Kennedy rallies twice, wins 15th baseball district title in school history

NOTE -- The Kennedy baseball team won the District Championship Saturday beating Wyandotte and Southgate in late inning comebacks. Below is The News-Herald Newspapers' coverage by Sports Writer Shane Preston. The Eagles won by a score of 5-4 in each game. It's the 15th district title in school history and the first since 2008. The Eagles move on to regionals Saturday at Saline High School, beginning at noon. Come out and support your baseball team!

A never-say-die attitude was on full display in Gibraltar on Saturday as the Kennedy baseball team played the role of comeback kids twice and claimed a Division 1 district championship with a pair of 5-4 victories over Roosevelt and Anderson.

Eight of Kennedy’s 10 runs came in the seventh inning or later and the Eagles closed the day by erasing a four-run deficit entering the seventh inning in a 5-4 win over Anderson in the district championship.

Runs were scarce through the first four innings as Kennedy’s Nathan Farner and Anderson’s Tyler Hall matched each other pitch-for-pitch with each pitcher allowing one hit and no runs through four frames.

Anderson opened the scoring in the fifth after three-straight singles Dylan Downs, Blake Sloan and Brandon Ostrowski loaded the bases. One out later, the bases were still loaded and Sloan scored on a wild pitch.

The Titans made it 3-0 an inning later with two more runs after Shane Freitag scored on a wild pitch and Downs doubled in a run with two outs.

In the top of the seventh, Anderson took a seemingly insurmountable lead after a Freitag RBI single to right field for a 4-0 lead entering the bottom half of the final inning.

With a season-ending loss potentially looming for the second time of the day, Kennedy’s bats finally woke up.

Marcus Doughten led off the inning by reaching base on an error. After a flyout to center field, Tyler Donahey was hit by a pitch before Nathan Farner ripped a two-run triple to deep right center field to bring the Eagles within two runs. Cody Serafin made it 4-3 with an RBI groundout one batter later, but the Eagles found themselves down one run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh with nobody on.

Matt Woloszyk was hit by a pitch to keep the inning going and co-captain Brett Hall delivered the second huge triple of the inning with a long shot that plated Woloszyk as the game-tying run. The inning ended on an groundout to first base that stranded Hall at third.

After two quick outs, Anderson put a pair of runners on in the top of the eighth with a walk to Downs and a single by Kyle Riddle, but a groundout ended the Titan threat.

Kennedy’s Christian Ramage led off the eighth with a pinch-hit single, but was doubled-off at first after an attempted bunt was popped up to the pitcher. The third out of the inning should have come one batter later when CJ House struck out, but the pitch got away from catcher and House was safe at second after the ensuing throw went into the outfield.

Donahey took advantage of the lucky break with a two-out RBI single that plated the walk-off winner for Kennedy.

“As coaches, we look at things logically with tendencies and stuff like that and when you’re down 4-0 in the seventh inning, it doesn’t look good,” Kennedy Coach Corey Farner said. “These kids, though, they refuse to quit and they refuse to give in to that. They don’t care about tendencies. They don’t care about what other people think. They don’t care about any of that.

“They are them and I’m proud of them for that. They’ve got an identity and you go through your coaching career and a lot of teams don’t have that. This one does.”

Nathan Farner pitched 6.2 innings for the Eagles and allowed four runs on seven hits in the no decision. Doughten got the win in relief after tossing 1.1 scoreless innings.

Hall was strong for the Titans, allowing only two hits and no runs with five strikeouts in 5.2 innings.

Districts have been particularly sweet for Kennedy as the Eagles – who finished tied for third in the Downriver League standings – defeated a league co-champ in the finals.

“You’d like to win your league, but let’s face it, this six-team district is kind of like a league tournament,” Farner said. “We won it. To me, we were right there with the league the whole year, either one game out or tied. When it comes down to it, you can ask any guy out here or any coach if they would rather win the league or win this tournament and move on, they would rather keep playing.

“We played in so many close games this year and I’ll tell you, we’ve got some great coaches in this league.”

The championship game came immediately on the heels of another 5-4 comeback win over Roosevelt in the day’s second district semifinal game.

Roosevelt led 4-1 after two innings after a first-inning two-run homer by Vinnie Jelsomeno and a two-run error in the second. Kennedy’s lone run came on a first-inning RBI single from Jake McLeod.

The Bears held a three-run lead until the sixth when Donahey made it 4-2 with an RBI single.

After escaping the top of the seventh without surrendering a run despite Roosevelt putting runners on first and third, Kennedy staged a seventh-inning rally without recording a run-scoring hit.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Donahey drew a bases loaded walk and Farner was hit by a pitch to drive in two huge runs to send the game into extras.

Farner – who pitched in relief against Roosevelt – retired the Bears in order in the top of the eighth. Woloszyk led off the Kennedy half of the inning with a single and moved to second and then third on wild pitches. After a pair of walks loaded the bases with no outs, a fielder’s choice and popup slowed the Eagles’ momentum before another wild pitch allowed McLeod to score from third for the game-deciding run.

“If you go out swinging and never give up until the very last out, you’re going to find yourself on the other side and you’ll be winning a lot more,” Kennedy Coach Corey Farner said. “That’s what they do. I can’t explain it and I can’t give you the science behind it.

“There were about four times today in both games I thought at some point this might be it and we might be dead in the water. Then someone comes up with a big hit or someone comes up with a hustle play.”

Woloszyk pitched 6.1 innings and calmed down after allowing four early runs to the Bears. Tyler Thorington got the start for Roosevelt and allowed two runs in 6.1 innings.

In the opening semifinal matchup, Anderson defeated host Carlson 4-2.

Anderson scored a run in each of the first three innings and made its lead hold up with a solid pitching performance by Lockwood.

Freitag had an RBI single in the first, Paul Sullivan had a run-scoring base hit in the second and Greg Galetto scored on a wild pitch in the third.

Carlson scored a pair of runs in the fifth after a balk brought in a run and a bases-loaded walk by Garland Sutton brought the Marauders within one.

The Titans held the Marauders at bay down the stretch and added an insurance run in the top of the seventh on an RBI single from Jonah Peryam.

Lockwood struck out six and pitched 5.1 innings in the win.

The Eagles will travel to Saline next Saturday for regionals.

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