Wyoming, MI - The Grace Christian Tigers baseball team kicked off it's 2023-24 campaign with a 4-game homestand against the Alice Lloyd College Eagles (Ky.). The Tigers had played a scrimmage earlier in the fall, but these games would be the first to count towards the official spring record.
Game one of the series set a great tone for the season, as it was a hard fought, low scoring affair. Sophomore,
Iwan Sitalo, started on the mound for Grace, going 5.2 innings and only giving up 4 earned runs. Freshman,
Benji Kramer, came in to finish the game and threw a scoreless inning to finish a well-pitched game. Offensively, the Tigers collected 8 hits but could not seem to string them together, and only plated 3 runs. Freshman,
Reagan Mutschler, made sure to put his mark on the game with a solo home run off the left field foul pole. Grace would ultimately lose the game 3-4.
Game two saw a different story as both the offense and pitching lost their steam. The Tigers only collected 4 hits in this game, however two of them were home runs by Junior,
Carter Willis, and Freshman,
Damian Fernandez. The Eagles prevailed in this one 13-3.
Looking to start fresh on Saturday, Grace got off to a decent start in game three. Hanging a 5 spot on the Eagles to tie up the score 5-5 in the 3rd inning, the game looked promising. Although some bullpen troubles got Grace in a hole they could not climb out of, and despite another 5 run inning by the Tigers in the 6th, Grace would fall 10-20. Yet, the offense was regaining its momentum, which set the stage for game four.
In the series finale, Grace Freshman,
Sam Sipe, took the mound for his first collegiate start. Sipe went 4 strong innings, giving up 3 only runs. The Tigers' offense came alive in the third inning to take the lead off a bases clearing triple by
Damian Fernandez. The Eagles struck back however, tying the game in the next inning. Junior,
Dylan Thomas, came through in the 5th inning with a solo shot to left center field, putting the Tigers ahead once and for all.
Iwan Sitalo came back in for the save, and the Tigers won a nail-biter 4-3.
"The boys played really hard this weekend, and there were so many positives," says Coach Wolfe after the weekend. "There are definitely some things to work on and improve upon, but I'm excited to see what this team does this year. We have much more depth than in previous years."
Grace will look forward to its next doubleheader on October 7th at LMCU Ballpark against the Warriors of Rochester University.
