Comeback bug bites SL baseball
Mon, Jun 9, 2008 
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Two out of three isn't bad, but it wasn't enough for the Spring Lake varsity baseball team in Saturday's Division 2 regional tournament.
The Lakers received a strong pitching performance from senior Kevin Bergy, and hit the ball hard all day at the plate, but struggled from the field, especially in the pivotal sixth inning of a 7-6 loss at the hands of Hudsonville Unity Christian.
The Lakers enjoyed a 6-1 lead before the Crusaders battled back, eventually scoring four runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 7-6 lead.
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"It was one of those games when you go home and sit there and think about what we could have done differently, and you second-guess yourself on some things, but the bottom line, in the sixth inning, we booted the ball twice, we had a passed ball, and we walked in a run," coach Brian Sabo said.
The Lakers still had a chance to get out of the inning without surrendering the lead. With two runs already scored, two outs recorded and runners on second and third, a routine grounder was hit to short. Brooks McDonald looked poised to end the inning, but the ball took a strange hop and jumped right over his head, allowing both runners to score.
"It hit something and went right over his head. What do you do?" Sabo said.
The Lakers jumped all over the Crusaders early, scoring twice in the third and four more times in the fourth inning. In the fourth, Tyler Pederson had a two-run double, then Mark Rhem tripled to drive in two more.
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Seven of the Lakers' nine batters tallied hits for Spring Lake, which put at least one runner on base in each of the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, but could not push another run across the plate.
"We had a pretty balanced attack," Sabo said. "Nick Miller tripled to lead off the third. Mark Rhem had a sacrifice fly. Kevin Teays did a nice job in the clean-up spot. Jared Panozzo and Eric Foster each had singles.
"We had good swings on their kid."
Sabo was also happy with Bergy's pitching performance.
"He didn't strike out anybody, and he gave up nine hits, but overall, we hit the ball harder than them," Sabo said. "They had a couple bunt singles on us. Bergy walked six guys, but he was still throwing ground balls.
"We had him on a short leash, but he kept getting out of things. He gutted out a real nice game. He only gave up two earned runs."
The Lakers finish their season with a 16-14-1 record, including the team's first district championship since 2002. While Saturday's loss was frustrating, Sabo kept things in perspective as he looked back at the season as a whole.
"Every year we're getting better. We're getting there," he said. "Even though we lost Saturday, our kids walked away from that game realizing we can play with some of the better teams around.
"This summer and next season, defense is going to be our emphasis. We got good offensive production this year, and our pitching was outstanding. In the games we lost, our defense let us down."
