St. Francis rolls past regional semifinal, advances as defending champ

Traverse City St. Francis kept its championship defense moving with an 11-3 win over Harbor Springs in a Division 3 regional semifinal, a result that sent the Gladiators into Saturday’s regional final and extended a postseason run built on comfort, not survival.

The score mattered because it showed St. Francis did not need a late scramble to stay alive. After a 15-0 win over Benzie Central on May 30, the Gladiators followed with another decisive performance, one that left them positioned to keep chasing a second straight deep tournament march.

That matters in a county where St. Francis has become one of the area’s most watched teams. The program’s 2025 Division 3 state championship, a 5-4 win over Marine City at McLane Stadium in East Lansing, ended a 35-year title drought and reset expectations for every postseason game that followed. This year’s regional win shows the Gladiators are not just carrying that banner, they are playing like a team that expects to keep it.

The path ahead gets sharper from here. The Michigan High School Athletic Association’s 2026 baseball schedule placed regionals on June 3 and June 6, with quarterfinals set for June 6 and the semifinals scheduled for June 11-12 at McLane Stadium on the Michigan State campus in East Lansing. St. Francis already cleared one of the key regional hurdles; the next rounds will decide whether the defending champs get another chance on the same stage where they lifted last year’s trophy.

St. Francis High School, at 123 East Eleventh Street in Traverse City, operates its athletics program through Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools, and the school describes athletics as an integral part of its educational mission. In practice, this is what that mission looks like: a program that has already won a state title, is still posting lopsided postseason results, and now stands one win closer to another championship defense.