Division 1 Team Of The Week: Week 4 - Hartland
May 11, 2021
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Division 1 Team Of The Week: Week 4 - Hartland
HARTLAND - Brad Guenther missed out on his first year as head coach at Hartland when the 2020 baseball season was canceled. But the “Corona Rookie” mentor has his squad playing well in 2021 with an 18-1-1 record.
A 5-2 loss to Rochester Adams on Saturday in a wood bat game is the lone defeat of the campaign for the Prep Baseball Report Division 1 Team of the Week.
“My expectations are to win and be successful,” noted Guenther, a Saline graduate who played in the Angels organization after graduation from Wayne State in 2013.
The ability to come out on top in tight situations has been huge so far according to the 30-year-old mentor, whose squad beat Novi to pick up its 19th victory on Monday and can wrap up a league title on Thursday against Plymouth.
“We’ve won so many close games,” noted Guenther, pointing to overcoming a 6-0 deficit to beat Mount Pleasant 8-6, rallying from 6-4 down to defeat Dow 7-6 in extra innings and coming from one-run down in the fifth inning to edge Livonia Stevenson 6-5. “We try to talk about limiting free stuff and making teams earn it. We want to put pressure on the other team and take more pitches.
“Our pitching and defense has been absolutely tremendous. Our relief pitching has been crazy. We knew our defense would be good, but it’s been outstanding, especially on the infield.”
Gannon Grundman is the ace of the staff, with four wins and four saves. In 19.1 innings, the sophomore righty has fanned 32 and allowed 10 hits with a 2.80 ERA.
Jake Wohlfert, a Heidelberg commit ranked 23rd among 2021 right-handed pitchers in the state, has two wins and four saves with a 1.50 ERA, striking out 31 and walking just eight in 18.1 innings with opponents averaging just .067. Ian Schuster, the 50th-rated senior RHP in Michigan, is 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA, recording 21 Ks in 18.2 frames while permitting 11 hits and six walks.
“Jake is a power pitcher in the upper 80s while Gannon’s ball moves all over the place and Schuster is like that,too,” Guenther said.
Senior Aidan Rockel, a first baseman/DH, tops the team in batting at .431 with eight doubles and one home run while Bruce Jellison, a Wabash Valley commit ranked eighth among 2022 third basemen in the state, is hitting .417.
Sophomores Sam Clay and Ben Pouliot are both averaging better than .350 and helping anchor the defense, Clay in the middle infield and Pouliot in the outfield. Grundman, who plays first when not pitching, is also hitting in the .350 range.
“We’ve been preaching about developing and trying to be at our best at the end of the year,” explained Guenther about a program that won a state title in 2015. “We had to quarantine after our spring break and didn’t have a full team for a long while. Now we’ve got a little rhythm and are implementing more of our system each week.
“We hope the team you see now is not what you see at the end of the year. We have a chance to do something special.”
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