St. Clair Little League baseball team wins 2024 intermediate state championship

ST. CLAIR — It wasn't a perfect performance. But at this stage, it doesn't have to be.

The St. Clair Little League baseball team held off Western, 3-1, to win the Michigan intermediate state championship in Grandville on July 9.

Twelve players made up the roster — Auden Alley, Jacob Ameel, Brayden Burnham, Tucker Ginop, Lane Kaltz, Aidan Moran, Jack Murdock, Cooper Roberts, Jude Salisbury, Eddie Shaw, Lucas Turrell and Brian Ursitti.

"Our pitching and our defense were phenomenal," St. Clair coach Bart Stockwell said. "Jack Murdock threw a complete game for us. He gave up two hits and one run — it was unearned — with seven strikeouts and two walks."

St. Clair's offense was led by Ursitti, who went 2-for-2 at the plate. He was also one of three players to drive in a run, along with Burnham and Shaw.

The team went 4-1 and outscored its opponents, 49-8, during the state tournament. The lone loss was against Western in pool play.

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St. Clair's run eventually ended in the Central Regional tournament in Ankey, Iowa, where the club finished 3-2 and placed fourth out of 10 teams.

"(I'm most proud of) their resilience," Stockwell said. "The second game (at regionals) was against Nebraska. They were up on us going into the seventh inning — and we put up five runs to win that game. Then, we played Wisconsin and we were down five runs going into the seventh and walked it off. Our team was never out of it. The boys just compete, compete and compete."

All summer long, the program was united in its approach. And that cohesion went beyond the dugout.

"This was a great group of kids and a great group of parents," Stockwell said. "We had a team meeting before we went into our district run. We set a goal (to win) the a state title, established how we were going to do it and made sure the boys bought in. Similarly, I had a parent meeting and said the same thing. The parents bought in — and that's a big deal to me.

"The kids hear me, but if the parents aren't on the same page or are preaching something different, that's when you run into problems. And I can't praise this group of players and parents enough for everybody buying in. That's why we were successful."

Contact Brenden Welper at bwelper@gannett.com . Follow him on Twitter @BrendenWelper .

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: St. Clair Little League baseball team wins 2024 intermediate state championship