By Dan Friedell
June 6, 2005

Until Saturday, Homer, a little Michigan farming town about 100 miles west of Detroit, was best known for Cascarelli’s Pizza. Now it’s known for high school baseball.

When the Trojans beat Union City 14-3 to win the Division III district championship on Saturday, they notched their 71st consecutive win, erasing Albuquerque’s La Cueva High from the national record books after just two months.

The streak stretches back to June 7, 2003, when Homer lost the Division III regional semifinals to Reading High.

When the Trojans opened their season with a win in their first game in 2004, they had no idea they were destined for the record books. But they went 38-0 that year and began this season with 33 more wins.
“I feel like our 15 minutes of fame should have ended at 9:30 this morning,” said Homer coach Scott Salow, whose phone has been ringing off the hook. “We’ll have a good laugh at practice today when we talk to the kids about all the people that have been calling.”

Callers included nationally syndicated columnist Mitch Albom and a reporter from Albuquerque, who was interested in profiling the team that took over La Cueva’s record.

Homer, which has 334 students, has had a solid baseball program since 1990 when it lost in the state championship game. The current streak has been keyed by eight juniors (on a 14-man roster); six have been in the starting lineup since ninth grade. In that span, those players have gone 101-4, highlighted by last year's Division III state title. Michigan awards four state championships each year for the best teams in Divisions I-IV.

That team was led by Josh Collmenter, who went 7-1, 2.70 this year as a freshman starting pitcher for Central Michigan.

This year, the Trojans aces have been juniors Dan Holcomb (15-0) and Dusty Compton (13-0). So far, junior catcher Dale Cornstubble is the only player to have gotten significant attention from Division I colleges, and he plans to join his former battery mate Collmenter at Central Michigan after graduation 2006.

Salow said the Trojans have played their share of one-run games during the streak, during which they have faced larger schools in non-league games, but their pitchers have also recorded 40 shutouts.

The string was in serious jeopardy on April 26, when conference rival Union City held a 7-0 advantage in the fifth inning. The Trojans cut the lead to one run by the fifth, then scored three runs in their final at-bat to win 9-7.

Homer got some local attention earlier this year for breaking the state record of 56-straight wins, which stood for more than 40 years, but the team will need five more wins to start another streak: consecutive state titles.
Salow, who has a 143-18 record since he took the head coaching job in 2001, said his team is just worried about its next game, Saturday against Manchester High.

“That’s because it’s the only game on our schedule,” he said.