Reeths-Puffer kept its dream season going over the weekend with a district championship win over Grand Haven, 5-2. It was the Rockets’ school record 33rd win of the season and put a district trophy in the case for the first time in five years.
The title game was rained out and moved to Sunday after the Rockets downed Muskegon 13-0 in the semifinals. The extra wait didn’t harm R-P, which scored four times in the first three innings and held on late for the title.
Abbie Critchett provided the winning margin for the Rockets, smashing a three-run home run in the third inning after Kaylee Jones and Lainey McDaniel got hits in front of her. That made the score 4-0 after R-P’s second-inning run, which Tessa Ross drove in with a bunt single.
The Rockets only got one more hit in the game, a fifth-inning McDaniel single. She later came around and scored on a Grand Haven error.
The host Buccaneers got a two-run homer from Bri Borgman to get within three runs in the seventh, but that was their last baserunner. McDaniel struck out 11 and allowed seven hits in the win.
R-P had no trouble with Muskegon in Saturday’s district semifinal. Kyleigh Bilek stepped into the circle and threw a five-inning no-hitter, striking out eight and walking two. R-P scored in every inning, including five-run tallies in the first and third innings. Jones had three hits and scored three times, and Emme Buzzell two hits and also scored three times. The Rockets took advantage of nine Big Red errors.
The win advanced the Rockets to Saturday’s Hudsonville regional, where R-P will face Byron Center in the semifinals. A win could give R-P a date with #2-ranked Hudsonville.
