Glen Lake baseball lost in heartbreaking fashion against Muskegon Western Michigan Christian 7-0 in an extra-inning thriller on Saturday during a regional final baseball game.
The Lakers and WMC was going 1-0 into the top of the seventh, before errors open the floodgates, and within a few minutes, the score raced to 7-0 quickly.
Glen Lake junior Peter Gelsinger had the lone hit for the Lakers as Max Miller pitched and ace of the game for Western Michigan Christian.
“Good pitching always beats good hitting, and Miller spun a gem. He wasn’t overpowering. We’ve hit faster guys this year, and we’ve seen guys with better secondary stuff, but the craft is about location and movement, and he pitched a near-perfect game. He located where wanted to, sped the bats up, slowed them down and changed the eye level well. We were off-balance the whole game, and they played error-free defense behind him. Hats off to them,” Glen Lake coach Kris Herman said. “Our preparation was on point going into it. The guys were extremely focused mentally, physically very sharp and confident in what they could do without being cocky. They prepared perfectly... but, sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you.”
Glen Lake senior Cooper Bufalini took the loss in his final game in a Laker uniform with six runs, one error, four hits, eight strikeouts, and one walk.
Glen Lake finished 27-4, with a 12th consecutive district championship and the fourth Northwest Conference Championship in the last 10 years.
“We have a lot of guys coming back, but I’m going to miss this particular collection of guys greatly. They didn’t really know each other very well when the season started, and it took us a little bit to really get out of the gate, but the team chemistry by the 2nd half of the season was outstanding. Our seniors did a great job taking care of that. They were great players and great leaders, and we’ll miss them,” Herman said. “I’m proud of our guys. We’ll absorb this, let ourselves be down about it for a little bit, learn from it and get back to work. I’ve got about 8 months to figure out how to make us better, and we will.”
Glen Lake defeated Marion 15-0 in the regional semifinal to advance to the regional final.
Leading hitters: Benji Allen (Grand Slam, single, 4 RBI), Joey Rioux (3 HR), Aiden Gokey (2 hits, 3 RBI), Cooper Bufalini (2 hits), Tanner Crick (2 RBI) The Lakers graduate Bufalini, Aiden Gokey, Joey Rioux, and Tyler Brown.
