The Orchard Lake St. Mary’s baseball team continued a lengthy winning streak, having surprisingly little trouble Friday in winning the Catholic League title.
St. Mary’s recorded a pair of shutouts, beating Warren De La Salle 11-0 six innings before beating Birmingham Brother Rice, ranked No. 1 in Division 1, 7-0 in the championship game.
St. Mary’s pitcher Hudson Brzustewicz allowed two hits in six inning of work on the mound and hit a home run against De La Salle.
In the win over Brother Rice, senior Luke Crighton hit a a two-run, inside-the-park home run in the first inning and was dominant on the mound, striking out 10 in a two-hit shutout.
Crighton also had a pair of hits and two RBIs against De La Salle.
St. Mary’s has now won 17 straight games.
Detroit Cass Tech claims second straight PSL title
It was a sweet repeat for Detroit Cass Tech, which for the second straight year beat Detroit Western in the PSL Championship game at Comerica Park, winning 4-2 on Wednesday.
While Cass Tech has gotten the better of Western two years in a row in the PSL title game, Cass Tech hopes to break through against Western in the state tournament when the teams are once again paired in the same district.
The teams have met four of the last five years in the district round of the state playoffs, with Western winning all four.
Red-hot Novi the top seed in KLAA tourney
The league that is home to the last three state champions in Division 1 — the Kensington Lakes Activities Association — will have its postseason tournament this week.
Novi was the champion in 2023, Northville in 2024 and Hartland last year.
Novi, a winner of nine straight, earned the No. 1 seed and host Livonia Churchill on Monday in semifinal. The other semifinal will pit Hartland against Livonia Stevenson.
The winners will meet on Wednesday for the league championship.
Romeo takes MAC Red over Dakota in well-pitched games
The Macomb Area Conference Red title belongs to Romeo after it outlasted equally red-hot Macomb Dakota, last year’s state runner-up in Division 1, in a couple of low-scoring games last week.
Romeo won the first game of a three-game series, 2-1, at Dakota behind six innings of no-hit ball from senior ace Nick Kaminski.
In the second game, Romeo officially clinched the league title with a 3-1 home win behind six more strong innings from senior Anthony Gergely.
Dakota entered the series one game back of Romeo and had a chance to overtake it for first.
Romeo ended up sweeping the series with a 7-4 win at Dakota in the third game Thursday.
Keith Dunlap is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, Cass Tech, Romeo baseball among league champs
Reporting by Keith Dunlap, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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