Hudsonville Adds to Diamond Milestones
April 27, 2016
By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
HUDSONVILLE – After last year’s regular season ended, longtime Hudsonville baseball coach Dave Van Noord was on the brink of reaching a career milestone.
An early exit from the postseason tournament derailed the celebration.
Van Noord was two wins shy of joining an elite class of coaches who have won 500 games.
“I knew going into Districts last year that there was a chance, but then we lost in Districts and I didn’t think about it much,” Van Noord said. “Then this season started and I saw a plaque in the press box and I thought, ‘Oh man, this is going to happen this week.’”
Following Spring Break, Van Noord did reach the 500-win plateau with his team’s 6-1 victory over Zeeland East on April 13.
The victory was another milestone for one of the state’s top baseball programs – but also for the Eagles’ dominating programs on both diamonds.
Softball coach Tom Vruggink, who turns 66 next month, has been a mainstay at Hudsonville for 35 years and instrumental in turning that program into a state powerhouse.
Vruggink has nearly doubled Van Noord’s win total. He began the 2016 campaign with a 941-243 record and is the eighth all-time winningest coach in MHSAA softball history.
Combined, Van Noord and Vruggink have more than 1,400 wins.
“That’s incredible, isn’t it?” Van Noord said. “I wish I had his pitchers through the years, and they’ve had some incredible teams. He has a special way with girls.”
Van Noord, 53, is in his 22nd season as the Eagles’ head coach. He began his coaching career in 1991 at Lakewood Lake Odessa, where he spent two years before receiving a teaching job in Hudsonville.
He replaced longtime coach Larry Byle, who retired in 1994.
Van Noord has received help through the years from longtime assistant coach Joe DeSmit, and support from his wife, Sue.
“We’ve coached together 21 years, and there is no way I would’ve been able to stay in it without Joe,” Van Noord said. “We basically co-coach together, and my wife has put up with so much, especially my bad moods when the team’s not playing well. I wish the older that I get, the better I would be with losing, but I’m not.”
Van Noord said he was thrilled to accomplish the feat with this year’s group, which started 4-1 before suffering a four-game losing skid.
“It was cool for this team to do it,” he said. “Joe and I really like this team. We didn’t play very well last week, but the first week was good. It feels like a classic Hudsonville team.”
The Eagles were competitive through the early stages of Van Noord’s career, but were unable to make lengthy postseason runs.
That all changed in 2009 when the program claimed a District title. Three years later, Hudsonville won its first MHSAA Division 1 championship.
“We always thought if we could get by Jenison or Grandville, which were both good, then we could make a run and that would be sweet,” Van Noord said. “We won our first District in 2009 and went to the Quarterfinals. That’s when we got it going and started winning O-K Red championships. The state title was a cool thing to do.”
Van Noord looks back fondly on all of the players he has coached.
“I coached pairs of brother and trios of brothers and just a lot of good kids,” Van Noord said. “They believed in what we did and they worked hard. They all come from good families, and it has been special to be a part of that for so long.”
Ironically, Vruggink had aspirations to coach baseball. However, softball became his calling.
“My dream was to always get a baseball job somewhere,” said Vruggink, who began his tenure in 1982. “I got the softball job here before that and never looked back.
“It was tough at the beginning going from a male athlete coaching football and then coaching girls in softball. It’s a lot different working with girls than the boys, and that was the biggest adjustment.”
Vruggink has no regrets over his decision to stay involved in softball.
“I’ve loved it, and I think it is the best coaching job around,” he said. “I have kids who work hard and they love to play. The parents are so supportive of what the kids are doing and what we are doing as a program.”
The Eagles have won three MHSAA Division 1 championships under Vruggink’s guidance. They won back-to-back crowns in 2009 and 2010, and again in 2012.
“We’ve been very successful through the years, and all of the state championships are special in their own way,” Vruggink said. “We were close a lot of times and finally broke through in 2009 and got that first one. To do it twice in a row was special, and then we overcame a big hurdle in 2012 in our first year without Sara Driesenga (who has gone on to star at University of Michigan). That team had something to prove.”
Vruggink’s wife, Patty, has been with him every step of the way as the team’s scorekeeper.
“She’s in the dugout every game, and she’s like an assistant coach,” Vruggink said. “I bounce things off her like I would any other coach and it’s been great.”
Vruggink, who taught fourth grade for 31 years and now is retired from the classroom, isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.
Although hanging up the cleats and bat is talked about at times, he can’t imagine life without coaching.
“Right now, I’m still having fun and I get fired up every year for the beginning of the season,” Vruggink said. “It will be a difficult thing to say ‘this is my last year,’ because there’s always that next girl coming up you want to coach.”
Players from Van Noord’s past were among those who reconnected after his recent milestone win.
“They did a nice presentation for me after the game and that was cool,” Van Noord said. “I don’t look back much, and the years have added up quickly, especially the last 10 years. It’s been a whirlwind recently, but the best part of it was the social network.
“I’m tied in with so many people and I must’ve had 50-75 texts and emails from staff, former players and other coaches. It was so cool to just connect with those people again.”
Dean Holzwarth covered primarily high school sports for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years and more recently served as sports editor of the Ionia Sentinel and as a sports photojournalist for WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Tom Vruggink (left) and Dave Van Noord both led Hudsonville programs to Division 1 titles in 2012. (Middle) Van Noord is surrounded by his players flashing five fingers after his latest milestone win. (Below) Vruggink raises his program's third MHSAA title trophy after the 2012 win. (Middle photo courtesy of Hudsonville athletic department.)
Forest Hills Eastern, Standish-Sterling Celebrate 5-4 Wins to Set Up Saturday Matchup
By
Drew Ellis
Special for MHSAA.com
June 12, 2025
EAST LANSING – Seeing its championship hopes slip away, Ada Forest Hills Eastern turned to a pair of juniors Thursday to give it a boost.
A relief effort from Colton Brinks and a timely hit from Ben Fausey allowed the Hawks to fight past Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in a Division 2 Semifinal, 5-4, at McLane Stadium on the campus of Michigan State University.
The win moved Forest Hills Eastern to Saturday’s Division 2 Final at 11:30 a.m., where it will face Standish-Sterling. The Hawks will be seeking their second title in program history, with the last coming in 2022.
“It’s just playing another game, that’s it,” Forest Hills Eastern coach Ian Hearn said of advancing to the MHSAA Final. “We really haven’t focused on the magnitude of the possibility of winning. The game is the same, people change, so we’re just going to keep approaching it the same way.”
The Hawks (41-1) held a 4-0 lead after one inning, but saw Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (26-13) slowly crawl back.
In the fifth, up 4-3, Hearn went to Brinks on the mound in relief of starter Cam Pallo with one out, and the junior got out of a bases-loaded jam.
“He has done that multiple times and been very successful,” Hearn said of bringing in Brinks. “I don’t want to say (OLSM) was starting to time (Pallo) up or whatever, but he was starting to get tired. He was hard with his fastball, and his slider and curve ball. So, everything was firm, firm, firm. Colton came in a little bit more over the top and was able to change a lot of speeds and hit his spots. It typically takes a moment to adjust, so we’ve been fortunate that Colton has been able to get us a lot of soft contact.”
The Eaglets would tie the game in the sixth inning on an error, but Eastern responded in the seventh when Fausey hit a leadoff double. Senior James Dempsey then laid down a bunt that forced a St. Mary’s throwing error and allowed Fausey to score to give the Hawks the lead back.
“My first three at-bats, I was getting some nerves out, but I know I am a good hitter,” Fausey said of his double. “I was hunting a fastball on the first pitch, and thankfully I was on time.”
In the bottom of the seventh, the Eaglets put the first batter on base, but Brinks forced a double play, followed by a flyout to end the game.
“I’ve done this in every single playoff game except for one, so I am kind of getting used to it,” Brinks said of locking up the game late.
Forest Hills Eastern didn’t waste much time getting on the scoreboard, as it posted four runs in the first inning. The first two Hawks were walked, followed by a bunt single from Dempsey.
Brendan Thompson, another senior, then came through with a two-run single up the middle to make it 2-0. Junior Kenric Penkevich brought in another run on a fielder’s choice, then Pallo had an RBI single to cap the scoring in the first.
“I think our guys came out very motivated, with a lot of positive energy,” Hearn said. “It was very good to get started with the lead, that’s for sure.”
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s had its first five batters retired before junior Tyler Shubnell laced a double to left field. Shubnell would advance to third on an error from a pickoff attempt, then score on a balk to make it 4-1 through two innings.
Junior Luke Crighton took the mound for Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in the second inning and retired the first eight batters he faced. Ultimately, he held the Hawks scoreless for five innings.
“He’s done that all year for us. He’s really a superb two-way guy,” St. Mary’s coach Nick Di Ponio said. “He does it at the plate, does it on the mound, does it defensively, does it running the bases. I can’t say enough good things about what he means to this team.”
The Eaglets manufactured a run with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning as junior Andrew Tribul drew a walk and then was singled over to third by senior Wyatt Borbi. Shubnell then reached base on an error that allowed Tribul to score, making it 4-2.
OLSM got within a run in the fifth as a leadoff single from Anthony Elezaj was followed by two walks and a wild pitch to make it 4-3.
In the sixth, Forest Hills Eastern stranded the bases loaded, and St. Mary’s tied the game in the bottom of the inning. Shubnell hit a leadoff single and would score on a throwing error with two outs, putting the score at 4-4.
“He swung really, really well today,” Di Ponio said of Shubnell. “He squared up the bat well and helped get some big runs for us.”
Brinks got the win in relief, his ninth of the season. Crighton finished with eight strikeouts and one run allowed over six innings of relief.
Standish-Sterling 5, Mason 4
The third time proved to be the charm for Ryan Raymond and the Standish-Sterling baseball team.
After coming up shy two of the last three seasons in Semifinals, the Panthers punched their ticket to their first MHSAA Final on Thursday with a 5-4 win over Mason.
“It feels really good,” Raymond said. “We didn’t play our best game. Give Mason a lot of credit. They battled. We made a few errors and we are going to have to play clean on Saturday, but it feels really good to be in the Finals.”
The game was scoreless for four innings, but the Panthers (36-5-2) got a momentum-swinging play when Mason (31-7) was threatening in the top of the fifth.
With a runner on and one out, the Bulldogs had a single go into right field. However, Mason’s lead runner got caught in a rundown and eventually was tagged out, and the trailing runner then got caught in a rundown of his own and was tagged out to end the inning.
“It’s one of those things where you try to prep your guys, and every pitch we need to stay as focused as possible,” Mason coach Kohl Tyrell said. “It’s one of those things where we just got a little too aggressive. We tried to hold (the lead runner) up, so it backfired and he got caught. It’s a great teaching moment for us. Sometimes those teaching moments come in wins, sometimes they come in losses.”
That defensive play sparked the Panthers, as they would go on to score all five of their runs in the bottom of the inning.
“I think that defensive play where we turned a very awkward double play, I think that got us all out of a tense funk,” Raymond said. “It loosened us up a little bit.”
Playing looser, Standish-Sterling utilized its bunting to get the offensive surge. Senior Kasen Wendel put a perfect bunt single down the third base line to load the bases. Junior Ben Briggs then followed with a bunt of his own, which forced a Mason error at home plate and brought two runs across for the Panthers.
“We play small ball. I think that is the way the game should be played,” Raymond said. “You see how it works when it is executed correctly. My boys are good at doing that, because we work on it a lot.”
A sacrifice fly from senior Trace Collins was followed by a two-run single from senior Brock Bartlett to cap Standish-Sterling’s scoring.
Mason didn’t go quietly, as it posted two runs in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly from junior Travis Davis and a Panthers error. In the seventh, Mason scored another two runs thanks to another error while Standish-Sterling was attempting what would have been a game-ending double play.
“That’s this team,” Tyrell said of Mason battling to the end. “That’s why this is super emotional. It’s not the outcome, it’s hard to leave a team like this. The boys wanted it, and the fight never stops. They’re Bulldogs.”
With the tying run at second base, Raymond turned to senior Sam Briggs to record the final out, which he did by forcing a ground ball. Briggs got the save in place of starter Preston Kann, who pitched 6 2/3 innings and struck out seven in a winning effort.
“I am fortunate to have a lot of good arms, but two exceptional ones,” Raymond said. “They are both touching 90 (mph), but they are pitchers and they are baseball players. That helps a lot. They put a ton of time into their sport. Sam and Preston are dudes when it comes to pitchers.”
PHOTOS (Top) Ada Forest Hills Eastern players celebrate their Division 1 Semifinal win over Orchard Lake St. Mary’s on Thursday. (Middle) Standish-Sterling’s Brock Bartlett (15) applies a tag on a Mason runner attempting to get back to second base.