By Mike Penn
Michigan Director of Scouting

Bishop Foley had a chance to make history Saturday and history is exactly what was made.

Bishop Foley is the first team in state history to win back to back to back titles.

Junior Mike Murley got the call for the Ventures of Bishop Foley after Garrett Schilling improved his high school record to an astounding 31-0 in the semifinal game. 

Murley was good early on.  He sat primarily between 80-84 mph with his fastball, threw strikes to both halves of the plate and effectively mixed his breaking ball.  He did enough to get the ball to the next man, which was senior Chad Gravlin.

Gravlin, although not a hard thrower, filled up the strike zone and kept Calvin Christian off balance.

But it was the offense that was most impressive for the Ventures.  Sophomore Nate Grys, a Western Michigan commit already, proved why he is one of the best pure hitters in the state. 

Grys had two thunderous hits in the game and scored three times.  Grys started things off by hammering a groundrule double to the left center gap that narrowly missed going out of the park.  His next at-bat he nearly took off the head of Calvin Christian third baseman by rifling a single down the line.

Grys was not alone however.  Senior Billy Malak had two hits. Garrett Schilling, who started at short, had two hits and junior Murley also had two hits. When the dust settled, Foley had pounded out 12 hits on the day.

What perhaps is the scariest scenario of all for the rest of the competiition in Division III, is that Bishop Foley returns 13 of 15 players from this years team.

Could Foley make it 4-for-4?  We don't see why not.