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Michigan Makes Statement At Two World Series

The youth of Michigan - both young and old - made a statement about baseball here up north. And it came at the biggest stage of all - The World Series.

Both the Michigan Little League representative and the Michigan American Legion participant came two wins away from bringing home a World Series championship.

The Grosse Pointe Woods-Shores Little League squad went 2-2 at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., losing to eventual champion Hawaii and U.S. runner-up Georgia. Wins came over the Northwest Regional champions from Idaho and the Midwest Regional winners from Iowa.

“Every Little League kid’s dream is to come to Pennsylvania,” said assistant coach Reggie Sharpe. “From this they will remember that dreams come true if you put your mind to it. Seeing their eyes when they got here … it was like baseball heaven.”

The Midland Berryhill Post 165 squad swept through pool play with a 3-0 record at the American Legion World Series in Shelby, N.C. However, the Michigan state legion champions, which won the Great Lakes Regional over Danville, Ill., for the second year in a row to advance to the final eight teams in the country, suffered a heartbreaking 5-4 10-inning loss to Delaware in the semifinals.

“Without the dedication of the coaches, and the families and our American Legion committee, we can’t do this,” said Midland head coach Steve Cronkright, who has led Berryhill to the World Series four of the past five years. “We enjoy being at the World Series so much. A lot of great memories are made here.”

Something other youth in Michigan dream about.

“What this does for baseball in the state of Michigan is tremendous,” pointed out Sharpe. “Numbers are up in T-Ball and there is an excitement with the sport for younger-aged kids.

“I think this shows that we have great baseball in Michigan and we develop them in the right way.”

Michigan PBR Scouting Director Aaron Wilson agrees.

"From a scouting standpoint, you can see the ballplayers have been trained and understand how to play baseball," explained Wilson, who was at part of the Little League World Series watching Team Michigan. "They are very young and things will change, however, the skill set is in place for several of the ballplayers to have successful high school careers and potentially move on to college ball or higher.".

Little League World Series

One of the earliest dreams kids have about baseball is playing in the LLWS and Grosse Pointe Woods-Shore has now made it to Williamsport for two consecutive years.

“It’s an amazing time,” said Sharpe, whose son played on the team. “It’s wonderful to see all the kids come together with such excitement.

“What stands out for me is the unity of the team and how we came together to win more games than any team in Grosse Pointe history and the first since the 1959 team to win as many games here.”

It was the fourth time a Grosse Pointe Woods-Shore team has been to the World Series (1979, 2013, 2017 and 2018).

“We knew we had a very good team,” explained Sharpe, the first-base coach. “We expected we would do well. Our goal was to get to Williamsport and do some damage.”

Although the team was in Williamsport in 2017, none of the players on this year’s squad was on that roster.

“It says a lot about our community to put back-to-back teams with a different roster in the World Series,” Sharpe said. “Then to do better than the tremendous team of last year shows just how much Grosse Pointe is rich in baseball.

“What we’re able to do at Grosse Pointe is we support it so well. We’re able to retain our players before the run off to travel ball and leave the community bankrupt when it comes to baseball. All three Grosse Pointe teams are generally tough and really battle it out.”

Wins over Grosse Pointe and Farm City highlighted a district championship for Woods-Shore before going to St. Clair for state. An eight-inning 5-4 win over Bay City stood out there, in a game the team trailed 4-0 with one away in the sixth.

It did not get any easier in the state finals against Rockford, with Woods-Shore head coach Kurt Barr’s squad needing to rally from a 7-2 deficit before pulling off the win.

“That let us know the type of team we were,” Sharpe noted.

After breezing through regionals unbeaten at Grand Park in Westfield, Ind., the Michigan state champions were off to Williamsport where they beat Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 5-4 in their opener, scoring four times in the bottom of the sixth.

“We were battle-tested early from the Bay City game so our guys believed in themselves and picked each other up,” said Sharpe about the win featuring an ESPN Sports Center top highlight defensive play by third baseman Jarren Purity. “From one to 13 they all contributed.”

An 8-3 loss to the eventual Little League champions from Honolulu followed, but the Michigan squad did not quit, rallying past Grandview, Iowa 5-4 to stay alive in the Series. Preston Barr, Cam Shafer, Elliot Nederhood and Reggie Sharpe all had hits in the three-run fifth-inning comeback with Marwynn Matthews scoring the tying run. Ryan Knaeble then had a walk-off single to plate Nederhood with the game-winner in the last of the sixth of the elimination game.

“To be able to come back shows the true grit of this team and the composure of these guys,” Sharpe said. “It shows no matter the situation you’re in, you can count on whoever comes up to the plate to do it. It was super exciting.”

Wilson was left impressed.

"The team's strongest quality was their resiliency they showed," the PBR scout said. "Regardless of the situation they would never give up earning the name comeback kids."

But the comeback or cardiac kids, whatever they were called, came up short in their fourth game at the World Series, losing to Peach City, Georgia, 4-3.

“We as coaches put these teams (at Grosse Pointe) together at the age of seven with kids that want to play baseball and we’re able to develop them,” Sharpe explained. “It shows if you have commitment and a system you can build a really fine baseball team.

“All are excellent students and fine young men. It gives us as coaches a lot of reward to see them develop and to still maintain themselves as fine young guys.”

For those involved, it ends up being more than just baseball.

“We’ve not been home for three weeks,” Sharpe said. “They’ve all made a lot of tremendous friends. We rode down here with the Indiana team from Grand Park with two teams on the bus. Our suitemates was the team from Australia and we made good friends with them. We met people from different countries. It is a wonderful experience and a dream of a lifetime to spend the whole week here.”

American Legion World Series

“We had our chances in the seventh,” Cronkright said about the loss to Delaware, a game in which his squad did not have a baserunner against Jack Dubecq before tying the game with four runs in the seventh. “We had the bases loaded (with one out)  but couldn’t get it out of the infield (two ground ball outs).”

Still, it was a memorable experience for Berryhill Post 165 at the 92nd annual American Legion World Series.

“I love going there,” Cronkright, the head coach at Midland since 1994, said about Shelby.  “It’s really good for the kids.”

The Michigan representative beat Randolph County, N.C. 7-2 in its first game with Garrett Willis picking up the win before edging Las Vegas 3-2 in game two behind a strong pitching performance from Adam Randall, Evan Schlatter and Seth Gower. Berryhill then completed a perfect 3-0 mark in pool play by topping Meridian, Idaho, 5-2.

“This year we had a really young team,” noted Cronkright, who took Berryhill to the World Series a year ago when the squad went 1-2 in pool play. “Expectations were not as high as in year’s past with no returning college guys. Next year we could have five or six.”

That is bad news for opponents of Midland, which has been to the World Series six times, winning the title in 2009 when it was held in Fargo, N.D., and finishing as runners-up in 2014 in Shelby.

“We’ve been coaching with the same group for the last five or six years,” Cronkright said, listing assistants Dan Cronkright, Deron Gross, Ben Wright, Adam Goodwin and Mitch Willis. “It’s a lot of fun. I think the dedication of all our coaches shows the kids how hard we work and then they do the same thing.”

Getting to know new players every year is special for the 65-year-old head coach.

“The part I enjoy the most is going on the road and getting to know the kids and making lifelong friends,” said Cronkright, who comes from a family of seven boys and no girls. His older brother Nelson was head coach of Midland for 10 years before he took over.

The success this year just added to the experience.

“Early in the year we had a couple pitchers hurt, but the returning players we had did a great job of keeping everybody up in close games or when we were down,” noted Cronkright, whose team finished with a 47-10 record. “We played close to 60 games and about 15 games in we started to be our own team.”

Winning the state title in Michigan was far from easy in just advancing to regionals.

“The state tourney was very competitive this year,” Cronkright said. “I think we had two one-run games including the finals. It was not a cakewalk for us. I hope that shows teams in the state they can compete at the national level.”

Michigan teams at all ages are doing that.