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Although his team's Michigan tournament run ended sooner than expected, it still was a memorable baseball season for coach Larry Tuttle at Blissfield.
Tuttle, 73, guided the Royals for the 50th year, and his latest team went 31-8 overall, including a 12-2 record in the Lenawee County Athletic Association to take first place.
It was the 38th league baseball championship won by Blissfield under Tuttle, including the last 33 of those in the LCAA. In their 99 seasons of high school baseball, the Royals have now won 53 league titles.
"I had a great group of kids who had excellent team chemistry, and it was special season because, of the 14 kids on the varsity, seven or eight of them were on the JV team last year," Tuttle said. "It was a great year for us because we weren't expected to be real strong."
After beating Erie Mason in a Division 3 district quarterfinal, Blissfield committed seven errors in a district semifinal and bowed out with a 4-3 upset loss to Sand Creek.
Tuttle, who was born on June 6, 1944, spent the 1967 season as an assistant coach at Bedford before taking the Royals' post in 1968. He now has a career record of 1,245 wins, 404 losses, and five ties.
The victories are the second most in Michigan prep history behind Pat O'Keefe...