1THE HASTINGS
Thursday, April 22, 2021legals
Gawne gets a win and a save for Vikes
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
He had nine pitches left according to his
coach.
He only needed one.
Lakewood senior ace Brady Gawne fin-
ished off Viking victories in both of his team’s
games of the Barry County Invitational
Saturday in Hastings, earning the complete
game win in the opener against the host
Saxons and then getting the final out on a
ground ball to get his team out of a seventh
inning jam against Thornapple Kellogg in the
championship game.
“I tell you what. I’ll be honest with you. I
really wasn’t all that nervous. I knew that if
we got into a jam, I knew that we had Brady
for nine pitches and I knew that he would be
able to get the job done,” Lakewood head
coach Brad Tacey said after his team’s 5-
win over Thornapple Kellogg.
Gawne, who also threw as complete game
victory in his team’s season-opening win over
Lansing Catholic, came on with the bases
loaded and two out in the bottom of the sev-
enth against Thornapple Kellogg in the final
and got TK’s Eric Dipert to hit a fielder’s
choice to shortstop Blake Price. Price had just
taken over at short when Gawne moved from
there to the mound. He stepped on the bag at
second for the force out.
The Barry County Invitational champion-
ship is the first for coach Tacey in his six
years leading the Lakewood program. The
tournament obviously didn’t take place in
2020 and there was one other season in which
it was rained out during his tenure.
Getting to throw Gawne in the opener and
Gavin Willette for most of the championship
was a rarity for the Vikings on a Saturday. The
Vikings’ Greater Lansing Activities
Conference ballgames with Maple Valley
were postponed this week, so there was no
reason for the team’s top pitchers to save
pitches.
Singles by Ethan Caris, Ashton Benson and
Matthew Thompson were the only hits for
Hastings against Gawne in the day’s first ball-
game - a 5-1 Lakewood win. The one run
against Gawne was unearned. He struck out
16 Saxons and didn’t walk a batter.
Drew Markley threw well for the Saxons
too. He struck out six in five innings of work,
allowing three runs [two earned] on three hits
and four walks.
Gawne had three of those hits and drove in
a run. All eight Lakewood hits in the opener
were singles. Nathaniel Graham had two and
Brent Sweet, Andy Wolverton and Willette
had one each. Graham had an RBI.
Willette started the championship game for
the Vikings and went 6.2 innings, striking out
five and walking five. He was charged with
all three Trojan runs. TK managed six hits off
the starter. Graham was the first reliever for
the Vikings but walked the two Trojans he
faced to push across TK’s final two runs.
Lakewood scored three runs in the top of
the third inning against TK putting together
three straight two-out hits. Sweet singled and
came home from second on a single by
Gawne. Gawne then came around to score on
a triple off the bat of Graham, and Graham
eventually scored on a passed ball. Lucas
Tacey led off the top of the fifth with a walk
for the Vikings and came around to score
without the benefit of a hit. He took second on
a passed ball, moved to third on an infield
ground ball by Gawne and then scored on a
wild pitch.
The seventh inning jam wasn’t the only one
the Vikings worked out of in the champion-
ship. TK had the bases loaded with nobody
out after Samuel McKeown was hit by a pitch,
Carsen Burbridge singled and Carter Stahl
singled to start the bottom of the fifth.
Willette got Alex Bonnema on a called
third strike for the first out. McKeown scored
and everybody else moved up a base on an
RBI ground out by Reese Garbrecht. TK’s
Nolan Dahley walked to load the bases back
up with two out, but Burbridge got a late
break off of third to try and score on a wild
pitch and was thrown out at the plate by
Viking catcher Jayce Hansen.
Willette helped his own cause with a one-
out double in the top of the sixth and then his
courtesy runner, Nathan Willette, advanced
around the bases on a TK error and a wild
pitch.
TK put pressure on the Vikings in the bot-
tom of the seventh. Stahl singled with one out,
but was still at first when Bonnema flied out
to Lakewood left fielder Denny Sauers. Gavin
Willette then walked Garbrecht and Dahley to
load the bases. Dahley was in an 0-2 hole. He
fouled off four more pitches, after earningthose first two strikes with foul balls, before
finally working the walk. Graham came on
and walked TK’s Jonah Summerhays on four
pitches. Graham got to 0-2 on TK’s Kaiden
Pratt, but Pratt then looked at four balls to
push in another Trojan run that made the score
5-3 and brought Tacey out of the dugout to
bring on Gawne.
“It felt like they kind of squeezed us a little
bit there,” Tacey said. “[Gavin] Willette got
tired there. That is the first time he has ever
tried to go for a complete game in his varsity
career. I thought Graham pitched perfectly
fine to those two batters he saw. At the end of
the day, Brady [Gawne] comes in there, one
pitch and a ground out and game over.
“The guys played well. We played funda-
mentally sound baseball. I think we had one
error in 14 innings. That is phenomenal. I’ll
be honest with you, I feel good. We have
never won this tournament since I have been
here. Normally we come out here and we
don’t play very well, and we played absolute-
ly fundamental baseball here today. I am
proud of the guys. They played well.”
Dahley, Summerhays, Dipert and Burbridge
each singled once for TK in that champion-ship game. Stahl had two singles.
Martin Hollern, Price, Gawne and Sweet
each singled once for the Vikings.
TK senior starter Levi VanderHeide took
the loss on the mound. He gave up four runs,
three earned, on four hits and two walks. He
struck out four.
Brett Caswell relived VanderHeide in the
fifth and got the final seven outs. He struck
out two, walked one, allowed one hit and one
earned run.
TK got to the championship game with a
7-0 five-inning win over Delton Kellogg.
The Trojans’ seven hits were all singles,
two by McKeown and one each for Garbrecht,
Burbridge, Pratt, Dahley and Caswell.
Garbrecht, Burbridge, Pratt, Dahley and
Caswell had one RBI each and Bonnema,
Garbrecht, VanderHeide, Pratt, McKeown,
Dahley and Caswell each scored one run.
Dipert pitched the Trojans to the win. He
struck out 13 in the five innings, walking two
and allowing a lone single to the Panthers’
Blake Thomas.
Hastings pounded out a 14-4 win over
Delton Kellogg in the consolation to close the
day.
The Saxons finished off the Panthers with
seven runs in the top of the fourth inning.Drew Markley had a big game knocking a
double, a triple and walking twice. He drove
in three runs and scored three times. Carter
Hewitt and Mitchell Rafter also doubled for
the Saxons.
Hewitt was 2-for-3 at the plate with a walk,
three RBI and two runs scored. Caris walked
once and scored twice out of the lead-off spot
for the Saxons.Rafter had three Rbi and
Matthew Thompson two. Harrison Smalley
and Mason Denton both singled once and
drove in a run. Denton scored twice and
Smalley once. Kaiden Shumway walked once
and scored two runs too.
The top four batters in the Delton Kellogg
line-up each scored a run against the Saxons,
Thomas, Jacob Kemp, Mason Nabozney and
Hunter Belew. Aiden Whitmore had Delton
Kellogg’s only hit, a two-run single in the
bottom of the third inning.
The Saxons did the typical Saturday bull-
pen thing in the final. Hewitt started and went
two innings. He struck out three and walked
three while being charged with one unearned
run. Denton, Rafter and Patrick Gee all threw
in relief for Hastings.
Garrett Schisser took the loss for the
Panthers.Thornapple Kellogg’s Carter Stahl knocks a single into left field during the bottom of
the fifth inning of the championship game of the Barry County Invitational against
Lakewood Saturday at Hastings High School. (Photo by Brett Bremer)The Lakewood varsity baseball team celebrates its victory at the Barry County Invitational hosted by Hastings High School
Saturday. The Vikings defeated the host Saxons 5-1 in the opening game of the day and then bested Thornapple Kellogg 5-3 in
the championship game. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Hastings’ Drew Markley drives a sun-aided RBI triple to right field during the Saxons’
win over Delton Kellogg in the consolation game Saturday at the end of the Barry
County Invitational at Hastings High School. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Delton Kellogg’s Mason Nabozney
slides safely into the plate to score the
Panthers’ first run in their consolation
round game against Hastings at the end
of the Barry County Invitational Saturday
at Hastings High School. (Photo by Brett
Bremer)Brady Gawne pitches for Lakewood
during its opening round win over the host
Saxons at the Barry County Invitational in
Hastings Saturday. Gawne got the win in
the opener and then came on to earn the
save in his team’s championship game
win over Thornapple Kellogg. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)Jensen follows up win with top five
finish for Saxons at TK Invite
Will Jensen and Joey McLean led the
Hastings varsity boys’ golf team to a fifth-
place finish at the Thornapple Kellogg
Invitational at Yankee Springs Golf Course
Friday.
The Saxons fired a 360 to finish in sixth
place as a team.
Jensen tied for fifth individually with a 78.
McLean scored a 92 for the Saxons who wereplaying in their second 18-hole event in two
days.
Hastings earned the runner-up trophy last
Thursday at the Delton Kellogg Invitational at
Mullenhurst where Jensen took medalist hon-
ors.
The Saxons were scheduled to open the
Interstate-8 Athletic Conference season at
Binder Park Golf Course Tuesday afternoon,but that meet was postponed to April 28.
Hastings was scheduled to host Ionia for a
non-conference dual yesterday and will be
back in action Friday at the Marshall
Invitational at Marshall Country Club.
The Interstate-8 will now get its season
started April 27 at the jamboree hosted by
Parma Western at Arbor Hills Golf Club.Call 269-945-
for Hastings
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