Divine Child Baseball Looks to Defeat Defending State Champ

The boys’ baseball team (21-15) takes its journey for a title–and redemption–to Novi High School this week, where they will play the 2011 state champion St. Clair (26-4-1) in the Division 2 state quarterfinal Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Last year, Divine Child went , but Falcons head coach Tony DeMare said this year’s squad is heating up at just the right time.

“We’re young and we started pretty poorly this year,” DeMare said. “We started 6-12 and we’ve been playing our best baseball as of late.”

He added that with only three games between the team and the 2012 championship, the Falcons are anxiously awaiting the chance to knock off the defending state champs.

“There is a great deal of excitement,” DeMare said. “None of these kids have been this far in the state tournament before.”

Despite the inexperience, the team survived its early troubles to come out more aggressive, DeMare said.

“We’ve been pitching very well, and our offense has been coming around,” he said. “The last month we’ve been swinging the bat pretty well and driving in runners and being more opportunistic.”

DeMare said no starting pitcher has been picked yet, and that multiple pitchers will likely trade off time on the mound against St. Clair.

While DeMare highlighted his team’s pitching, he noted that the Falcons’ defense is “probably our one weakness.” But as far as weaknesses in St. Clair’s game, DeMare said he has trouble finding them.

“I’m not sure they have any weaknesses,” DeMare said. “They’re strong in almost every facet of the game.”

Despite the opportunity to defeat last year’s state champions and the Falcons’ close proximity to the championship, DeMare said the team is looking only at the game at hand.

“When you get this far in the tournament with the single elimination, honestly, we just take the next opponent and you can’t think beyond that,” DeMare said. “You just line up for the next game.”