Page 12/The Sun and News, Saturday, April 17, 2021
Rams down Caledonia girls in first
OK Red softball game of 2021
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Caledonia varsity
softball team has won two of
its first four ballgames to
start the new season.
Things are different this
time around. The Scots’ sta-
dium has been updated on the
campus of Duncan Lake
Middle School. Kaylie
Rhynard has taken over the
head coaching duties from
state championship head
coach Tom Kaechele, who is
still a part of the program.
There are also a wholebunch of new faces for the
Scots after a year away from
the field.
Even with a few new faces
the Scots won their two
opening ballgames in
Middleville, scoring 21-
and 15-9 wins over the host
Trojans.
The Caledonia girls
opened the OK Red
Conference season with their
first loss of the season, 17-
against visiting Rockford
Thursday afternoon.
Kathleen Cleary and
Barbary DeGood had twohits each for the Scots in the
loss to the Rams. Abigail
Samp had the lone RBI for
the Scots.
There is little varsity expe-
rience for the Scots.
Caledonia will return to
action with a conference dou-
bleheader at home against
East Kentwood Tuesday and
then travel to Grandville
Thursday for a single game
in the week ahead. The dou-
bleheader with Kentwood is
the Scots’ last home game on
the schedule until a May 12
date with South Christian.Pair from state finals team
of 2019 set to lead CHS golf
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Scots have a good
start to a varsity line-up.
The Caledonia varsity
boys’ golf team brings back
2019 varsity golfers Bryce
Fleisher and Landon Wanless
this spring. Fleisher is a
senior and Wanless a junior.
Caledonia also had Jacob
Byanski, a sophomore, who
had the chance to compete on
varsity in 2020 if there had
been a season. Caledonia
head coach Gus Wagner said
Byanski plays a lot of sum-
mer tournaments, so he is
expecting good contributions
despite his lack of varsity
experience.
All three of those top
Caledonia golfers played
quite a bit when the state was
open last summer.
Fleisher and Wanless
helped the Caledonia team to
a 2019 runner-up finish at
regionals and a spot in the
Division 1 State Finals.
Rounding out the line-up
are Alex Roe and JT
Schwartz, a pair of seniors.
Roe was one of the Scots’ top
JV players in 2019. Wagnersaid Schwartz is a hockey
player who is out for golf for
the first time.
“He has a good swing and
a good game and I think he
can help us,” Wagner said of
Schwartz.
Juniors Daniel Fisher,
Jeffery Liggett and senior
Brayden Petersen are work-
ing to find their spots in the
top six in the varsity line-up.Wagner has been excited
by really nice warm presea-
son weather.
Rockford and Hudsonville
look to be a couple of the
toughest OK Red Conference
teams this spring. The Scots
will have a shot at being
there near the top of the con-
ference standings.None of the Scots have played
varsity level baseball before
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Fighting Scots are
learning on the fly this
spring.
Caledonia’s varsity base-
ball team comes into the
2021 season without a single
player who has played a var-
sity ballgame.
The inexperience showed
in the opening week of the
season as the Scots were
swept in their OK Red
Conference series with
Rockford, falling 18-8 and
12-2 in ballgames with the
Rams in Rockford Tuesday
and 16-2 in the series finale
in Caledonia Thursday after-
noon.
Austin Deller and Nikolas
Clark had the tow Caledonia
hits in the final game of the
set for the Scots, and scored
the team’s two runs. Aidan
Grinstead and Luke
Mandsager had RBIs in the
loss.
Nicholas Bender started
on the mound for Caledonia
and only allowed two earned
runs, three total, in his five
innings. He struck out two,
walked two and gave up five
hits to the Rams.
“They have to pay atten-
tion to every little detail of
the game of baseball for us to
improve and compete,”
Caledonia head coach Pat
Gillies said.
Gillies said his senior
group this season includes
Clark, Grinstead, Ryan
Brown, Lane Purvis, Joe
Coble, James DeMarrow and
Michael Gellhoed. They
were all sophomores on the
Caledonia JV team in 2019,
and missed out on experienc-
ing their first varsity season
last spring.
“They’re very coachable
and they’re learning a lot
about the game from playingand being coached,” Gillies
said of all his guys.
It wasn’t an easy way to
start the season. Rockford
should be one of the top
teams in the OK Red
Conference this fall along
with Hudsonville.
Gillies said he is still mov-
ing guys around, figuring out
which positions work best
for the team as a whole.
“They are very supportive
of each other, even though
they know they’re competing
for playing time,” the
Caledonia coach said.
Caledonia will play its OK
Red set with East Kentwood
in the week ahead, hosting
the Falcons for a double-
header Tuesday and going to
East Kentwood for one game
Thursday. The Scots play
Delton Kellogg next Friday,
April 23, and then will visit
Loy Norrix in Kalamazoo for
an invitational April 24.Landon WanlessGreat group back to chase
another Tier II title for Scots
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Caledonia varsity
girls’ lacrosse team should
be chasing another OK
Conference Tier II
Championship in 2019.
The Scots were 9-1 in
conference play and shared
the 2019 title with Lowell
before missing out on the
2020 season.
Caledonia lost three
seniors to graduation last
spring who are now playing
collegiate lacrosse, so 2020
could have been another
outstanding season at
Scotland Yard, but the roster
is far from void of talent.
Head coach Robert Lyle
had a big crew of talented
juniors and seniors back
who were underclassmen on
that last conference title
team. The group is led by
honorable mention all-con-
ference defenders Brinlee
Barry and Regan Weiss,
junior midfielder Stella
Bottum (the team’s draw
specialist), as well as senior
attackers Hannah Huebner
and Bella LaFranca and
senior middie Marisa
Helsten. All six of those
girls have been on the
Caledonia varsity since their
freshman season.
“In ninth grade you could
even tell, unlike most
defenders that wait fo you to
come to them they attack
you and they don’t let you
go near the goal,” Lyle said
of Barry and Weiss. “They
ride you out of the way.
They’re very physical.
They’re solid people and
I’m sure they’ll end up play-
ing in college (along with a
few others).”
Adding their talents to the
varsity for the first time thisspring are senior attacker
Lauren Roe, junior attacker
Jessie Petersen, sophomore
midfielder Rylaen Goosen,
sophomore defender
Addison Deveney and senior
defender Audrey Korb. Lyle
said those girls most likely
all would have been on the
varsity a year ago.
The team is also pleased
to add speedy freshman util-
ity player Megan Bushart
and junior goalkeeper
Autumn Anderson.
Anderson was the JV goal-
keeper as a freshman two
years ago for Caledonia.
Lyle is pleased with the
make-up of his team all
around so far. As well as the
all-conference defenders he
likes his middies and attack-
ers who have “assassin’s
shots.”
The Scots are off to as
good start so far againstsome overmatched teams.
They bested Grand Haven to
open the season, beat Spring
Lake and West Ottawa too.
The Scots knocked off
Grandville 20-3 this week.
If things break right, the
Scots should have a good
shot to win every game on
their schedule before the
postseason, but there are a
lot of variables going into
this season. The Scots were
slated to visit Forest Hills
Central for a tough non-con-
ference match last night
(April 16).
Caledonia returns to
action Monday at home
against Grand Rapids
Christian and then will visit
Lowell for a big game on the
grass against the Red Arrows
Wednesday. The Scots go to
Hudsonville April 23 and
Spring Lake April 24.Stella BottumEllie Thelen