By Mike Penn
Michigan Director of Scouting

A walk, a balk and a base hit was the difference as Bay City Western (42-2) squeaked by Brother Rice (32-9) in the Division I State Championship 1-0.

Tied 0-0 heading into the top of the sixth inning, Bay City Western senior Grant Bridgewater got the offense started with a walk.  A few pitches later Rice’s Dalton Greyerbiehl rolled through his delivery, never coming to a stop, and a balk was called. 

With David Fegan, who entered the game as a courtesy runner for Bridgewater, on second base, senior Brennan Harrison stood at the plate with Western’s best chance of the day to scratch out a run.

Harrison promptly turned around a Greyerbiehl offering, shooting a line drive base hit up the middle and scoring Fegan and the lone run of the game. And that was the difference.

From there Western was six outs away from a dream this senior class has talked about since stepping on campus.  Head Coach Tim McDonald had a difficult decision to make.

Should he bring in Michigan signee and arguably the best pitcher in the state all year, Brett Adcock or should he stay with senior Conor Foley who was throwing the game of his life?  Adcock, who had thrown complete games both on Tuesday and on Friday in 1-0 and 2-1 wins over Rockford and Sterling Heights Stevenson respectively, was ready to come in on a moments notice.

McDonald stuck with senior Conor Foley who was throwing the game of his life.

On the day, Foley was deceptive. Foley was effectively wild.  Most importantly, Foley was efficient.

For a senior who did not break 80 mph, he held down a potent Brother Rice offense.  Foley scattered six hits and only surrendered one walk.  The biggest statistic is that Foley never allowed a base runner to reach third base on the day nor did he allow more than one base runner for inning. Rice never got a chance.

At the end of the day, the Western seniors saw that dream come true.  They did what so few in the state could do: send out their senior class in style winning the last 35 games in a row including the State Championship.