MUSKEGON — Whitehall faced a difficult task in Wednesday’s regional semifinal game. In the other dugout was Spring Lake and star junior pitcher Zane Stahl, a top prospect in the state who’s committed to pitch at the University of Louisville.
The Vikings, though, didn’t appear overmatched at any point and battled with the Lakers for four scoreless innings. In the end, as is the case in so many baseball games, it came down to the little things as Spring Lake fought out a 4-1 victory to earn a date in Saturday’s Petoskey super regional.
“When you lose a game, you’re going to get caught up in the few plays you didn’t execute,” Whitehall coach Warren Zweigle said. “I can’t wait until tomorrow, and I can look back and reflect on the season and realize how great of careers these kids have had and how great a season they had.”
The turning point was in the fifth inning. The Lakers took advantage of four hit-by-pitches, a botched rundown and a bloop two-out, two-run single to score four times and make the difference in the game.
Whitehall pitcher Ryne Christensen, who looked sharp early, battled with his command in the fifth, leading to the four plunked batters. However, he still looked to be in position to get out of it unscathed when, with two in scoring position and one out, Whitehall got Spring Lake’s Oliver Smies into a rundown between third base and the plate. However, Smies ended up being awarded home plate when a Whitehall defender interfered with him during the rundown. After a pop fly out, three straight hit batters followed, the last of which drove in a second run, and then Zach Schlepp lofted a short fly into right center that Nate Betz fell just short of coming up with. Two more runs scored.
“I don’t feel like he had his best stuff today, but I feel like he just battled and battled and battled,” Zweigle said of his starter, who allowed only three hits in 6 1/3 innings before hitting the state pitch count limit of 110. “It’s 0-0 in the fifth, and I think that things could have been different if we got a bunt down earlier, if we got the rundown out, things we normally do.”
Whitehall (26-11) had an early chance in the third inning when Myles Welch led off with the game’s first hit for either side, but the Vikings couldn’t bunt him over to second, which loomed large when Kyle Stratton delivered a single that might have scored Welch had he been on second instead of first.
“You expect kids to get that done, but you question, should we have practiced a little bit more on those things?” Zweigle said. “I wish we would have, in hindsight. But I don’t want that to take away (from the season).”
Whitehall briefly made some noise after Stahl was lifted in order to be available to pitch Saturday, getting two on base and scoring one of them on a Noah Meinert single. With the tying run at the plate, though, Whitehall couldn’t rap out any more hits that inning, and Spring Lake hung on for the win.
It marked the end of four-year varsity careers for Christensen and Stratton, mainstays in the Whitehall lineup for so long that it’s hard to believe they won’t be right back out there in 2025. However, Christensen will be playing at Muskegon Community College and Stratton, the state’s all-time stolen base leader, will be playing football at Taylor University.
“We’ve been playing with each other, me and Kyle, for a long time,” Christensen said. “A lot of guys in that dugout were with us when we went to the Little League state (meet). We’ve been fighting together since we were about this big (he gestured to his hip). It’s fun seeing it come all together, and it sucks how it ended, but I love those guys.”
“When it’s all over, it goes so fast,” Zweigle added. “Your last game’s probably always going to be a loss and you’re just never prepared for that. You always think you can win one more game and keep battling. It’s sad when you have kids that have played for so long. They’ve given so much to the program.”
