EAST LANSING — Traverse City St. Francis coach Tom Passinault prohibits dogpiles during the districts and regionals.
That type of celebration is reserved for East Lansing.
The Gladiators did their first dogpile of the season Thursday after shortstop Tyler Thompson calmly fielded a grounder and threw out a Grosse Pointe Liggett batter for the final out of the Division 3 baseball semifinal on Jeff Ishbia Field at McLane Stadium on the campus of Michigan State University.
St. Francis clinched the program’s third state championship appearance in the last eight seasons with a 4-3 win against Liggett, the team that mercied the Glads 12-0 in the 2021 state final.
“A lot of the guys that lost in ’21 are up in the stands,” Passinault said, his voice cracking. “I’m not going to downplay it at all. To beat a program like that, and knowing that we got spanked, really embarrassed in 2021 against a really good Liggett team, it feels great to win this one and beat Liggett.”
One more dogpile to go.
By beating No. 6-ranked Liggett (23-13-2), No. 14 St. Francis (30-8-1) gets a 9 a.m. Saturday state finals matchup with unranked Marine City (26-10), which beat No. 17 Olivet (22-7) 8-5 after leading 8-2 going into the final frame. It’s the Mariners’ initial trip to the state finals in baseball and first for a boys program other than football in decades.
“All week at practice, we were like, ‘We’re not the underdogs,'” Thompson said of the Liggett matchup. “We’re as good as they are, and we just wanted it more.”
St. Francis seeks the first state title since the baseball program’s only one in 1990. The Gladiators started the baseball program in 1979.
Gladiators first baseman Matthew Kane belted a third-inning double to the right-field wall and later scored what would become the game-winning run.
“We were viewed as the underdog, but every single person on our team knew we weren’t going into that game,” the Hope College commit said. “It feels great to win that game. We’re playing at 174, so it’s awesome. No better place to be. I’m super-confident going to the finals. It’s just another baseball game. We just have to go out there, have fun, play baseball and it’s going to be a good result.”
Liggett scored single runs in the second, fourth and fifth innings to pull within a run, but Sam Wildfong slammed the door shut in the seventh inning, setting the Knights down in order.
“Sam pitched a good game,” Grosse Pointe Liggett head coach Jay Ricci said. “He always throws well. Their defense played well. They had two errors, but they played well overall. They made the plays when they had to make the plays.”
Wildfong ended with seven innings of work, three strikeouts and five hits allowed on 98 pitches.
“There’s some teams we play if we’re up 2-0 and Sam’s pitching, we know it’s over,” Passinault said. “But obviously that was not the case here. Liggett gave us everything they had. I felt great going into the last inning that we were facing their 7-8-9 (hitters), getting through the heart of their order in the sixth inning was huge for us.”
Wildfong struck out the first two batters, then coaxed a pinch hitter into a grounder to Thompson to end the game.
Kane held the ball from the last out aloft in the dogpile celebration.
“I treated it like any other inning,” Wildfong said. “I was just having fun with my friends out there, and it was really, really cool. Fastball was really working that last inning. It was really fun to just dial in and locate really well. Our motto this year has been ‘locked in.’ We were really locked in that last inning.”
Wildfong had to play second base instead of pitch or catch in last year’s playoffs after having his appendix taken out. He missed the entire postseason as a freshman due to injury.
“He’s the guy we want in that moment,” Passinault said of Wildfong. “He is made for that situation. Some college is going to be very lucky to get him. He’s a heck of a player.”
St. Francis’ crowd dwarfed Liggett’s, which couldn’t have helped the Knights’ comeback aspirations.
“Liggett is a program that we modeled ourselves after when we started 10-12 years ago,” Passinault said. “To beat them in this situation, when we could have folded, is a great credit to our program.”
Thompson was 2-for-2 with a walk and two RBI, as well as a perfect day in the field that included turning a double play to end the fourth inning.
“Tyler had a great game on a big stage,” Passinault said. “He’s another guy that’s a solid baseball player 12 months a year. He locks in on baseball, and his best skill is throwing the ball on the run. When he charges a baseball, I feel really good about him getting out. Then he just had a great day as our leadoff hitter.”
Wildfong scored on a first-inning wild pitch after Kane extended the frame with a line drive off the Liggett first baseman’s glove.
The Knights decided to challenge freshman catcher Colton Peterson in the first and he threw out a courtesy runner to end the inning.
Landon Metzger tied it at 1-1 in the second with a sharp double to left center in the second. Centerfielder Eli Biggar hurt his shoulder diving for the drive, suffering his eighth shoulder dislocation, but stayed in the game after popping it back in.
Thompson drove in two with a bases-loaded, second-inning single up the middle for a 3-1 lead.
“I told myself I was jumping on first-pitch fastball if I saw it,” Thompson said. “And he threw it.”
Kane led off the third with a double to the 375-foot mark on the left-center wall, eventually scoring on a suicide squeeze bunt by Peterson.
“I had all the confidence in the world for him to get the bunt down,” Kane said. “We practice it so much. He’s one of our best bunters. Right when I saw him square, I knew he was getting it down. We needed that bunt, and the freshman delivered. Colton has been great for us all year, and he’s going to continue to grow as a player.”
St. Francis’ 4-1 lead after three frames chased 6-foot-6 starter Jackson Fetter, who needed 55 pitches to get through three. Wildfong sat at 37 through three.
“They were on almost every pitch I threw, but their timing was off,” Wildfong said. “I had them out front a few pitches, but it was just changing up looks, changing up side step, out of the stretch, and then just going inside out on all their hitters.”
Liggett won state titles in 2021, 2016, 2014 and 2013, also playing in the 2023 and 2019 finals. The Knights were in last year’s Division 2 quarterfinals.
Liggett was a Division 2 quarterfinalist last year, moving down to D3 this season.
“First couple innings, we walked a kid, hit a kid, and unfortunately those all came back to bite us with runs,” Ricci said. “In the second inning we brought the infield in and (Thompson) did a nice job of putting it through the infield and getting two runs in there. Situational hitting, they did a nice job there. The suicide squeeze, they executed that perfectly.”