STATE CHAMPS!!

Saturday June 14th was more than just the date of Chris and the now lovely Cheryl Reul's wedding. June 14th 2008 will forever go down in history as one of the greatest days the community of Grass Lake will ever see. Saturday, June 14...the day the Warriors won the state baseball championship for the first time in this century.

(Editor's Note: I am the real douchebag here. If I offended anyone I am deeply sorry. It was my own poor attempt at making light of a situation that was ugly and not true to anyone's actual personality. I am sorry.)

I have known Ben now for about 5 years. We coached JV football together at Grass Lake, attended classes at JCC together, and have probably tipped back a few adult beverages together. Ben is a good friend of mine and when his baseball team took the field for the first time this season, I had to skip class and be there to see it. Looking back, I probably should have stayed home. The first game of the season for the Warriors resulted in a loss to Clinton. They did win the second game of the doubleheader was Ben Hamilton's first win as a varsity baseball coach. Little did they know...there would be a lot more wins to come.

Grass Lake would go on to win the Cascades Conference Title for the first time since 1993. The Jackson Citizen Patriot Diamond Classic for the first time ever in their first appearance in that tourney. The District Title in anticlimactic fashion in a drubbing of Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard. The Regional championship in a blowout of much disliked Lumen Christi earned the Warriors a trip to the State Quarterfinals for the first time since my middle brother Aaron's team was there in the spring of 2003. Blissfield was next.

Blissfield High School is one of the most storied baseball programs in the state of Michigan. They have won a record 7 state championships and were in the quarterfinals for the fourth season in a row. Their coach Larry Tuttle is the winningest coach in Michigan's history winning his 1000th game earlier this season. Blissfield was a force to be reckoned with.

Fresh off his dominating, 11 strikeout performance against Lumen Christi in the Regional finals, Charlie Fisher took the rubber again to face Blissfield and all their tradition and obnoxious fans. Tradition however, doesn't score you runs. Fisher threw the most dominant game I have ever seen at any level, striking out 14 Royals while allowing just 4 hits in a complete game shut out. GL would go on to beat the Royals 1-0 after Jordon Bliss doubled into the gap to start the 5th inning. Steven O'Hotzke bunted him over to third, and Jon Lesinski roped a single into right to score the game's only run and send the Warriors to Battle Creek and the State Semi-Finals to face off with Beavers of Beaverton.

I rode with my parents and little brother Austin to the game and had been talking non-stop about the storm that was coming in and how the MHSAA was going to screw up the re-scheduling process if it came to that. Sure enough, we get there in time to watch both teams warm up and then Mother Nature decided to piss all over the place for a couple hours which pushed the start of the game back to 8 o'clock.

Casey Hall took the mound to face the Beavers who had previously been in the state title game the year before where they lost to upstart Hillsdale in extra innings. Most of the kids on that team were back and their fans were drunk and obnoxious the whole game, thinking that it was a lock that their boys would be back in the title game again this season. Casey Hall and the Warrior defense had other ideas. Hall pitched a complete game allowing one run and struck out seven in the ballsiest pitching performance I've seen since Aaron was pitching on the 2003 team. The defense turned two HUGE double plays to bail Casey out of some jams and the catcher Lesinski picked off a pinch runner at second to end another inning. After the game we wandered on to the field to talk with a few of the boys and congratulate them like we always do. After a Travis Rubingh bearhug, I looked in the dugout and saw a small sign hanging in there that read, "Warriors Eat Beavers Go Blue!" The Warriors were going to the state championship game.

Before I talk about the surreal State Championship game, I am going to tell you all a little bit about Joe Bechtel. Joe was my coach in high school up until my senior year when he retired after his son Jonathon graduated. Joe Coached baseball and football while teaching PE at Grass Lake for 30+ years. He touched the lives of probably thousands of kids in his years at Grass Lake and to this day, nobody can say anything bad about the man. Joe died of cancer on November 21st, 2003. The fall of 2004 was my second season coaching JV football with Ben. The seniors on this baseball team were small, nervous freshman when I told them with tears in my eyes that we were dedicating everything we did that season to the memory of Joe and everything he stood for. That team went undefeated. With Joe, you worked hard and you played hard, a mantra that this senior class lived by. They named the football stadium and athletic complex at Grass Lake High School after him which was a nice gesture but the best gesture, the best thing about it all is that these kids, who never played for or were taught by Joe, know his lessons through the coaches they play for as most of them played for Joe back in their high school days as well. While the JB on the sleeves of the baseball teams may fade away, his lessons and legacy will carry on in the town of Grass Lake forever. Joe also won baseball state championships in 1980 and 1988. 80-88-08. (That's a palindrome dad, it looks the same in reverse, kind of like racecar.)

We missed the first half of the first inning. Dad, Austin, and I had to go mow Gramma and Grappa Cole's lawn and it took longer than expected. I half jogged half sprinted (which is about full speed for me) through CO Brown Stadium to find Dusty and Kyle on the fence down the left field line and promptly threw a dip in and leaned on the fence with Dad and Austin following close behind.

We probably should have taken our time. Allendale scored two runs in the bottom of the first off of Fisher. I was very, very nervous that this was going to be reminiscent of the football state championships that was quarterbacked by Austin in the fall of 2006. All the build up but resulting in a heartbreaking loss. There would be no heartbreak in Grass Lake on this day.


The play seemed easy enough. With one out in the top of the second, Steven Ostrovich popped up to the middle of the infield, the Allendale third baseman jogged over and it looked like a routine can of corn for out number two, but the unthinkable happened. The kid dropped the ball. Just straight dropped it. It wasn't a windy day or a bright day or anything, he just simply let the ball hit his glove and fall harmlessly to the ground. That play opened the floodgates. Allendale would eventually commit a probable state record eight errors (see picture below) all of which would result in runs. The Warriors went on to score five in the second, four in the fourth, and five in the sixth for a total of 14 runs to Allendale's 4. Fisher didn't have his best stuff that day, but he didn't need his best stuff. The defense was there for him, notably the unassisted (and freakin sweet) double play by O'Hotzke after he made a diving stab on a line drive at second, got up and jogged in his confused way, back to second to double up the runner.



I looked at dad before the boys took the field in the bottom of the sixth and asked, "Is this really about to happen?" I almost spoke too soon as Allendale started getting on base and plated two runs before Ben walked out to the mound to talk briefly with Fisher and his infield. Soon after, a ground ball to first baseman Travis Rubingh sent Warrior Nation into a frenzy (on a side note, did anyone else notice that the city of Allendale didn't get the memo that their team was in the championship game? They had probably a few dozen people on their side while the GL side of the stadium was packed to the rafters. C'mon Allendale, what the hell? Friggin yuppies). Mom burst into tears, Dad and I were jumping around like little kids. Dusty sprinted under the stands to the visitor's locker room entrance to sneak into the dugout and give Ben a hug. The whole scene was pure, unadulterated joy, the kind that you can only get when a small town wins a state title over a big city.

After the game, it seemed nobody wanted to leave. The seniors took cupfuls of dirt from the infield. Hamilton was mobbed by reporters from around the state. Tears of joy streamed down the faces of the parents and some fans of these kids. Jordon Bliss waved the TV cameras away from Ben as he and a teammate emptied the water bucket on their coach.


They presented Sharon Bechtel a championship medal and the number 2 jersey (retired in honor of Joe's two titles). Hugs, handshakes, and tears were all you could see down by the fence where we stood. The team bus was greeted by firetrucks which led the parade through town. Karaoke Night at Missy's Grass Shack was moved out into the street and the bus was emptied in the middle of town as the kids danced around to the sounds of Queen's "We Are The Champions." Small town livin baby, small town livin.



Nolan Herendeen, Steve O'Hotzke, Charlie Fisher, Casey Hall, John (Johnboy) Lesinski, Jordon Bliss, Cameron VanLoon, Travis Rubingh, Zach Presnell, Brett Sherwood, Jared Zenz, John Wollery, Josh Willis, Steven Ostrovich, I can't say enough how proud the town of Grass Lake is of all of you. As for the seniors of the group, I can't thank you enough for being the type of guys that all of the kids from pre-school to high school can look up to and strive to be like. You are truly a special group and I feel very privileged to have been a small part of your lives. I wish all of you the best of luck in the future even though you don't really need it, you're a group that is destined for success on and off the playing fields. Thank you for making this spring another one to remember forever.



Warriors together, Warriors forever.



I taught them that...




(thanks to Pat Rowe and the Detroit News for the photos and video)