As the baseball team prepares for the postseason, they find themselves ranked among the top teams in the state. On their way to achieving this ranking, they became the best winning South team through their first 30 games, their record being 25-5.
Coach Peter Loch said that going into the season, the coaching staff recognized the team’s potential to be good but didn’t expect such a successful season. He attributes the team’s success to their reliability throughout the season.
“It’s being consistent in playing Grosse Pointe South baseball,” Loch said. “That’s good pitching, good hitting, and working at bats, and they’ve done a great job of that. Early in the season, we weren’t really there, but right when league play started, that’s when we were playing really good baseball.”
Though the coaching staff and players may have seen this jump in ranking coming, Jack Danielewicz ’26 believes that many outside of South may not have.
“I think with the group we had last year, mixed in with the young pitching we had this year, the personal expectation is there. I knew we could compete, but I think throughout the state and all the ranking systems, nobody really saw this coming,” Danielewicz said.
With this ranking comes much excitement as the team heads into the playoffs. Captain Steven Zrimec ’25 said that the biggest thing the team can do is just to continue to contribute.
“We just need to do our part, that’s what we’ve done the entire season,” Zrimec said. “How you can contribute in the game to help the team out, whether it’s getting a base hit, taking a walk, just however you can do your part.”
Zrimec said that this playoff run means even more knowing the team wants to win for their coach, Dan Griesbaum.
“He really wants it for us, as much as he does for himself, obviously,” Zrimec said. “He really wants it for us, so we really want to do it for him, too.”
On top of wanting it for their coach, this playoff run means a lot to each player individually. Danielewicz said that he believes it’s an attainable goal for the team after their success in the regular season.
“[A deep playoff run] would be a dream come true,” Danielewicz said. “Since we’ve been playing Little League, since travel ball, all our lives, the ultimate goal has been to go on a run and win a state championship in a Blue Devil uniform.”
