Veteran Michigan Center baseball team doing just as expected so far
By Mike Moore
Staff Writer
Michigan Center — There’s very little surprising about this start to the 2016 spring.
In fact, as Michigan Center baseball coach Matt Desmarais spoke about his squad Thursday night, he admitted all the success his guys have enjoyed has been a couple years in the making.
That certainly doesn’t mean the Cardinals aren’t enjoying it, though.
“Gratifying so far for sure,” Desmarais said with a laugh. “This is a group with an awesome attitude. They had a great offseason and that’s translated into the year. They are a fun group to be around.”
Twelve games into the season, Center had 11 wins.
The lone loss was a 10-4 setback to a Bronson team that’s 14-1.
And part of that 11-1 start is a 4-0 mark in the Cascades Conference the Cardinals are trying to win for a fourth year in a row.
“Very high expectations coming in,” Desmarais said. “After a good season last year, we only lost two starters. We returned a great core of kids.”
Desmarais said 11 letter-winners were back with the team this season, including seven starters.
“When we had a lot of these guys on varsity last year, or the year before, the hope was when we brought them up then, it would lead to something like this,” he explained.
Of course, plenty of teams have varsity veterans but fail to turn that into wins.
For Center, the recipe for success has been a well-rounded and consistent attack.
The offense finds ways to produce, scoring 121 runs through 12 games.
“And we’ve done so with two home runs,” Desmarais said. “We have good team speed.”
The defense has been good enough, while the pitching staff, led by four-year vet Tavian Gaddy, is humming along with a team earned-run average of 1.87.
“They’ve been consistently, pretty good,” Desmarais said simply.
With so many games postponed early on, the 11-win start is nice, but the team will have to grind from here on out.
With roughly three full weeks of the regular season remaining, the Cardinals are scheduled to play 25 games before the district begins.
“From here on out it’s a matter of keeping those expectations,” Desmarais said. “We’re getting to the point where we’re going to be playing a lot of game in a few amount of days. It’s really about keeping a level head and approaching things one game at a time.
As for the objective?
“The goal is to win the Cascades,” Desmarais added. “We’re going to attack those games, try to win that first, and then go from there.”
Desmarais, who graduated from Lumen Christi in 2000 before playing football at Ferris State University, has been at the helm of the Center varsity squad for nine seasons now.
A veteran coach knows one eye is always on the future, and the future looks bright.
“We’re going to have to replace some pitching next year, but our JV has 10 wins and are doing a great job,” he said. “We hope to have another solid team, with a lot of these same guys back, next year.”
Next year is a long ways off, though, and after an 11-1 start to 2016, just about anything and everything is still on the table for the Cardinals.
An offense producing runs, a defense doing enough and a pitching staff that doesn’t give up any freebies.
Sure, none of it’s a surprise, but all of it’s a blast.
Attached Photo Courtesy of Kelly McCloughan
Mike Moore is a play-by-play commentator and Sports Writer for JTV Sports. You can reach him at mjm12@albion.edu. He’s also the author of ‘Love, Defined; A Dedication to the Love, Sacrifice, and Magic of Motherhood.’
Love, Defined is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Tate Publishing or by contacting Mike directly.
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