MUSKEGON TWP. - Every young athlete would love to have the type of breakthrough game that Reeths-Puffer sophomore Brayden Meeuwenberg had on Thursday.
The first-year varsity baseball player had not pitched at all this season, and he was called to take the mound on in a high-pressure situation with the game on the line.
The score was tied 6-6, and visiting Caledonia had a runners on second and third with one out in the top of the seventh inning.
After loading the bases with an intentional walk, Meeuwenberg proved to be up to the task, getting one batter to ground to third, resulting in a force out at the plate, then getting the next batter to fly out to center field to end the inning and the threat.
Brayden Meeuwenberg
But the pressure was not over for Meeuwenberg. He came up to bat just a few minutes later, in the bottom of the seventh, with the potential winning run on second base.
He had yet to get his first varsity hit in multiple tries this season, but again he rose to the moment, drilling a pitch deep into the gap in left-center field, which easily scored teammate Landon Learn with the winning run.
Reeths-Puffer walked away with a 7-6 victory, and Meeuwenberg was mobbed by his teammates for his double heroics.
“It was a lot of pressure, but I trusted my team behind me and I trusted myself, and I knew I was going to do my best,” Meeuwenberg said about his stressful pitching assignment.
And what about his game-winning hit?
R-P Coach Butch Attig instructs Meeuwenberg. Photo/Joe Lane
“I just tried to shorten up my swing because I’ve been late on everything,” he said. “I just saw that it was a fastball in and I just took it to left field. I thought it was gone when I first hit it.
“I means everything, I am thankful.”
Meeuwenberg wasn’t the only star of the game.
Brendan Guikema started on the mound and pitched a great game, going 6 1/3 innings while scattering nine hits with no walks and six strikeouts. Caledonia scored six runs while he was on the mound, but only three were earned.
R-P pitcher Brendan Guikema. Photo/Joe Lane
Guikema, Ethan Frang and Hank Mitchelson had two hits apiece and Frang knocked in two runs.
More than anything, Thursday’s victory was a complete team win for the very young Rockets, who seem to be adjusting to varsity baseball much sooner than anyone expected.
With a lack of seniors and juniors, the Rockets have four freshmen and seven sophomores on the varsity roster. Common sense says they should be struggling badly, but that has not been the case.
Thursday’s win improved their record to 4-3 overall and 3-2 in conference play.
A big test came this week in the three-game O-K Green conference series against Caledonia, and the Rockets did pretty well.
R-P's Tyler Scanlan throws across the infield. Photo/Joe Lane
They lost both games of a road doubleheader on Tuesday, but led the first game 5-3 in the seventh inning, before Caledonia rallied for three runs in the bottom of the inning to steal the win.
R-P did not let that happen again on Thursday, overcoming an early deficit, grabbing and then losing a three-run lead, grabbing and then losing a one-run lead, then digging out the winning run.
R-P head coach Butch Attig likes what he sees from his young team so far.
”We are going to struggle a little bit at times, but we are a quality baseball team when it comes down to it,” he said. “I am hard on them. I try to teach the game and make them understand that at times we will need to overcome failure, and that’s exactly what we did today. We showed great grit and we need to build off that."
Back-and-forth battle
The game didn’t start out great for the Rockets.
They fell behind 2-0 in the top of the second, even though Caledonia didn’t hit a ball out of the infield. A few bad defensive decisions allowed the Fighting Scots to load the bases with no outs, and they scored one run on a passed ball and another on an infield single.
R-P answered right away in the bottom of the second when Bentley Kops hit a single, Mitchelson followed with a double, then Jack Yonkman hit the ball down the third base line, was safe on an error, and two runs scored.
Ethan Frang followed with an RBI single to left and the Rockets led 3-2.
R-P's Hank Mitchelson stretches to take a throw. Photo/Joe Lane
The Rockets struck again in the bottom of the fourth when Mitchelson hit a single, Yonkman added a double, then Frang delivered another RBI single. Guikema followed by hitting into a fielder’s choice out at second, but another run scored on the play and R-P led 5-2.
Caledonia scored three runs in the fifth inning to tie the game at 5-5. R-P went ahead 6-5 in the bottom of the inning when Tyler Sykes was hit by a pitch, advanced to third and scored on a throwing error.
The Rockets had a great chance to extend the lead in the bottom of the sixth when they loaded the bases with one out, but failed to capitalize.
Caledonia tied the score in the top of the seventh and threatened to do more damage, but Meeuwenberg came on to pitch and worked with the defense to prevent any more runs.
R-P's Bentley Kops dives back into first base. Photo/Joe Lane
That led the bottom of the seventh. Mitchelson led off with a walk and was replaced on first base by courtesy runner Learn, who advanced to second on a passed ball.
Then Meeuwenberg stepped to the plate and delivered his game-winning hit.
“He got to play hero on both sides,” Attig said about the sophomore. “I hope it was a huge lift for him. He works hard, we gave him the opportunity and we love that he excelled.”