EAST LANSING — Traverse City St. Francis put the “super” in superstitious.
The Gladiators went to the same restaurant for dinner the night before the state finals, repeating what was a lucky charm in last year’s run to the championship.
Even after winning Saturday’s Division 3 state championship game 9-0 over Kalamazoo Christian at McLane Stadium on the campus of Michigan State University, the Glads were keeping up traditions, going to Dave’s Hot Chicken, the same as last year.
The main difference was for the first time in both runs, TCSF was assigned the first-base dugout for the championship game. Their last three games in East Lansing were all on the third-base side, another thing the Glads considered a good-luck charm.
Same, same, same. But, oh so different.
The Gladiators won the program’s first back-to-back state titles, withstanding the pressure of a No. 1 preseason ranking and holding the poll’s top spot from wire to wire.
“It’s something that’s never been done here before,” said senior pitcher Tyler Endres, who threw the final inning Saturday after earning the win in last year’s title game. “The fact that it’s our grade, I always thought that it was going to be football that we were going to win championships in. I knew we were a good baseball team, and once we did it the first time, this year we knew how it felt, knew how it worked. To go back to back, it’s a great accomplishment.”
St. Francis (34-5) was still the home team, something that occurred in all four games at McLane the last two years.
“Coach must be pretty good at flipping the coin or something,” senior catcher Sam Wildfong joked.
The Gladiators are the first repeat baseball state champs in Division 3 since Madison Heights Bishop Foley had a run of three from 2011-13.
“It’s amazing,” senior shortstop Tyler Thompson said. “Before the season, we knew it was a possibility. We just made it happen.”
Starting pitcher Lanse Vos was the only player to bring his championship ring from last year. He didn’t tell anyone, because they thought it would be bad luck.
In the seventh inning — after Vos had been pulled for Endres — he pulled the big Super Bowl-sized ring out of his bag and put it on.
“I tried to get the other guys to, but they said they were going to jinx it,” Vos said. “I had all the confidence in us, so I was like, ‘Hey, we’ll pull it out.'”
Vos pulled out the ring and wore it in the dugout.
“Lance played a hell of a game, so props to him,” Thompson said. “He really came out of nowhere this year. I knew he could do it. He just needed his confidence back, and he showed everyone. He was not a major hitter last year, and I knew he could do it. In travel ball, he rakes.”
Vos doomed Kalamazoo Christian in multiple ways, stymieing their offense and then producing offense of his own. The Comets had three hits and no runs. Vos had two hits and four RBIs.
As if St. Francis needed anything else to get them going, Colton Peterson woke up the dugout in the first inning with a hard foul ball right into SF’s bench that bounced around hard several times.
Peterson led off with a single to center, and Thompson bunted him over. After Vos was hit by a pitch and Wildfong singled to load the bases, Braxton Lesinski walked in a run and John St. Peter brought in Jay Macnowski with a sacrifice fly.
Vos’ two-out double to left brought in two more in the second.
From scouting Kalamazoo Christian, head coach Tom Passinault changed his plans for Saturday, starting Vos instead of Endres because the Comets haven’t fared as well against off-speed pitchers.
“Lanse has our off-speed curve ball and our best change-up,” Passinault said. “Tyler is fastball and a hard curve, which is what they seem to like to hit. We were going to split the game, but Lanse was just so hot, we didn’t want to take him out. He was dealing.”
Vos allowed just three hits and no runs in six innings.
Endres breezed through a 1-2-3 seventh on 12 pitches.
“This year I had to spend the first six innings cheering on Lanse, making sure he was staying locked in,” Endres said. “I knew at some point I was coming in. Didn’t know when, but I knew I was going to go in. I knew it was my last time pitching, and I kind of just took it all in, and did my best to help my team.”
Last year was the opposite, as Endres started the state championship win and Vos earned the save.
“I’d say the hardest thing to do in sports is to win it twice,” Vos said. “I’d say this year was really hard, getting everyone’s ace. But this team was so confident in ourselves and others, it felt much more smooth.”
St. Francis’ impressive defense never let the Comets off the hook. The Glads didn’t commit an error in the final.
“(John) St. Peter and Thompson are just unbelievable in the middle,” Passinault said. “John made some big plays at second, and Tyler seems to thrive here. Two years in a row, he just eats up that infield.”
The Comets never got in front of a Vos pitch enough to pull it at third baseman Braxton Lesinski.
“Run it back” became another team motto, joining the 174 for the mileage from TCSF’s field to East Lansing.
“We’ve said that before every single game,” Wildfong said. “‘Run it back,’ and that was kind of our motto before we go out, before each infield, outfield. It’s run it back, and that was the goal we’ve been trying to build to all year. We finally were able to run it back today, so all of our goals were realized.”
Vos drove in Peterson for a 5-0 lead after four frames.
Peterson came across in the sixth on a Vos groundout and Wildfong drove in a run with a shot to left field.
Saturday’s game started about 45 minutes later than scheduled, with a 12:16 start in 80-degree weather that only got hotter.
The Comets only had seven errors in previous six playoff games and allowed more than two runs just once in that span.
Small ball worked for Orchard Lake St. Mary — the only team other than TCSF to get back to the final four in 2025 and 2026 — in the Division 2 final, as they scored twice in the bottom of the eighth in a 6-4 win over Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills, including a perfectly-executed safety squeeze.
Making its first state final trip, Kalamazoo Christian finished 26-9. A few early-season losses against top teams prevented the Comets from getting back into the state rankings.