Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos taken by Brad Landis, and to listen to post-game interviews.
ESCANABA---The Bay College Norse baseball team played perhaps their two best games of the season against on Thursday against the conference champion and tradition-rich Grand Rapids Community College Raiders, but the Norse lost two tight games, 3-1 in eight innings, and 5-4, on a cold, windy afternoon at the Wells Sports Complex.
Trevin Laming's two-run homer in the top of the eighth inning won the opener for GRCC, and then an unearned run in the top of the fifth inning of the nightcap broke a 4-4 tie and gave the Raiders the sweep. But Norse Coach Mike Pankow was encouraged.
“It shows what we're capable of,” Pankow said after the Norse fell to 7-26 on the season, and 4-18 in their first-ever season in the Michigan Community College Athletic Association. “We played great baseball today. Our pitchers came out and threw strikes and challenged them. They had to hit challenging pitches and our pitchers kept us in the games. We just gave ourselves a chance, and that's all I could ask for.”
In the opener, the Norse were up against GRCC pitching ace Jerad Berkenpas, who was an NJCAA All-American last year and has won the MCCAA North Conference Player of the Week honors for each of the past three weeks. But Norse ace Austin Burnside matched him pitch for pitch for most of the game, setting up a dramatic finish,
The Norse scratched out a run against Berkenpas in the third inning when Dante Sartorelli led off with a single, went to second on a ground out, and with two out, Parker Maki blooped a single to center field to bring in the run. Maki was caught in a rundown between first and second bases, but the Norse still had a 1-0 lead.
In the fourth inning, GRCC's Fernando Rivera got a double with two outs, and then Zacharias Salinas followed with a base hit to right field. Julian charged the ball and came up throwing, and got it to catcher Johnnie Robinette in time for the tag at the plate. Rivera collided with Robinette, but the Bark River-Harris graduate held on to the ball, showed it to the umpire (former GRCC Coach Doug Wabeke) and the inning was over.
“I told myself to just run to the ball, throw it in, and see what happens,” Julian said. “I didn't want to just nonchalant it. So, I was ready to go, and got him out at home. Johnnie got hit pretty hard there. I mean, it wasn't the best throw. It was right in front of him and it took a couple of hops, but he made a great play.”
Meanwhile, Burnside was doing his best to keep the Raiders batters off-balance. Burnside did not record a single strike out in six innings of work, but, as usual, he didn't walk people, either, issuing only one free pass.
But GRCC got even in the sixth inning when Laning got a double over the third base bag to lead it off. Burnside got the nect two outs on pop ups, and nearly had Raiders clean-up hitter Dylan Chargo struck our. Chargo got enough of it for a foul tip, and on the next pitch, smacked one just fair down the right field line, plating the tying run for the Raiders.
Bay had a chance to regain the lead in the bottom of the sixth when Maki was safe on an error and Julian drew a walk. But with two on and one out, Ritz Nonomura and Xavier Whittle both popped up, keeping Grand Rapids in the lead.
Brandon LaRue came on to relieve his Crititz High School buddy Burnside in the top of the seventh and pitched a 1-2-3 inning, keeping it tied going to the bottom of the seventh. Bay got a baserunner when Sartorelli drew a two-out walk, but Jace Cota grounded into a force play, sending us to extra innings.
In the top of the eighth, #9 hitter Joe Hoeks hit one to Dalton Graham at short, and he bobbled it and threw late to first. It was Bay's first error of the game, and it was costly, as Laning came up and lofted a shot that got up into the jet stream and cleared the left field fence and gave GRCC a 3-1 lead.
Berkenpas blew through the Norse lineup in the bottom of the eighth to earn his sixth win of the season. He ended up with a three-hitter with ten strikeouts and two walks.
“Especially late in the game, he was throwing us all sliders,” Pankow said. “We were trying to pull the ball and swing through it, instead of, right field was wide open. There's a couple of adjustments we need to make offensively.”
LaRue took the loss, while Burnside got a no-decision in one of his best pitching outings in a Bay College jersey.
In the second game, GRCC grabbed a 4-0 lead off pitcher Carlos Velarde, with two of the runs coming on a home run by Xander Reisbig. Bay came back with a four-run inning in the bottom of the third to tie it up, with Zac Gomersall getting an RBI single and Joe Handley contributing a sacrifice fly.
The Raiders (28-11 overall, 15-2 MCCAA) took advantage of three Bay errors to get the go-ahead run, and the Norse had their chances late to come back.
With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Nonomura got a base hit, and Xavier Whittle followed with a hit.
Unfortunately, the runner Pankow put in for Nonomura (Cota) was thrown out after over-sliding third base. Gomersall struck out to end the ballgame, as GRCC reliever Ethan London worked four innings for the win.
In all, the Norse struck out 34 times in the doubleheader, with Berkenpas getting ten in the opener and Conner Foley and London combining for 14 strikeouts in the nightcap.
The two teams will play a tripleheader on Friday because the weather looks very poor for Saturday. The games are scheduled for 11:00 a.m., 1:30 p,m., and 4:00 p.m.
