Northville High School’s baseball team defeated Plymouth 10-0 in a Division 1 pre-district game on May 26, 2026, behind Max Samhat’s six-inning shutout and a bases-clearing double by Macklin Hart. The Mustangs scored seven runs in the first inning and invoked the mercy rule with a walk-off RBI in the sixth.

Samhat struck out six batters, allowed three hits, issued no walks, and threw 74 pitches—52 for strikes—while facing 21 batters. His performance anchored a dominant outing for Northville, which improved to 16-10 on the season. Plymouth finished the year with an 8-17 record.

Hart finished 2-for-4 at the plate, opening the game with a leadoff single and later launching a bases-clearing double to center field that scored Leo Link, Chase Steger, and Drew Meussner. He also recorded four putouts in center field, including one play where he tracked down a ball quickly enough to prevent Plymouth’s Drew Jansen from stretching a single into a double. Northville’s offense featured multiple contributors: Steger collected two hits, three RBIs, and two runs; Tyler Baranick went 3-for-4 with one RBI and two runs; Liam Friest finished 2-for-3 with a double, one RBI, and one run; Meussner went 2-for-3 with a double and delivered the mercy-rule RBI; Nate Van Dis doubled; and Justin Klepp scored twice.

Northville baseball coach Mike Malley praised Hart’s defensive reliability, saying, “He’s been a great outfielder for us. I’ve had the opportunity to coach him all four years of high school — one year on JV and three at the varsity level — and he’s just a great athlete. He can really go track the ball down, and it’s a huge comfort level for our whole pitching staff, knowing that once the ball goes up in center field, we’ve got a really good shot at getting to it.”

Malley also credited the team’s early offensive surge, saying, “It was great to have Max start off by throwing a clean first inning, then our guys immediately putting seven on the scoreboard. That’s a big deal in a playoff game and sets a good tone for us, especially with us playing in the pre-district for the fourth or fifth straight time. We’re pretty used to playing in this game, and we know we’ve got to beat everybody in our district to win the title anyway, so it was a great start for us to come out here and play like this on our home field on a Tuesday game.”

Northville will host Salem in the Division 1 semifinal on Saturday as the team pursues its fifth district title since 2022. Malley emphasized continuity and culture, saying, “For him to be around somebody like Dante and the other kids on that team who just did everything the right way and were so focused on baseball and maxing out their opportunities as players, that was a fantastic thing for him to be around. And it’s especially good for some of the young guys on this team this year to be around a guy like Mack and see how he does things. We hope that creates a culture with our baseball program where the young guys learn from the older guys and that gets passed down from year to year.”