Hartland baseball outlasts Novi in KLAA championship pitching duel

Hartland baseball coach Brad Guenther said he took two deep breaths before leaving the dugout to talk with senior Michael Bernardi. The Eagles (20-10) outlasted host Novi (23-9) 1-0 in a pitcher’s duel during the Kensington Lakes Activities Association championship on Thursday, May 21, but Bernardi made things interesting in the fourth inning. Just after taking the lead, the pitcher walked two Novi batters before giving up a single to Colin Bennett, the sixth-ranked 2027 recruit in Michigan, according to PrepBaseballReport.

com, to load the bases with no outs. That’s when the old catcher instincts kicked in for Guenther, who visited Bernardi on the mound to offer some encouragement. Not only was the league championship on the line, but it was also a chance for the defending state champions to avenge last year’s loss to rival Howell in this game.

Bernardi needed to settle in before Novi blew the game open. “I actually told him we were going to get out of it,” said Guenther, a Hall of Fame catcher at Wayne State. “It was a good opportunity for him to execute, and if the ball bounces the right way, he’d get out of it with no damage.

That was my message to him, to slow down their momentum. … The bases were loaded, so let’s find a way to minimize and only give up one. ” Bernardi found a way, pitching to contact for a fly out, striking out the next batter and then getting help from a lucky bounce for the third out.