After being down 5 runs in the second inning to Hudsonville, the freshman baseball team dug in and came back, eventually losing by only 1 run. However, two days later the Rangers swept the Greenville Yellow Jackets for the second time in this young season.

In the 6-5 game against Hudsonville, there were many stolen bases by the Rangers—leading the team was freshman Joe Robertson with 4. Not only was Joe’s base-running impressive, but he also went 2-3 at the plate. On the defensive side of the game, freshman Matthew Mittlestadt started and pitched three innings; he gave up 5 runs on 5 hits but struck out 2. Freshman Kaeden Palmitier came in as a relief pitcher and gave up just 1 run in two innings of work. Although the Rangers couldn’t overcome the slow start to the game, they showed potential to play well even against a very good Hudsonville team.

The Rangers used this talent to sweep the Yellow Jackets once again. Stand-out performances in the first game of the doubleheader came from freshmen Adam Carpenter at the plate and Cole Hysong on the mound. Adam had 2 hits and drove in a run. Cole pitched four innings and let up just 2 runs. Another Ranger that made a difference was freshman Matthew Mittlestadt on the bases. He stole a team-high 3 bases and was a part of the 9 in total. The Yellow Jackets scored 3 in the last inning, but their comeback fell short, as the Rangers won with a final score of 6-5.

Game two was won by the Rangers more handily 6-1. FHC had a 2-run lead going into the fourth inning, but Greenville scored a run to cut the lead to 1; then the Rangers scored 4 in the bottom of the inning to put away the Yellow Jackets. Big at-bats in the fourth came from freshmen Noah Smith, Parker Vredenburg, Joe Robertson, and Beau Coughlin. Noah and Parker had key walks, and Joe and Beau had clutch RBI singles. The pitching was outstanding the entire game—just giving up 1 run while freshman Aden Walsh was on the mound. He pitched four innings and struck out 2, but there were 2 errors in the game. Beau was also great on the mound—he struck out all 3 batters he faced in the fifth inning.

The Rangers face the Lowell Red Arrows in a few days at Lowell in a big conference game against a solid Lowell team.