Leland stole one from Traverse City Christian last week for its first Cherryland baseball victory, while St. Mary took a week away from conference play to win 3-of-4 in the past week of play.

Leland's Matt Lichty

The heart of the season is approaching, with Leland set to host Buckley Thursday and Christian Monday. St. Mary will travel to Christian today, to Suttons Bay Friday and to Buckley Monday.

"We're pretty excited about the fact we are finally getting some home games," said Leland coach Hank Burch, whose squad has played six straight on the road.

The Comets needed an insurance run in the sixth inning during their nightcap at Christian last Thursday to preserve a 5-4 win, getting them to 1-3 in conference play. St. Mary is 2-0, while the Sabres fell to 2-2.

"We came out with a different attitude," said Burch. With the second game tied at 2-2, Nick Brown launched a deep sacrifice to left field that scored two runners.

Alex Gulow singled in the sixth, then stole three bases — "he outright stole home, clean," said Burch — for what turned out to be a much-needed insurance run. Christian responded with 2 runs in the bottom of the sixth to close out the scoring at 5-4. Adam Nedow had two hits, while teammate Matt Lichty struck out 10 to claim the win.

Leland dropped the opener, 7-4, with Ryan Paulton going 2-for-2 and scoring two runs.

St. Mary reached outside the Cherryland to knock off Manistee Catholic Central twice last week, then split with a veteran Mesick squad Monday.

The Eagles, who are 8-4 overall, dropped the opener with Mesick 4-1 despite pounding out 9 hits. Jacob Plamondon collected three singles, with Ryan Couturier singling twice. Matt Pasch knocked in St. Mary's lone run.

But St. Mary prevailed in the nightcap, 7-5, with winning pitcher Adam Peplinski striking out 5.

Pasch's bases loaded, two-out single highlighted a 5-run sixth inning, after Ryan Korson had already belted a 2-run single.

Pasch, Korson and Jacob Plamondon each had two hits in the game.

"Our seniors were on their senior trip, and they started with nine seniors, so I was pretty happy," said coach Steve Plamondon of the split.

St. Mary blanked Manistee Catholic Central 8-0 behind the one-hit pitching of Raymond Platts, then blasted its way to a 12-4 win in the second game.

Platts, a sophomore, walked just one and struck out 7. "He's going to be a dandy," said coach Steve Plamondon.

Joe Rexroat went 3-for-3 with a double, Colin Korson singled and doubled, and Pasch knocked in two runs with a pair of singles.

Another sophomore pitcher, Adam Peplinski, scattered 6 hits in winning the nightcap. Casey Drow, Pasch and Korson each had a pair of singles, with Drow knocking in 3 runs.