After Plymouth Christian Academy lost the Division 4 baseball state championship to Beal City in 2023, Michael Fernandez and Luke Janigian hugged before the two freshmen exited Michigan State’s McLane Stadium.
“Don’t worry,” Janigian recalled Fernandez told him. “We’re going to be back here.”
Two years later, the Eagles are, indeed, back.
Janigian struck out nine batters and had five straight three-up, three-down innings in a 9-1 victory over Petersburg-Summerfield in the semifinal on June 13.
The Eagles (29-7) meet Portland St. Patrick in Saturday’s state championship.
“We did our job today, so, hopefully, we can get it done tomorrow,” said Janigian, who played second base and batted ninth in 2023’s championship. “We’ve done it against all levels — D-1, D-2 and D-3 — all year. We just need to play our game. I don’t think there’s another team better than us.”
Light rain was a factor all evening.
Summerfield played like the drizzle impacted how well it could field the baseball. The Bulldogs (21-11) committed five errors, including throwing wild pitches and passed balls and dropping a few routine catches. Heck, they even had a Bill Buckner play where a line drive went through a player’s legs.
Meanwhile, the Eagles played like they were trying to get the game over before the rain started pouring.
They flirted with a five-inning mercy rule, coming within one run of making it happen thanks to their offense putting up seven runs on the scoreboard in the third. They worked fast.
Offensive highlights included Janigian stealing home for a run and smacking a line drive to push in another score, Dylan Beasley doubling in two runs and catcher Brandon Shollack almost clearing the bases on a pop fly.
And, defensively, PCA was nearly perfect.
Summerfield went three up and three down five times, despite putting two runners on. One runner was picked off at first, while the other fell victim to Beasley, who leaped for a shot to right field, somehow made the grab and tossed it to first to turn a double play that robbed the Bulldogs of a chance to score.
“That’s the highlight of our team all year, the defense,” said Janigian, who allowed only two hits and two walks. “When you go on the bump knowing you can just throw strikes and the defense has your back, it lets you ease into the game. It gives you the confidence to throw strikes, since you’re letting your defense do the work. That’s why I love playing with these guys.”
They’ve placed a premium on playing stout defense because two errors cost them in that 2-0 loss to Beal City in the state championship two years ago.
Some teams get caught up in the bright lights and fanfare that come with playing at MSU.
PCA was out to prove it has been there and done that already.
“That was the biggest thing that we talked about all throughout practice this week,” second-year coach Eero Perkola said. “We told them that it’s just the same game we’ve been playing all year in a different environment. Just play your game how you’ve been playing all year, and that’s what they did today.”
And there will be a lot of noise for both the players and coaches to block out.
The upperclassmen want to make up for the two mistakes that cost them a state title last time.
Micah Lavigne, who got on base twice, is playing in his second championship this school year. The senior lost a 1-0 heartbreaker to Muskegon Western Michigan Christian in the boys soccer state final last fall.
Fernandez, who had two hits and an RBI, will start on the mound in the championship, looking to carry the Eagles to a state title, something his older sister, Anna, fell just short of doing when the Eagles’ girls basketball team faced Fowler in the championship in 2022 at MSU.
And for Perkola? His alma mater, Macomb Dakota, will make its first appearance in a championship when it takes on Hartland one game before PCA takes the field.
“It’s funny how it all lines up,” Perkola said.
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on Twitter at @folsombrandonj.
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: Plymouth Christian Academy baseball earns return trip to Division 4 state final
Reporting by Brandon Folsom, Hometownlife.com / Hometownlife.com
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
