The brand new on-campus baseball stadium at Romeo High School is off to a great start – six scoreless innings by junior Nick Kaminski and 10 hits through the lineup helped the Bulldogs open their new stadium and season with a 9-0 victory over the Fraser Ramblers on Thursday, April 3.
While most teams in Macomb County were inactive on Thursday due to sloppy field conditions after deluges of rain fell on Wednesday into Thursday morning, the field – complete with brick dugouts, batting cages, bullpens and more – was ready to go thanks to its water filtering and turf surface.
“When it first started getting planned, it’s like it was, like, too good to be true,” said Romeo head coach T.J. Delamielleure. “And watching the whole process and, you know, it being developed, everyone’s really excited. It was sad to see the old field go, but we knew what was coming to us, so we were pretty excited.
“It’s not just a field, it’s a beautiful facility. The cages and everything else, we’re just very fortunate to be able to have it.”
School superintendent Todd Robinson spoke on the field before the game with Delamielleure and two seniors on the team also addressing the crowd before two ceremonial first pitches.
Then it was finally time to put the Bulldogs’ new digs — which rests in the shadow of their football stadium and next to the softball one — to good use.
“I love this place,” Kaminski said. “We’re blessed to come out here every day, have practice, then come here, have games. It’s a whole lot of fun this year.”
Kaminski, the team’s No. 1 starter this season, retired six of the first seven batters he faced then got Romeo’s offense going with a double in the second inning.
His courtesy runner, Josh Lochbiler, scored the first run at the new field on a double-steal in which Fraser catcher Michael Schwartz threw to second but didn’t nab Luciano Bollini with two outs.
That sparked the start of Romeo’s most profitable inning – Ben Taylor’s single scored a run, then Parker Cohoon was hit by a pitch. A passed ball then moved both runners into scoring position, and Brody Meier cashed them in with a single, putting Romeo up 4-0 in the second inning.
Kaminski didn’t give the Ramblers a chance to get back in the third, punching out the Fraser hitters in order for three of his 10 strikeouts across six scoreless innings. He surrendered two hits and three walks.
“He’s (Kaminski’s) our guy,” Delamielleure said. “So, you know, (he’ll) be at the top of our rotation. And he’s an excellent competitor. And the tougher the situation in the game, the tougher he gets. So, you know, we had a situation where there’s guys on base, and he got tougher and better and had a couple strikeouts. So he did an outstanding job, and he usually does. So nothing new there with Nick.”
A fourth inning double by Fraser’s Jack Manzella was stranded before the Bulldogs got back to work – they loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the fourth. Troy Smith hit a bouncer to Fraser third baseman Alex Schmidhuber, whose throw home was wide right of Schwartz, scoring a run.
“We’ve got to improve our defense, and, you know, we’ve got some guys playing a little bit new positions, and they’ve just got to learn how to play those positions and learn those positions,” said Fraser head coach Rob Townsend.
Cooper Meadows walked right after to make it 6-0 with the bases loaded and just one out. But Fraser pitcher Brody Gray – who filled in for starter Austin Wilson in the third inning – quelled the threat with two strikeouts.
“Brody is a solid player,” Townsend said. “He’s a senior, and he knows how to pitch, you know. He’s got finesse, and he can mix pitches. And, I mean, he’s going to help us a lot. He’ll be throwing a lot of innings this year, and one of the guys we’ll be counting on.”
Kaminski walked the first two batters in the fifth inning but escaped.
Bollini, Smith and Joey Badalamenti added insurance runs for the Bulldogs. In relief, Lochbiler shook off a HBP to strike out the Fraser side in the seventh inning.
“We’re looking for guys to settle in and to compete for spots,” Delamielleure said. “So we have a really competitive team, and I think there’s a lot of guys that are really close to equal and so we’re trying to get guys at bats and trying to get guys opportunities to earn spots at this point, and trying to see, you know what, how we fit in; You know, how everybody fits into their role.”
Meier had three hits and two RBIs, both game-highs. Smith also drove in two runs and Meadows walked twice. Kaminski (double) and Lougheed and Smith (triples) had extra base hits.
Fraser’s Manzella had the Ramblers’ lone two hits, including a double. Starter Austin Wilson was charged for four earned runs, Gray was given two (three runs total) and Cooper Norbeck, who pitched the sixth, allowed two.
The Ramblers dropped to 0-3.
“We’re just looking to have good at bats,” Townsend said. “You know, battle pitchers, throw strikes, and we're looking for our fielders to make plays. Just the basics.”
