State Champs! Sports Network

LIVONIA – Over the course of the past few years, Madison Heights Bishop Foley has proven its dominance in the Catholic League C-D division, winning each of the last three league crowns.

 

And while the Ventures didn’t put together their best performance of the 2014 season on Saturday, they assured themselves of another opportunity to continue their reign on the throne.

 

Behind four-run efforts in the fourth and sixth innings, Bishop Foley overcame an early 2-0 deficit to pick up an 8-4 win over Allen Park Cabrini in the CHSL C-D Semifinals and advance to face Pontiac Notre Dame Prep (beat Royal Oak Shrine 9-0 in the second semifinal of the day) at 10:00 am on Thursday at Comerica Park in the CHSL Championship Game.

 

Bishop Foley skipper Buster Sunde noted that his team won Saturday without playing great, but was quick to credit Cabrini for the way it came out and competed.

 

“Cabrini came out ready to play and I think we were sitting back a little bit,” he said. “I don’t think we came out like we wanted to come out and I was just addressing that in the team meeting. We have to control how we play on the field, we had too many giveaways and they’re a good team and if you give them anything, there’s a chance that you’re going to lose. We’re going to do a better job and we’re going to be more disciplined next game and we’ll see what happens.”

 

Sunde and his Ventures are also three-time defending Division 3 state-title holders and making a run at an almost unthinkable 4-peat.

 

With the game knotted 4-4 in the sixth Saturday vs. Cabrini, senior Brad Baldwin came up with a clutch two-RBI single to give his team a two-run lead for the second time on the day, 6-4.

 

“At the beginning of the at-bat, I was just looking for a good pitch to drive to the right side and move the runners up,” said Baldwin. “I ended up getting a good inside pitch on the second pitch and I was able to turn on it.”

 

The Ventures later added to their lead in the inning with an RBI coming from David Chung and Nate Grys to make it 8-4.

 

Sunde was pleased with his team’s plate approach in the sixth inning, happy that it was able to strung hits together all frame long.

 

“A lot of these guys have a lot of baseball experience and the way to do it is not with one big hit,” he said. “It’s one good at bat at a time and we went into the sixth inning with that philosophy, all we’re going to do is string one good at bat at a time and that’s what they did.”

 

After Bishop Foley took a 4-2 lead with its four run fourth inning, with RBI coming from Cam Horwatch, Austin Lukaschewski and Mike Murley, Cabrini responded immediately with a strong showing of its own in the following half inning.

 

The Monarchs answered back with two runs in the top of the fifth as Dominic Fusco scored on a pass ball to cut the deficit down to 4-3 and shortly after, Cabrini took advantage of another Venture miscue when David Szczesny scored on an error to tie the game up.

 

“We did come out a little bit flat,” said Baldwin. “The first couple of innings, we were a little bit flat, but I think that throughout the game, that changed. We really brought ourselves together and had each other’s backs and battled back.”