The Lake Orion baseball squad won their first league title since 2005 last week, but their hopes of repeating as Division 1 state champions were dashed by Oxford in a wild district semifinal Saturday.
The Wildcats came from behind for an 8-7 victory, avenging a 2-0 loss at home in last year’s districts. They went on to beat Rochester 1-0 to advance to Saturday’s regional action at Clarkston.
Three first inning singles gave Oxford, playing as the home team in Lake Orion, a 2-0 lead against the Dragons? Connor Mielock.
The Dragons tied the score on solo home runs by Chris Lum and Drew Ordakowski in the third and fourth innings, respectively.
It looked like Lake Orion was taking control of the game when they scored four runs to chase Oxford ace Kyle Teague in the fifth, including an RBI single by Brandon Riggsbee and a two-run double from Mielock. But the 6-2 lead wouldn’t stand.
The Wildcats tagged Mielock for five hits in the bottom of the sixth, including a Russell Luxton two-run double and a couple of bloop singles down each baseline. Mielock gave way to Josh Deeg with two out and two on, but the pitching change couldn’t cool off Oxford, as Teague gave them the lead for good with a two-run double.
Down to their last out, Mielock hit a solo shot off of Luxton to cut the lead in half. Mike Musary then drew a walk, but Jeff Chattaway went down on strikes to end the Dragon rally.
‘When we have a lead like that, generally speaking, we close out those games,? said Lake Orion Coach Andy Schramek. ‘But I give credit to Oxford. They kept battling and they did more than we did today to win.?
‘It just seemed like we couldn’t get an out,? he added of the Wildcats? sixth inning. ‘Luxton hit the one ball pretty hard, but other than that I don’t know how many hard-hit balls they had.?
Mielock took the loss to finish his senior season at 9-2, while Luxton got the victory in relief of fellow senior Teague.
‘It’s nice to have a one and a two,? Oxford Coach Kurt Nuss said of his senior pitching combo. ?(Luxton) had a big hit, too. And Teague recovered very quickly and delivered at the plate. That’s what seniors do.?
Luxton also earned the victory in the title game, pitching six shutout innings before Teague came on in relief.
‘We beat two very good teams today,? Nuss said. ‘This was one of our goals. Goal number one was to win our league and goal number two was to win the district. Now we’ll see what we can do from here.?
The Wildcats hope to follow the path the Dragons took last year after winning a district title. They Flint Metro League co-champs improved to 27-6 on the season.
Seven of Lake Orion’s nine starters, meanwhile, were seniors, a group that capped its place in the school record book by winning a league title earlier in the week. They beat Farmington 14-4 on Wednesday morning to finish atop the OAA I with a 10-2 mark.
‘Those guys won every kind of championship there is,? Schramek said. ‘I told them I couldn’t be prouder of them. I told them how honored I was to work with them.?
The Dragons finished with a new regular season win mark and a final record of 27-6.