Hamilton baseball never loses faith, advances to regional final

HOLLAND — Sometimes all it takes is faith.

The Hamilton baseball team had a ton of that heading into the regular season, coming off a district title and a spot in the regional semifinals a season ago. But as the year went on it was hard to keep that belief in themselves as the Hawkeyes struggled to just 11 wins in the regular season.

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More: Hamilton topples Zeeland East with dramatic comeback for district title

All that matters is getting hot at the right time, though and Brian Grabinski's team is on fire on their playoff run. Grand Rapids Central Christian was their latest victim, topping them 6-0 on Thursday to clinch a spot in the regional final on Saturday. They'll take on Charlotte for a spot in the state quarterfinals Saturday morning at Hope College.

The group knew what they were capable of, with seven seniors and several high-impact juniors returning from the 2021 team, things just never seemed to click early in the year. Hamilton would go through weeks when the pitching was great, but the defense would let them down. When the fielding finally picked up, the bats went quiet. The losses piled up and it would've been easy to give up and just look toward next season.

This team just refused to do that.

"We kept telling the guys that we're going to put this together and when we do, we're going to be dangerous," Grabinski said. "It's a credit to those guys, they came every day, they never got down, there was never any bickering or infighting and they just continued to buy in."

Hamilton's ever-present persistence and confidence showed up in a big way throughout their playoff run. A team that barely hit the double-digit win mark was pegged for an early exit in the playoffs. Instead, they rolled through the district bracket, defeating Zeeland East in comeback fashion on Saturday to earn their second straight district crown. Thursday was the team's masterclass if there ever was one, though.

Junior Thano Klett toed the rubber and shoved like his team's life depended on it. Facing a Cougars team that had double Hamilton's wins on the season, it would be easy to get intimidated. But Klett tossed six scoreless innings, striking out 10 batters and giving up just two hits. Everything was working for him on the mound and it was because he felt no pressure.

When any opposing team looks at the Hawkeyes' lackluster regular-season record, it's easy for them to think of that game as an automatic victory. Klett said he heard some Catholic Central players talking about their plans for Saturday's game before Thursday's even started. That's fine with him, he loves that people keep overlooking his squad.

"Everybody is looking past us right now, [Catholic Central] was talking about pitching plans for Saturday and I just thought 'hold up, you're not getting to Saturday,'" Klett said. "We're meant to be here, this isn't accidental, we know how good we are and we're where we're supposed to be."

The team does it in any way they need to. Whether that's elite pitching from Klett or dink and dunk offense. The Hawkeyes scored all six runs Saturday while notching any extra base hits. They also have some incredible defense to show off when they need it, junior Joe Johnson made sure of that on Thursday.

Klett was facing the Cougars lineup for the third time and the opposing hitters were finally getting into a bit of a rhythm against him. They started to make solid contact for the first time all day, but even that doesn't matter against this Hamilton team. Johnson made two back-to-back plays, one where he sprinted from his centerfield spot to the wall to rob a sure double. The two pitches later, he came in on a soft liner, lunging to the ground to make a diving catch.

Plays like that, putting his body on the line for the other guys in the dugout, not only demoralizes the opposing offense but galvanizes the team in black and yellow.

"Our defense, we got our pitcher's back no matter who it is," Johnson said. "They know that if they do get solid contact, we're going to be there for them and make the plays."

That seemingly constant faith did seem to wain here and there in brief moments of weakness. Klett said he knew his team was good, but about a month ago he would've been 'flabbergasted' if he knew his team would be playing for a regional title.

Still, these last two and a half weeks have shown the world what those inside the program already knew- that the Hawkeyes have the talent to go as far as their faith will carry them, despite what their record says.

"We all knew we were really good baseball players, it's just a spark was missing but we finally found it," Klett said. "We all knew this was possible all season long."

—Contact Assistant Sports Editor Will Kennedy at Will.Kennedy@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByWillKennedy and Facebook @Holland Sentinel Sports.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hamilton high school baseball never lose faith, advance to regional final