Led by some stellar pitching on the mound from the varsity baseball team’s underclassmen, the Rangers could not get it done at the plate as the team lost both games of a doubleheader to East Grand Rapids. Both starting pitchers for FHC did an amazing job but with struggles at the plate from the entire lineup, the Pioneers pulled away with a clean sweep.

After an impressive outing against West Ottawa this past Saturday, the Rangers looked to get a couple of wins over East Grand Rapids, a team that they have already seen and won against in their lone matchup this season.

In FHC’s first matchup of the day, junior Josh Smith would get the start at pitcher for FHC and did not disappoint his team. Josh pitched four innings while giving up five hits and only one run. He got charged with five earned runs because, in the fifth inning, he put men on base before getting taken out for his reliever, junior Joe Seurynck. Joe only gave up two hits but got three runs scored on him after East Grand Rapids hit a home run.

On the offensive side of the diamond, the Rangers only managed to get three hits off of a stellar performance from the Pioneers pitchers. Senior Dawsen Beach was the only FHC player to get an RBI in the first game, and the Rangers lost 8-1.

Even though the team was playing at East Grand Rapids, the postponement of Monday’s game allowed FHC to act as the home team for the second game of the night. Junior Joe Robertson started the game on the mound and pitched a solid first two innings, but everything fell apart after that. Joe gave up five runs in the third inning and in total, he gave up 9 hits in his four innings of work. Junior Kaeden Palmitier pitched two innings in relief for Joe and only gave up two runs and three hits. Going into the bottom half of the sixth inning, the Rangers were down 7-0 with their backs to the wall.

Senior Alec Gast reached on a ground ball to start off the inning and right after him, junior Adam Carpenter doubled into center field to put runners on second and third with no outs. Junior Beau Coughlin singled in the next at-bat to drive in Alec, cutting the deficit to six runs. Junior Ivan Wheland quickly followed up with a hard ground ball to the third baseman, who made an error on the ball. All runners were safe as the lead was cut down now to just five runs with no outs. Junior Noah Smith singled into center field on the next at-bat to load the bases loaded with still no outs in the inning.

Kaeden would walk in the next at-bat to make the score 7-3. Soon after, senior Brady Price forced the first two outs of the inning as he grounded out into a double play. A run scored on this play, as the Rangers were now down 7-4 with a runner at third. Senior Joey Wise reached base on an error by the Pioneers shortstop, with the score now reading 7-5. Joe Seurynck was up to bat right after Joey and with a full count, he struck out as East Grand Rapids escaped the near-comeback win by FHC with the final score of 7-5. 

The Rangers are now 10-8 this season and will host East Grand Rapids on Friday, May 7th at 4:15 PM.