40 games in a row, dating back to splitting the season-opening doubleheader against Sparta. The Hawks now have a chance to make it 41 in a row and win the school’s first state championship since 2022 in Saturday’s final against Standish-Sterling.
Crighton stabilizes OLSM
Jaden Oliver finished the first inning after St. Mary’s opted to pull Toovalian off the mound before turning the ball over to Crighton.
Crighton, committed to Indiana, took over on the mound in the second inning. He finished the game from there, holding Forest Hills Eastern to one earned run over six innings on six hits to go along with eight strikeouts.
He mitigated the damage from the Hawks’ lineup until Fausey ambushed a first-pitch fastball in the final inning.
“Keep them at four runs and let us try to catch up,” Crighton said about his mentality coming in for relief. “I did a pretty good job, gave my team a chance, but it wasn’t enough.”
Crighton attacked the strike zone with first pitch strikes, mainly using his fastball or slider, and mixed in curveballs and changeups to keep Forest Hills Eastern off balance.
The junior utility fielder, leadoff hitter and pitcher will headline the returning lineup for St. Mary’s in 2026, when he hopes to finish his high school career on top.
“Just get better all around,” Crighton said. “We have a good amount of returners so we are hoping to finish the job next year.”
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Jared Ramsey covers high school sports for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jramsey@freepress.com; Follow Jared on X or Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MHSAA baseball: Forest Hills Eastern KO’s Orchard Lake St. Mary’s with one word: ‘Respond’
Reporting by Jared Ramsey, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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