After a respectable 19-13 season for the Oxford Varsity Baseball Team, the 2004 campaign came to a close last week with a Wildcat defeat by the Lake Orion Dragons in district playoffs. The game against Orion ended 11-6.
Although the game was lost, Oxford showed patience during the matchup, scoring four runs on bases-loaded walks in a fifth inning rally. The offense was spread around evenly for the Wildcats, getting contributions throughout the batting order. Shortstop Bryan Mattack recorded a single and a sacrifice fly to score a run, Steve Flores hit two singles, and both David Fisher and David Reile hit singles.
Perhaps Orion starting pitcher Hughes gave the Cats some trouble, limiting Oxford to only seven hits and striking out four batters. In the end, Wildcat pitcher Kyle Oliver shouldered the blame for the loss on the mound.
At the conclusion of the season, the Flint Metro League coaches held a meeting to decide the recipients for various league awards. Receiving First Team All League Infield honors was senior shortstop/pitcher Bryan Mattack and Outfield honors was centerfielder Steve Flores. Second Team
Second Team honors went to leftfielder Dave Reile, and Honorable Mentions were given to four different Oxford players. Infielder Jeremy Bukoski received an award, despite only playing a limited number of games this season, for his .407 batting average. Also, junior Brett Brammer and senior Ryan Stull received Honorable Mentions in the utility/designated hitter category for their offensive numbers.
Recognized for his defense this season was senior Shawn Gall, who’s stellar play at first base earned him an Honorable Mention.
Oxford is losing six seniors this year, as Flores, Mattack, Stull, Gall, Reile and Matt Zurbrick played the last high school game of their careers against Orion. However, the 2005 team, which will be lead by current juniors Mike Jones, Jim Carrier, Kyle Oliver, Brett Brammer and Joel Grifka, isn’t looking too bad for the future.
Mike Stechschulte is a junior at Oxford High School who plans to major in the field of journalism.