Prep Baseball Report

U of D Jesuit Gets By Grosse Pointe South to Win Regional Crown



By Chris Collias
Regional Scout

The Region 5 finals game between U-D Jesuit HS and Grosse Pointe South HS had some quality performances as well as some controversy. 

U-D got on top in their half of the first on an RBI single by Andrew Gard and another run due to some control problems by junior right handed starter Richard Kish (Grosse Pointe South HS).   

Then the second inning happened. 

On a first and third steal attempt, U-D starting pitcher Liam Teevens was thrown out at home on a nice throw from Grosse Pointe South junior shortstop James Menchl.  Teevens did not slide but instead ran into the catcher George Fishback.  This play prompted the umpires to get together to decide whether or not Teevens should be ejected from the game. After the conference they decided to eject Teevens, much to the dismay of the U-D coaching staff and their fans. 

With the Teevens' ejection, U-D brought in junior righty Andre Gard and he calmly took the reins and did a fine job holding the South hitters to five hits while walking one, striking out two and hitting one.  Gard came up big for U-D when the needed it the most.

U-D's Conrad Kovalcik hit a solo shot to center in the top of the third extend the lead. And the Cubs added another run in the top of the fifth after freshman second baseman Dai Dai Otaka led off with a double down the right field line and senior TJ Shook singled to make the lead 4-0.

Grosse Pointe South was down 4-1 heading into the seventh and made things very interesting. A double from junior second baseman Colden Gosselin started off offense. 

U-D quickly replaced Gard with senior righty Conrad Kovalcik who promptly gave up a single to James Menchl and a double to John Doyle scoring two runs. With the tying run on second base and Michigan commit Carmen Benedetti coming to the plate, U-D chose to intentionally walk him to get to Andrew Eaton. But Kovalcik was steady as he struck out Eaton making the second out.  Next up was senior catcher George Fishback who Kovalcik got to ground out to third for a force to end the game.        

With the win- U-D Jesuit advances on to face Sterling Heights Stevenson at Wayne State University and the future home of Harwell Field.