In Round 2 of the MHSAA District 35 Tournament last Saturday, Big Rapids took on the Flying G's of Gladwin at Chippewa Hills High School.

 

After surrendering 2 1st inning runs, Big Rapids rallied on a 2nd inning 2-run homerun by Sawyer Meeuewes to even it. Meeuewes was also pitching & locked the game down after the 1st until he ran out of pitches late.

(Meeuewes Pitching Line: 6.2IP   4 Hits   4 Runs   2 Earned Runs   3 Walks   12 Strikeouts)

 

After 2 straight singles to lead off the 4th, the Cardinals would take the lead on a clutch 2-out 2-RBI single by Sophomore Ben Knuth.

 

Up 4-2 heading into the 7th inning, Meeuewes only had 9 pitches of his 105 daily allotment remaining.

2 fielding errors put the tying runs on before Meeuews induced a fielder's choice for the 1st out. With only a few pitches remaining, Sawyer struck out Gladwin's Shea for the 2nd out.

Ballard, typically a starter, then came off 1st base to an intentional walk to load the bases. With 2 outs in the 7th on a 1-0 count Gladwin's Mead singled to right field on a sharp groundball that scored 2 runs, tying the game. Ballard would then quickly end the inning on only 3 more pitches.

 

In the bottom of the 7th, Senior Maurice Camphor led off with a 1-1 single to left. Grant Kidder then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Camphor to 2nd, but Eric Standen's line out to short and Austin Vennix's ground out would end the threat & send the game to extra innings.

 

In the bottom of the 8th, Gladwin's Przyewski drew a lead off walk, Woodford bunted him to 2nd, Yott walked, then on an 0-2 pitch leadoff man Mead reached out and poked a single to center to win it for the Flying G's.

 

Gladwin would move on to win the District blowing out Ludington 13-1 (that after Ludington blew out Chippewa Hills 14-4 earlier in the day). Gladwin moves on to play Bay City John Glenn at Chippewa Hills this Wednesday at 4:00pm.

 

Big Rapids finishes their season with a 22-15 record, a remarkable feat considering they played Rockford, Forest Hills Eastern, Petoskey, Whitehall, Cedar Springs, Sparta, & Traverse City West as non-conference opponents.

The 2021 Baseball team is the 1st team in school history to beat TC West.