Royal Oak Shrine falls in semifinal to eventual state champ
EAST LANSING ─ After Cam Swearingen caught a third-strike delivery from teammate Micky Laser – the final play of the 2025-26 prep sports season in Michigan – Swearingen soon found himself at the bottom of a dogpile made up of Novi Detroit Catholic Central teammates celebrating their MHSAA Division baseball state championship.
“It was a little tight down there, I was getting a little scared. It was definitely a little claustrophobic down there, but it was so exciting,” Swearingen said. “We’d been dreaming about a dogpile. I was on the bus here and I was talking to one of my buddies about this dogpile, and we were so excited about it, so I loved it.”
Catholic Central (29-12) left no doubt with a 7-0 championship-game victory over Rochester Adams on June 13 at Michigan State University’s McLane Stadium.
The Shamrock bats were in high gear from the get-go. The first two batters of the game, Bennett Thompson and Dylan Fairchild, hit triples, and a sacrifice fly from Nicholas Garnick brought Fairchild home for a 2-0 lead. Catholic Central doubled its lead in the second inning behind two more triples from Jaxon Gatt and Fairchild.
Catholic Central got two more runs in the fifth on yet another triple from Thompson and a walk to Fairchild. Thompson scored on a passed ball before Swearingen singled Fairchild home. With the five three-baggers, the Shamrocks set a championship-game record.
Laser delivered a complete-game four-hitter on the mound for his ninth win without a loss this season.
“He doesn’t throw over 83 miles per hour, he doesn’t worry about that; his velocity, his spin rotation, all this nonsense that’s going on,” head coach Ryan Rogowski said. “Micky Laser’s just a pitcher, and he just won Catholic Central a state title today.”
Swearingen, the Catholic League’s Ralph Owen scholar-athlete award winner and a Saginaw Valley commit, said there was never a doubt in his mind that Shamrocks would come through.
“It’s been 26 years since we’ve been here and we’ve got 16 seniors,” he said. ”Since October, it’s kind of been the mentality of ‘Championship or bust,’ and we were so excited to be here. It’s been a long time coming; we knew it was ours. We knew we were the best team in the state, and we’re glad to get the job done.”
Rogowski, who was a high school freshman when the Shamrocks won their prior state championship, said he had a “gut feeling” that Catholic Central would conclude the school year with the title.
“We have the toughest schedule in the state; we played everyone we could because we knew coming into this that we wanted to be ready to go, and boy, did we show it,” he said. “We just got our first one (in baseball) since 1999 ─ Catholic Central’s here to stay.”
Division 2: Favorite St. Mary’s comes through in the clutch
Throughout the season, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s sported practice shirts with the motto “We’re not done,” and that was never more apparent than when the Eaglets trailed Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills 4-0 in the Division 2 state championship game.
St. Mary’s (34-5) generated a late rally to tie the game and scored twice more as the game went into extra innings. The top-ranked Eaglets won their seventh overall championship, 6-4, closing the year with a 27-game winning streak.
Winning pitcher Anthony Abela threw the final five innings, quieting the Kenowa Hills bats by allowing just one hit.
“Even though we were down, we were still confident that we were going to win, and I had that mindset that no matter what, we were going to pull it out and win the state championship,” said Abela, who spent the offensive half of his innings pacing in the dugout to keep an even keel.
“When we were down, it was kind of just, ‘Don’t let it get worse,’ and once we inched back, it was, ‘OK, let’s do it,’” he said. “I think I was on cruise control at that point.”
St. Mary’s pushed across one run in the fourth inning and clubbed three more in the sixth.
“We knew we were never out of it. We got down early, but we’d been there before this year and we had the guys to do it. Every time we’re down, we just stay in the game for all seven innings ‘til that last out’s made,” catcher Tyler Shubnell said. “Last year (in the state final) we got down early, we got down four (in an eventual 5-4 loss to Ada Forest Hills Eastern), and we didn’t want to feel that feeling again.”
Shubnell played a key role in the comeback with a sixth-inning double that drove in D.J. Taylor and Zach Essig, then he scored the game-tying run on a fielding error later in the frame.
St. Mary’s got the go-ahead runs in the eighth after Joseph Schlip singled, and advanced on a wild pitch and a sacrifice bunt by Nate Bauman. He came home on Preston Duff’s bunt single and Bauman scored the insurance run on a single by Luke Crighton.
In the Division 2 semifinals on June 11, St. Mary’s ─ the Catholic League’s Bishop Division champion this spring ─ eliminated Dearborn Divine Child ─ the Cardinal Division champion ─ 8-0.
The Eaglets scored all their runs in two big innings. First, they broke open a scoreless tie by exploding for five in the third inning. Schlip, Bauman and Duff loaded the bases on three singles before Hudson Brustewicz cleared them with a triple down the right-field line. Crighton followed with another triple, knocking in Brustewicz. The next batter, Drew Tribul, brought Crighton home on a sacrifice fly.
St. Mary’s tacked on three more in the fifth, as Tribul, Derick Conrad and Essig started the inning with consecutive singles. The Eaglets then benefited from a balk, two batters hit by pitches and a throwing error.
Crighton was the winning pitcher, allowing only four Falcon hits, striking out eight and not walking any batters. Of his 83 pitches, 53 were strikes.
Royal Oak Shrine falls in Division 4 semifinal
Royal Oak Shrine made its first Final Four appearance since 2004, and even though the Knights fell 4-0 to Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart Academy on June 12, head coach Dan Noble was pleased that the team extended its playoff run as far as it did.
“When you make a run to the semifinals, it’s hard to be disappointed,” he said. “The place is great; the event is awesome. We had a couple of big eyes this morning as we came in. It’s not necessarily what we were used to, but eventually we just settled in and played solid baseball. We competed today and that’s what you want to see.”
Shrine (26-9) couldn’t generate much offense against Sacred Heart pitcher Nate Siler, who allowed just three hits and struck out 16. Shrine didn’t reach base until the bottom of the 4th, after Lucas Robinson laced a double to right field.
Behind doubles by Teegan Duffy and Hank MacDonald, Sacred Heart (37-4) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning before Shrine settled down. The score stayed the same until the Irish played two more in the fifth. Shrine loaded the bases in its final at-bat behind another single by Robinson and two hit batsmen but ultimately couldn’t produce anything to put on the scoreboard.
“Our bats got better as the day went on; unfortunately, that guy (Siler) was just in control of the game,” Noble said. “One more hit here or there, and you’re talking a different game. I told them I was proud of them and that we are going to walk out of here with our heads held high.”
Sacred Heart went on to win the MHSAA Division 4 state title the following day, defeating Marcellus 10-0 in a game shortened to five innings due to the mercy rule.
