TRAVERSE CITY – Assuming the traffic is light and the pit stops are minimal, a bus ride from Traverse City to St. Cloud, Minnesota can take about 11½ hours.
That would have left the Traverse City Pit Spitters plenty of time to think about the task at hand as they made the long journey to Joe Faber Field to face the St. Cloud Rox for the Northwoods League Championship on August 22, 2021. It would have been easy for anticipation, stress, and anxiety to build up as the miles passed by along the highway. It’s only natural, right?
Pit Spitters manager Josh Rebandt remembered the mood in the locker room quite differently, though.
“When we got to St. Cloud, I didn’t sense many nerves. As a coach, you kind of ask yourself, are they amped up? Tired from a long bus ride? A lot of things like that will run through your mind before a championship game,” Rebandt said. “That didn’t seem like the case, though. The vibe was different. I remember mentioning to (catcher) Adam Proctor, ‘Hey, we have a chance to do this.”
“And Adam said, ‘Coach we aren’t going back to Traverse City without the trophy.”
“That’s when it hit me: These guys are ready to go.”
Proctor, of course, was right. The Pit Spitters defeated St. Cloud 9-3 to claim their second league title in three calendar years. But the seeds of the 2021 championship team were first planted back in 2019.
2019 Pit Spitters Lay Foundation For Success
Since joining the Northwoods League in 2019, the Pit Spitters have made a significant impact – and they haven’t really stopped
Despite starting the 2019 season with a 12-13 record, the Pit Spitters rattled off a league-record 18-game winning streak and finished with 44 wins in their final 51 games. From there, the Pit Spitters knocked off the Kalamazoo Growlers, Madison Mallards and faced the Eau Claire Express for the league title in their first season.
Trailing 2-1 in the ninth inning against the Express, Traverse City’s Nick Powell scored on a throwing error to tie the game. Then, with two outs, Andrew Morrow laid down a bunt that Eau Claire misplayed and allowed Proctor to score, giving the Pit Spitters a 3-2 walk-off championship victory before 4,636 fans at Turtle Creek Stadium.
“We just kept believing that something special was going to happen that year,” Pit Spitters bench coach Todd Reid said. “And it did.”
In less than a year, Traverse City had quickly transformed from an organization without a manager, nickname, logo, and players into a championship team.
“I’m not even sure how to put that first season into words,” Rebandt said. “The newness and freshness of it all with a new team. For the players, it was their first experience in the Northwoods League. There are a lot of things that go into that, and we ended up with an organic atmosphere that just led us to enjoying that first year.”
Nothing could have prepared the Pit Spitters for the challenges they would face in their second season, as the entire world had changed.
2020 Pit Spitters Find Opportunities Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
The Coronavirus pandemic left the entire 2020 season in doubt. The NCAA had already canceled the remainder of the 2020 college baseball season, along with the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Major League Baseball also wiped out the entire minor league season.
As the pandemic evolved that summer, the Northwoods League eventually made the decision to create a “pod” in Traverse City with three teams that would rotate play at Turtle Creek Stadium: the Pit Spitters and two temporary teams, the Great Lakes Resorters and Northern Michigan Dune Bears.
It was hard for anyone to know what to expect, especially after games were immediately paused when several players tested positive for COVID. Play resumed after two weeks, but the Dune Bears were dissolved, which left only the Pit Spitters and Resorters to play each other every day.
With so much uncertainty and the lack of normalcy, Rebandt made sure his team focused on getting better and remained healthy.
“Our main philosophy and the standard we want in Traverse City is for these guys to get better each summer. Player development is our number one focus,” Rebandt said. “Sure, if we’re helping players get better, then our chances on the field are better as well. Championships are a byproduct of improving and getting better as player.”
“But we felt like we had a greater responsibility because the players had missed most of their college seasons. I felt responsible for getting guys into shape, avoiding injuries, and ramping them up the right way after missing so much time.”
Ultimately, Traverse City ended the season with a 4-1 loss to the Kalamazoo MacDaddies, another pod team created for the unique situation.
“In some ways, we felt fortunate, but the takeaway for me from that year is our guys really had to overcome a lot of challenges,” Reid said. “Even once we got the green light to play, we were shut down for days. We were taking caravans of players two hours downstate to sit in lines and get tested.
“And the guys did it without complaint. I remember being impressed at the group of guys we brought in that year and how they stayed appreciative and positive throughout that.”
Experience Helps Drive Pit Spitters 2021 Title Run
While player turnover is often high in the Northwoods League, Rebandt has worked hard to mold a roster that blends experience with talent. As a result, the 2021 Pit Spitters featured five players from the 2019 championship team: Proctor, John Beuckelaere, Mario Camilletti, Christian Faust, and Pat Hohlfeld. Jake Arnold, Evan Gates, and Cade Heil also played for Traverse City in 2019 and 2021 but did not appear in the postseason.
“Josh is so incredible,” Reid said. “He brings in the right guys and vets them so well that we have the least transactions in the league. That was a huge difference maker for us.”
Traverse City clinched a 2021 postseason berth when it edged the Kenosha Kingfish by one game for first place in the Great Lakes East Division ending the first-half of the season with a 21-15 record. After finishing with a 42-29 overall record, the Pit Spitters faced the Kokomo Jackrabbits in the first round in a best-of-three playoff series.
Traverse City won the first game 9-2, lost the second 3-0, and entered the ninth inning of the decisive Game 3 tied 6-6. Michael Styges led off the ninth with a triple and then gave Traverse City the lead when he scored on Faust’s single. Faust next scored on a double by Camilletti, who then came home on Chris Monroe’s RBI single to give the Pit Spitters a 9-6 lead.
Beuckelaere, who had gotten Traverse City out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning, returned to close out Kokomo in the ninth and help the Pit Spitters advance to face the Madison Mallards.
“Kokomo was an absolute grind,” Rebandt said. “Heading into Madison, that’s when the reality started setting in a little bit. ‘Hey, we’re two wins away from winning this thing.’ ”
That number was reduced to one when Traverse City defeated Madison 6-2 behind a stellar complete-game performance by pitcher Joe Horoszko (six hits, one earned run, four strikeouts) at Turtle Creek Stadium.
That victory booked Traverse City’s long bus ride to St. Cloud to face the Rox, who many considered the favorites to claim their first Northwoods League crown since 2017. St. Cloud had finished the regular season with the most wins in team history and the best record in the league at 53-18. The Rox also won both the first and second halves in the Great Plains West Division and posted the second-best winning percentage in league history (.746).
“The guys that started for us in the postseason were the underdogs of underdogs,” Reid said. “For example, Cam Schuelke was a Division I player, but he didn’t play at all his freshman year (after redshirting at Florida Gulf Coast University in 2021). Even coming in for us, he wasn’t penciled in as one of our starters. He was getting bullpen innings at the beginning of the year.”
The coaching staff made the right decision to move Schuelke out of the bullpen. After going 4-0 with a 0.68 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 53 innings, he was named Northwoods League Pitcher of the Year.
Schuelke’s strong performance continued in the title game against St. Cloud. While he had four walks, hit three batters, and gave up three runs, he also allowed only three hits in six innings and gave the Pit Spitters’ offense an opportunity to make its presence felt.
“Cam did what we asked him to do, which was give us a chance to win,” Rebandt said. “He had to battle out of a few things, but he proved why he was the Pitcher of the Year in the league.”
The Pit Spitters’ offense provided more than enough support to back up Schuelke. St. Cloud took an early 1-0 lead in the second inning, but Traverse City scored two runs in each of the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. Eight of the Pit Spitters’ nine starters had a hit and every starter reached base. Camilletti, Monroe, Evan Maday, Trey Yunger, and Zeb Roos each had two hits and at least one RBI each.
Camilletti provided an exclamation point with an eighth-inning home run before Monroe’s RBI double provided the finishing touch on Traverse City’s 9-3 victory and second straight title.
“Our guys were locked in all night. Every arm we faced was throwing 90 mph or more, and St. Cloud just kept rolling out 90 mph guys,” Rebandt said. “We faced some really heavy velocity, but our guys were undeterred.”
“Even though we were technically the defending champs, no one would have bet on us to repeat,” Reid said. “It’s hard to think that you’re picking back up where you left off because you’re really not. Every year is going to be different. I just feel like this organization puts us in a position every year to be successful.
“It doesn’t mean we’re going to win it every year, but what our front office staff does, what our owner does is put us in a position to have a chance to go win a Northwoods League championship.”
What Does the Future Hold for the Pit Spitters?
The story of the 2022 season hasn’t been fully written yet, but Rebandt remains optimistic that the long-term future remains bright for baseball in Traverse City.
“I feel like the vibe in Traverse City surrounding the Pit Spitters will have the most growth we’ve experienced,” Rebandt said. “After the 2019 season, there was a ton of excitement and then 2020 was kind of a letdown because fan capacity was limited. Heading into 2021, it wasn’t like you had to restart, but those types of things can be a little bit of a buzzkill.”
“Now that we’ve won the championship again, everyone is ready.”
Reid, who has seen support increase in both the number of Pit Spitters shirts he sees while out hiking and in the increasing number of conversations he has at restaurants downtown, said a big reason for that success comes back to Rebandt.
“Josh loves the game, loves his players, loves his family, and loves his faith,” Reid said. “I’ve been coaching for 27 years now. I’m 50, but I’d love to be up there with him for 27 more. He’s awesome.”
Rebandt, meanwhile, does his best to remain humble and focused on continuing to serve his players.
“One of the things for me as a coach is that my number one goal is to be as consistent as I can and be the same person every day,” Rebandt said. “Showing up in the clubhouse or on the bus or on the field and having the players know what to expect, knowing how I respond to different situations.”
“One of the ways that I’ve changed as a manager is to become more in tune with the college game and what guys are learning at school. That’s an ongoing progress – to get better at understanding these players, what they’re going through, and the resources they’re using to develop the game. That way our coaching staff can help.”
“I’m evolving with the game as much as I can.”
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