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BASEBALL: Murley carries no-hitter into seventh, leads Bishop Foley to third straight CHSL C-D title
DETROIT – On the biggest stage that Bishop Foley has played on to this point this season, senior pitcher Mike Murley put together as good of a performance as you will find.
Murley carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning, picking up a complete-game shutout to lead the Ventures to a third straight CHSL C-D title, topping Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, 3-0..
“It feels great, especially since I didn’t have full control of my stuff midway through the game,” he said. “So to have myself in the seventh inning with a no-hitter and a chance to close it out was a great feeling, knowing that I was doing this for my team. I just wanted to go out there and pitch well and not let them down, so it felt good to get that win.”
Signed with Wayne State, Murley, who struck out nine batters in his seven innings of work, found himself in a battle all day long, matching up with by Notre Dame Prep (20-6) ace Will Mullen, a junior committed to Western Michigan..
Carrying a shutout into the fifth inning, Mullen finished with eight strikeouts of his own.
After Mullen struck out five straight batters, the Ventures would power through in the fifth inning, plating all three runs they scored with two outs.
Bishop Foley (24-2) took a 1-0 lead on an RBI single off the bat of Brad Baldwin and the next batter, David Chung, connected for a two RBI single to give the Ventures a 3-0 lead.
Bishop Foley skipper Buster Sunde said that his team has worked on playing in situations like Thursday’s and added that more times than not, his squad will manage to have a big inning, like the fifth inning the Ventures put together.
“We work a lot on situations where it’s a tight game and as the game goes on, we really try to control our at bats, not to chase, but to use pitches” he said. “We have disciplines on certain pitches and we try to stick to that and usually with this team over the course of a game, they’re going to get an inning or two.”
The three runs would be more than enough support for Murley. He threw a perfect sixth inning and didn’t allow a run in the seventh after surrendering the first two hits of the game for the Irish.
Sunde praised Murley’s performance on the mound on Thursday, crediting his ability to keep hitters off balance and sticking to the gameplan.
“Mike loves to compete, he’s an athlete and he loves this situation and if you put him out there in a situation like this, you know he’s going to come to play,” he said. “That’s what he did, he stuck to the game plan. Our game plan was to change speeds and he did that on just about every pitch, and don’t let them sit on anything and he stuck right to the plan.”
