Hamilton topples Zeeland East with dramatic comeback for district title
HOLLAND - The infield was littered with baseball mitts as Hamilton players mobbed pitcher Joe Johnson in celebration.
It wasn’t just any win. It was a wild comeback with a district title on the line.
Hamilton (13-18) trailed by six runs in the first inning but rallied to beat Zeeland East 8-7 on Friday evening in the championship game of a Division 2 district.
“I just told the guys ‘we’ve got our ace on the mound and we just gave up six runs in an inning, it would have been real easy to quit right there,’” Hamilton coach Brian Grabinski said. “But (pitcher Thano Klett) recovered from that inning in a gut-check moment and I’m so proud with how they responded to it.”
Hamilton advances to the regional semifinal on Wednesday at Holland Christian for a 4 p.m. contest against Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
Klett, a junior right-hander, has been the Hawkeyes top pitcher all season, so it was shocking to see him give up six runs in the first inning.
“That was the worst game I’ve had all season,” he said. “I’d never given up six runs in a game. So it was like ‘oh shoot, we have no chance to win this game.’ I know that’s a bad mindset. But our whole season, when one guy gets down, the whole team picks him up. For this game, they picked me up. I was in awe seeing us score so fast.”
Hamilton scored five runs in the second inning. They would eventually tie the game at 7-7.
That’s when Johnson came to the plate and hit a triple to right field. Then Brant Goodpaster hit a hard fly ball to right for a sacrifice fly to score Johnson for the eventual winning run.
“It feels great,” Goodpaster said. “Joey went out there, and he hadn’t been hitting well, and got that triple. He did all the work and I hit a fly ball to get him in. Props to him for getting on.”
Grabinski had considered having Goodpaster bunt, but he’s glad he didn’t.
“Brant has been as hot as any hitter I’ve seen,” Grabinski said. “He hit over .500 in conference play and I bet he’s hit about .600 the last half of the season. So when he came up in that situation, he got the job done.”
Hamilton beat South Haven 9-0 in the semifinal game earlier in the day and Zeeland East beat Holland Christian 6-4 in the other semifinal.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hamilton topples Zeeland East for district title
