Shamrock baseball invited to Diamond Classic
The Shamrocks are in familiar territory this May, receiving an invitation to play in the Annual Diamond Classic. The Shamrocks play Dewitt on Monday, May 20th at 7 pm at MSU's McLane Stadium. Dewitt went to the Diamond Classic finals last year, losing to Grand Ledge in the finals.
This years field is exceptionally talented, featuring Division 2, #8 Fowlerville (15-5), Division 2, #15 Williamston (20-3), Division 2, #19 Eaton Rapids (16-4), Divison 3, #4 Pewamo Westphalia (19-0), and Division 4, #1 Ranked Portland St. Patrick's. Lansing Catholic (15-7-1), Dewitt (12-8), and East Lansing (13-8-2) were also invited.
Local matchups abound in the Diamond Classic, and comparing scores of previous matchups offer tantalizing glimpses of fantastic baseball to be played this year.
Dewitt split with Eaton Rapids earlier in the season, losing 4-5 and winning 4-2. They split with East Lansing, losing 3-4 and winning 13-5. They lost to Williamston 2-3 and 1-2, lost to Grand Ledge 3-5 and 1-8 a few weeks ago.
Fowlerville swept East Lansing 17-4 and 12-0, split with Williamston 3-5 and 7-3, beat Lansing Catholic 9-4 and 3-1, and lost to Mason 3-7 and 3-6.
Grand Ledge split with Lansing Catholic, winning 10-3 and losing 2-3.
Mason has been undefeated against a Diamond Class field teams, beating Lansing Catholic 15-2 and 13-3, and Fowlerville 7-3 and 6-3.
Eaton Rapids split with Dewitt 5-4 and 2-4, lost to Lansing Catholic 0-4 and 1-5, (Eaton Rapids also beat Bronson 2-0, Bronson gave St. Patrick's their only loss of the season- beating the Shamrocks 1-0)
Coach Bryan Scheurer is humbled by the honor to be invited to such a class tournament. "This is definitely in our preseason goal list. It's an honor, this is an incredibly classy tournament. Mike Brya has continued what Larry Cockroft and Dean Shippey started back in 1962. This gives local teams the opportunity to play at great stadiums, play under the lights, against quality local competition. Our entire community gets excited and shows out to support. The Diamond Classic also gives out 10- 1,000.00 scholarships to deserving seniors from each team, its just incredible all the way around. We understand that we are David to Goliath to the other 8- Division 1 and 2 teams that are in, along with P-W being the lone Division 3 invite."