The Claremont U17 baseball team swept a best-of-three series from West Central Gold in regional play last week Monday and Wednesday 4-3 and 3-2 to earn a berth in the Alpha Division state tournament in Northville this Thursday through Sunday.
The Honkers, 6-9 on the season, will play Canton at 12:30 p.m. and Warner-Ipswich-Northwestern (WIN) at 3:30 p.m. in pool play on Friday to determine seeding for the remainder of the tourney.
Claremont rallied from a 2-0 deficit in game one at West Central last week Monday with a three-run fourth and held on for the win despite being out-hit 8-4. The Honkers took advantage of five West Central errors.
Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the final inning West Central loaded the bases with one out, but back-to-back defensive plays by Kassen Keough and Carter Gines sealed the win. Chris Cutler led Claremont with a pair of singles, Nate Schuller ripped a crucial double in the three-run third inning rally, and Nick Cutler had single. Keough went the distance on the mound for the pitching win and had three strikeouts.
In game two in Claremont last week Wednesday the Honkers led 1-0 after one before the visitors pushed across two in the top of the fourth to lead 2-1. But Joe Gustafson’s crew answered right back with two tallies in the bottom of the inning behind a two-run double by Chris Cutler and kept West Central at bay the rest of the way. Keough added a double and single. The Honkers received another complete-game pitching performance, this time from Rennan Bruns, who allowed just four hits and fanned three.
Claremont 000 310 0 – 4 4 2
West Central 110 010 0 – 3 8 5
Kasdsen Keough and Chris Cutler; Kane Grace, Maddax Jackson (5) and Eli Koehn
West Central 000 200 0 – 2 4 0
Claremont 100 200 x – 3 3 4
Max Lewin and Eli Koehn; Rennan Bruns and Chris Cutler
