The Hastings Banner — Thursday, April 1, 2021 — Page 15LHS freshman leads off season with home run
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
“We are extremely young this year. We
only have two kids that have seen a varsity
pitch before tonight,” Lakewood varsity soft-
ball coach Brent Hilley said Tuesday after his
girls opened the 2021 season with a double-
header sweep of Lansing Catholic at
Lakewood High School Tuesday.
Lily Federau saw three of them before she
hit the fourth one that came her way over the
right field fence.
“Into the wind,” Hilley said.
The first two girls in the Viking line-upTuesday, Federau and Marissa Goble, are both
freshmen. Federau led off game one and was
1-for-2 with a pair of walks. She scored two
runs in a 10-0 Lakewood win. She followed
that up with a 3-for-4 performance in game
two in which she belted a double and a pair of
singles while scoring two more times in a
12-1 Viking victory.
Goble had a two-run single in her third
at-bat of the season opener.
There are three freshmen on the Viking
roster this spring. The two girls with varsity
experience are senior pitcher Morgan Stahl
and senior catcher turned shortstop Hannah
Slater who have both been on the varsity sincethey were freshmen in the spring of 2018.
Federau has taken over the catching duties
from Slater for now, but Hilley expects them
to swap back and forth a few times this spring.
“Morgan threw great. I think she might
have given up two hits and a walk in both
games, so she is steady,” Hilley said of Stahl.
The first three Lakewood batters reached
base and scored in the bottom half of the first
inning of game one against the Cougars.
Goble was hit by the fourth pitch she saw and
then Liv Woodman reached on an error.
They’d come aroound to score without the
benefit of another Viking hit in the first inning
after Federau’s lead-off home run.Slater singled twice and drove in two runs
in the opener. Stahl singled once and Claire
Benham doubled in two runs in her last at-bat
of game one. Audrey Hilliard singled twice
and scored twice, and Kate McGarry had a
single and a run scored as well.
Slater was 3-for-4 at the plate in game two.
Stahl singled twice and scored a run. Bonham
doubled, walked and scored twice. Bella Lab
had two singles and scored twice. Woodman
walked three times and scored a run. McGarry
doubled, walked and scored a run. Hillard had
a double as well and scored two runs.13
Baseball returns to LHS; Vikes take two
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
It opened as a battle of spinning fastballs
and concluded with a race against the spin-
ning Earth.
The Lakewood varsity baseball team scored
8-2 and 5-1 victories over Lansing Catholic
Tuesday at Lakewood High School in the
Vikings’ first varsity baseball games since the
conclusion of the 2019 season.
Lakewood senior catcher Jayce Hansen
belted his first varsity home run over the left
field wall with one out in the bottom of the
third inning of game two to put an exclama-
tion point on the Vikings’ first evening. The
solo shot put the Vikings up 5-0 and it was a
race against the setting sun and the falling rain
drops to make it an official five-inning victory
from that point on.
“It felt good to hit,” Hansen said after a first
five days of practice spent mostly focusing on
defense for the Vikings.
Hansen was 1-for-1 with two RBI in game
two, and 3-for-4 with a double and three RBI
in the opener.
Hansen caught both games, receiving the
complete game from fellow senior Brady
Gawne in the opener. Gawne struck out 12
Cougars and walked just two in his seven-in-
ning start to open the season. He gave up five
hits and only one of the two runs against him
was earned.
“The first game went great,” Lakewood
head coach Brad Tacey said. “They jumped
out to a lead in the first inning, then we got a
couple runs and led from there. Guys hit the
ball all over the place and we just played phe-
nomenal defense tonight. Brady [Gawne] just
continued on doing what he has been doing.
He played varsity baseball as a sophomore
and he just picked up right where he left off.
We played great defense. [Lucas] Tacey had a
great grab in right field in the second game.
Jayce Hansen hit the ball all over the place,
obviously with the home run, and he hit one
in just about the exact same spot in practice
yesterday which is crazy.
“Guys played very well. [Blake] Priceplayed very well as a freshman. [Nathaniel]
Graham played very well. We played team
baseball and the biggest thing is the defense.
I’m very impressed with the defense.”
Coach Tacey said that defense has been the
focus throughout the few practices in the lead-
up to this one set of ballgames before the
team’s spring break trip to Florida.
“I attribute that [strong defense] to actually
being able to be outside and field the baseball
in warm weather, and not having to spend two
weeks in a gym,” coach Tacey said. “That is
what I attribute it to. When we got outside, wehaven’t hit. We haven’t hit at all. That is what
guys work on in the offseason and when they
have their own time. They work on hitting.
We focused on defense for the majority of the
time that we had out here and it really paid
off.”
Looking on from his spot behind the plate,
Hansen said he saw his team’s outfielders
moving well and was happy with the way
Graham looked playing out of position at sec-
ond base with a couple teammates unable to
participate Tuesday.
Martin Hollern doubled, scored a run anddrove in a run in the opener for the Vikings.
Price and Graham scored two runs each.
Gawne, Graham and Andy Wolverton each
had an RBI. Brent Sweet, Gawne, Graham
and Price each singled once in the win.
Sweet was 2-for-2 at the plate with a run
and an RBI in game two. Graham, Nathan
Willette and Price each singled and scored a
run.
Willette went the distance on the mound in
game two for the Vikings, striking out two
and walking four in five innings. He gave upthe one run on four hits.
“It felt nice after not bing able to play last
year,” Hansen said of getting back on the
field. “We would have had a great team last
year too. I had a lot of friends on that team. I
played with them growing up, so it sucked not
being able to play, but we have a pretty good
team this year too from the looks of it today.”
Lakewood returns to action at home April
12 against Lowell and then will begin the
Greater Lansing Activities Conference season
at Lansing Christian April 13.Lakewood’s Lucas Tacey drops down a sacrifice bunt to move a teammate up a
base during game two against Lansing Catholic Tuesday at Lakewood High School.
(Photo by Brett Bremer)Nathan Willette pitches for the Vikings during game two of their double header
sweep of visiting Lansing Catholic Tuesday at Lakewood High School. (Photo by Brett
Bremer)Lakewood catcher Lily Federau and pitcher Morgan Stahl get fired up for the start of another inning during game two of the
Vikings’ doubleheader sweep of Lansing Catholic at Lakewood High School Tuesday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Lakewood’s Marissa Goble takes a cut at a pitch during game two of the Vikings’
doubleheader against Lansing Catholic Tuesday evening at Lakewood High School.
(Photo by Brett Bremer)
Vikes sending two seniors,
two juniors to D3 Finals
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Zac Gibson will be chasing his third state
medal Friday and he’ll have three teammates
wrestling in the Individual State Finals for the
first time with him at Wings Event Center in
Kalamazoo.
Gibson won a regional championship at
125 pounds Saturday at the Division 3
Individual Regional Tournament hosted by
Lansing Sexton to qualify for the Division 3
Individual State Finals for the third time in his
three varsity seasons. Lakewood senior
152-pounder Keegan VanAlstine and senior
160-pounder Kyle Petrie both had state quali-
fying performances as did junior heavyweight
Eastin Stank.
Gibson ran his record to 29-1 on the season
with a 3-1 win over Williamston’s Greg Dion
in the 125-pound regional championship bout.
He oped the day with a quick pin of
Montague’s Landon Askins and then defeated
Alma’s Dianni Tripp 6-0 in the semifinals.
VanAlstine placed third in his weight class
and Petrie and Stank each placed fourth. The
top four in each weight class at the regional
earned spots in the state finals.
Lakewood had three other individual
regional qualifiers, Daniel Krebs, GavinVaughn and Ashton Clark, all of whom won
one match but were knocked from the state
tournament in the blood round [the consola-
tion semifinals].
VanAlstine pinned Central Montcalm’s
Brock Ryan in his blood round match and
then earned the third-place medal at 152
pounds with an 8-2 win over Whitehall’s Alec
Pruett to close out the day.
Petrie defeated Cole VanDyke from West
Catholic 3-1 in the blood round to survive for
another tournament. The two battled through
a scoreless first period and VanDyke got the
first points of the bout with a quick escape in
the second period. He held that lead until
Petrie worked an escape 22 seconds into the
third period. Petrie then got the points he
needed for the win with a take down with 53
seconds remaining in the match.
Petrie and VanAlstine both won their first
match of the tournament, but Stank had to
fight through two win-or-go-home matches
after he was pinned in his quarterfinal match
to start the day. He pinned Alma’s Caden
Adams quickly in his first consolation match
and then pinned Lansing Sexton’s Jose
Medina in the blood round. Grant’s Caleb
Thompson scored a 5-0 win over Stank in the
match for third.GIVE THE GIFT OF NEWS!
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