Sophomore Hurls Hartland into D1 Final
June 11, 2015
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – It would not be an overstatement to say that Kyle Kletzka was the surprise star of the game Friday morning at McLane Baseball Stadium on the campus of Michigan State University.
Kletzka, a 5-foot-9 sophomore pitcher who was on the Hartland junior varsity eight weeks ago, hurled a four-hit shutout against Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills as the Eagles scored a 5-0 victory in the first of two MHSAA Division 1 Baseball Semifinals.
Unranked Hartland (27-16-1) will play unranked Portage Northern (30-7-1) at 9 a.m. Saturday in the championship game at McLane Stadium.
Kletzka, a right-hander, did not learn about the Semifinal starting assignment until Wednesday night.
“Coach just straight up told me, ‘You’re on the mound tomorrow,’ ” said Kletzka, who struck out four and walked two. “At first I was a little nervous, but I slept on it, and I was ready to go.”
He certainly was ready to go. Kletzka struck out the first two batters of the game, and that helped ease whatever nerves he might have been feeling.
“It was big time,” he said. “As soon as I got those two strikeouts, it was all over. I wanted the win so bad. Coming in, I had a little bit of doubt, but after those strikeouts, I didn’t have any doubts.”
Hartland coach Brian Morrison agreed that those initial strikeouts were “big time.”
“It settled everybody down,” Morrison said. “There were a bunch of nerves, and he calmed the entire team down. The plan was not for him to go seven, but once he got going he looked comfortable, so we let him go.
“We had confidence that he would go out there and throw strikes, and he did that, and they hit them at us and we made the plays.”
Kletzka never got into serious trouble. Twice he allowed a runner to get to second base, but he got out of it both times with nobody scoring.
“My slider was working the most for me,” Kletzka said. “It’s my go-to pitch normally. I can’t even explain the feeling. It’s amazing.”
Hartland took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. After walks to Alex Vydick and Max Cadman, designated hitter Gary Turnbull punched a single over first base, scoring Vydick, and Cadman scored on a throwing error on the play.
The Eagles added two more in the third inning when Turnbull was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and a sacrifice fly by freshman Max Hendricks brought in another. Hartland’s final run came in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Hendricks, who had two RBI, as did Turnbull.
Sophomore second baseman Hunter Delanoy was the only Hartland player with more than one hit as he had two singles, while John Baker, who had a single and a walk, was the only player to score twice.
“It’s pretty surreal right now,” said Cadman, the catcher who was one of just two seniors to start the game. “It still hasn’t hit me that this team is going to the state final. I love this team and I love to play with them.”
Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills (33-5), ranked eighth in the final Division I coaches poll, had four hits and two errors behind pitcher Bennett Norry, who struck out five and walked four in six innings. Jarod Nickel and Noah Gloe each doubled for the Knights.
“We didn’t take great at-bats, and we made too many mistakes in the field,” Kenowa Hills coach Joe Acker said. “We were hoping to jump on them early, and it just didn’t happen. But take nothing away from their kid. He threw well. He threw strikes. The kid was good.”
Morrison said it was not a slam-dunk decision to go with Kletzka as the starter.
“I just had a gut feeling,” he said. “There were a few guys who I have confidence could have handled this game, but we thought if we had to go to multiple guys, we liked the order with him first.”
Morrison is not facing a tough decision about the starter for the championship game Saturday. He will go with his ace, junior right-hander Baker.
“If somebody is going to beat us with him on the hill, they’re going to have to beat us,” he said.
Portage Northern 8, Grosse Pointe South 0
Portage Northern senior pitcher Blake Therrian knew what to do with an early six-run lead Friday in the second Division 1 Semifinal.
“It’s huge for us. Getting runs puts me in a position to just make my pitches and do what I do,” Therrian said. “I don’t have to force pitches.”
Portage Northern had a 5-0 lead before it picked up its first hit, as Grosse Pointe South made five errors in the first two innings.
“Them not making the routine plays kind of gave us the momentum,” Portage Northern coach Chris Andrews said. “When we get ahead, the pitchers are just great at pounding the strike zone and pitching backwards, and our defense came through again.
“Blake can pitch backwards. He can throw his off-speed in fastball counts, and he was able to do that. That is tough on good hitters.”
Portage Northern scored six runs in the first two innings on just one hit. The Huskies scored two in the first without a hit as they had a walk, a batter hit by a pitch and took advantage of two errors by Grosse Pointe South. Both errors came on the first two balls in play in the bottom of the first.
In the second inning, Portage Northern scored four as Grosse Pointe South committed three more errors, issued two walks and hit another batter.
The lone hit in the first two innings by Portage Northern was a run-scoring single by senior first baseman Collin Hall.
“You can’t make five errors in two innings and expect to have a good outcome,” Grosse Pointe South coach Dan Griesbaum said. “But it doesn’t take away from the year we had. We had a tremendous year, and one game doesn’t spoil it.”
Brady Young had two hits and scored two runs for Portage Northern, while Max Schuemann and Tommy Henry each scored three runs.
Henry, the team’s No. 1 pitcher, will start the championship game Saturday against Hartland.
“I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Andrews said. “Tommy has been lights-out for us, and I’m glad he’s on our team.”
Grosse Pointe South (32-12), which out-hit Portage Northern 8-6, did not have a player with more than one.
PHOTOS: (Top) Hartland sophomore Kyle Kletzka unloads a pitch during his team’s Division 1 Semifinal win Thursday at McLane Stadium. (Middle) A Portage Northern runner slides into home past the tag by Grosse Pointe South catcher Logan Mico.
Senior-Powered Spring Lake Answering Anticipation, Pursuing High Expectations
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
April 29, 2026
SPRING LAKE – The time is now for the Spring Lake baseball team.
With the return of 11 veteran seniors, the Lakers entered this spring with lofty expectations and an eye on an extended postseason run.
Anticipation has come to fruition in the form of a state ranking and a nearly perfect start.
“Our motto is we are going to worry about next year next year, and we are going to do all we can this year,” Lakers fourth-year coach Bill Core said. “We knew we were going to have a big experienced group coming back, and that's just how the roster folded out. We have a lot of experience, a lot of returners and pretty high expectations.”
Spring Lake, which finished as Division 2 runner-up in 2024 and won a conference title last year for the first time since 2014, is off to an impressive 13-1 start (9-0 in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Black) and has climbed to No. 7 in the latest coaches poll.
Core said the vast number of returners, which includes five players who will play in college next year, has paid early dividends.
“I think that’s been a big difference,” he said. “We’ve played some younger teams that were breaking in sophomores or juniors or new kids, and our guys were ready to go right from the start. It’s been an advantage early on.”
Senior starting pitchers Oliver Smies and Maddux Kipling believe the strong bond among the senior class has been a major factor in the torrid start.
“I think something that’s really important about this team is our team chemistry and the amount of seniors we have on the team,” Smies said. “That alone allows us to have a ton of experience, and I think that's a big reason why we are off to such a hot start. We have been playing good team baseball and complementary baseball with good defense and good offense.”
Added Kipling: “We genuinely like being around each other, and every day we show up ready to get a little better. Our team has a real gritty and energetic identity, and I think that shows in how we compete and support each other.”
Kipling and Smies have been dominant on the mound this season. They haven’t allowed an earned run while combining for 80 strikeouts. Kipling earned a second-team all-state accolade as a junior and is headed to Michigan State next year. Smies will play at Calvin University.
“It starts with our pitching,” Core said. “Any time you are going to make a run, it starts with your pitching and we are pretty lucky, especially with our top two.”
Offensively, the Lakers possess a balanced lineup and boast a .330 batting average.
Senior Owen Smies, who will join his twin brother at Calvin, is hitting a team-best .432 with 13 RBIs. Seniors Alex Strauss (Adrian College) and Max Feltner (Muskegon Community College) are both batting .333 and have combined to score 25 runs.
As a team, Spring Lake has produced eight shutouts and nine wins by run differential.
“We got off to a good start, but we are going to play a lot better competition,” Core said. “This is a good week for us because we play Northview and state-ranked East Grand Rapids. We just picked them up, so we were excited to fill in the week with those two schools.”
Spring Lake is 62-6 over its last 68 games and trying to remain focused on each game as it attempts to erase the disappointment of last year’s early exit from the postseason.
Despite winning 30 games, the Lakers suffered a 3-2 loss to Grand Rapids West Catholic in District play.
“I think there is some motivation there from that loss,” Oliver Smies said. “And I think that loss last year taught us that any team can beat any team, so you have to play your best baseball every single game no matter the opponent.”
Core said last year hasn’t been discussed, but believes it still sits in the back of his players’ minds.
“I think they think about that, but we've had quite a few mercies to start the season, and I said to them that when we get to the tournament it's going to be a one-run game and we are going to have to do the little things to make a difference because we are not going to win 14-0 all the time,” he explained. “We try to keep everyone in the moment.”
Kipling isn’t dwelling on the past – or looking too far ahead.
“As a group we’ve done a great job staying focused on the present and not getting caught up in the past or worrying too much about the future,” Kipling said. “My dad has always told me to focus on what you can control because putting energy into things you can’t control is a waste.
"That mindset has stuck with me, especially on the field. I try to live by ‘one pitch at a time,’ and because of that I haven’t really spent time thinking about last year’s loss. That’s behind us, and we’re just focused on what we can do right now.”
Dean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for five years after serving at the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years along with shorter stints at the Ionia Sentinel and WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Spring Lake baseball coach Bill Core tosses Maddux Kipling his home run ball after a win over Fruitport. (Middle) Kipling pitching at Spring Lake's Hickman Field. (Below) Senior Oliver Smies connects with a pitch. (Photos by Trevor McCue/Grand Haven Tribune.)