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PBR Michigan Division 2 Team Of The Week - Orchard Lake St. Mary’s

ORCHARD LAKE - A trip to Ohio may have been the spark that Orchard Lake St. Mary’s needed.

The Eaglets went into the week below .500, but a 5-0-1 record left the 5th-rated team in Michigan at 13-9-1 on the season and Matt Petry’s squad is the recipient of the Prep Baseball Report Division 2 Team of the Week.

“It was good to go down there and challenge ourselves,” explained Matt Petry, whose team once stood 5-7 this year. “We played three very good teams.”

Orchard Lake came away without a loss against the Ohio squads, sweeping Toledo Central Catholic 12-0 and 5-1 and beating Lakewood St. Edward’s 2-0 while batting Cleveland St. Ignatius to a 1-1 tie before play was called in the 11th inning.

“We pitched excellent and we were excellent defensively,” noted Petry, whose squad completed the week back in Michigan with two wins over Linden on Saturday. “We only allowed three runs in six games and our offense also picked up.”

Logan Wood, the number two ranked player in the state in the 2020 class, has led the way on the field this season for Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, the 10th-rated team in the state’s power poll.

“Logan has been our horse all year,” Petry said of the University of Michigan recruit, a 6-2 182-pound left-handed pitcher. “He threw a great game against St. Ignatius with a one-hitter.”

Alex Mooney (Video), the second-ranked sophomore in the state, supplied the offense with a home run in the 1-1 contest giving the Duke commit four homers on the season.

Two freshmen have also been huge for Petry’s squad. Nolan Schubart, the top-ranked 2022 in the state bats cleanup with Jack Crighton, the number nine freshman in Michigan, hitting fifth.

“They’re very talented but playing the schedule we have played, we expected them to run into a slump. But that hasn’t happened,” Petry said of the first baseman Schubart, another U of M commit, and Crighton, who is getting looked at by the likes of Duke and Michigan. “Nolan leads the team in doubles and is second in home runs while Jack doesn’t strike out much and always finds a barrel on the ball. The kid has done everything right.”

One plus came last week as well for Orchard Lake with the return of Dillon Kark.

“Dillon had labrum surgery in June but is now healthy,” Petry said of the senior shortstop and pitcher, the fifth-ranked 2019 in the state who is committed to Michigan State. “We got him back this past week and it’s good to have him with us.”

That is not good news for the opposition, which this week includes Divine Child with a doubleheader on Wednesday and last year’s Catholic League champions De La Salle with two games ahead on Saturday. St. Mary’s, which also features highly-regarded players like Harrison Poeszat, Ryan DuSang, Mikey Gall, Grant Henson and Kameron Arnold, split a pair of games with each earlier in the season.

“It was nice to take some time and have the guys bond away from school,” Petry said of the spring break spent in Ohio. “The guys played together and hopefully this is a turning point for the rest of the season and into the playoffs.

“We just need to continue to get strong pitching and have our bats continue to improve,” added Petry, who led the Eaglets to a state championship in 2015. “Our pitching will hold us in every game, we just need our bats to come through to win the close low-scoring games against the good pitchers.”