Thano Klett pitches Hamilton past Holland Christian; rivals split doubleheader
HOLLAND - Thano Klett is a perfectionist.
The Hamilton High School senior pitcher only gave up one earned run in a 14-6 win over Holland Christian on Tuesday in the first game of a doubleheader. But Klett was still hard on himself.
“I pitched horrible,” the right-hander said. “That’s one of the worst games that I’ve ever pitched. It was ugly. I wasn’t throwing strikes.”
Klett, who will play baseball at Grand Rapids Community College next year, gave up four hits and five walks in 4 2/3 innings and struck out 11 batters.
“He’s a great pitcher and a great baseball player,” Hamilton senior Brant Goodpaster said. “He struggled early to find the zone. But he always bounces back.”
Holland Christian rebounded to win Game 2 7-3, despite only having three hits. Parker Leeuw started on the mound for the Maroons.
“We hurt ourselves,” Goodpaster said. “We hit line drives everywhere but couldn’t get one to drop,”
Hamilton is coming off a dominant season last year. The Hawkeyes won a district and regional title and hope to do more this year.
“Our goal is to go farther than last year,” Goodpaster said. “We played as the underdog once. That’s not the goal this year. We had a shaky start to last year but we put it all together in the postseason. We return a lot of guys and we’re well coached. We’re pretty confident this year.”
Hamilton is 3-1 this season. The offense had 12 hits in Game 1, including Goodpaster, who was 2-for-3 with four runs scored. Austin Osborne was 2-for-3 with four runs scored and a triple.
It was a frustrating game for first-year coach Ty VanWieren.
“I think we can be good when we throw strikes and allow the other team to put the ball in to play so we can make plays (on defense),” he said. “But today, we couldn’t find the zone and they were sitting on the fastball.”
VanWieren has coached at lower levels, but this is his first varsity head coaching job. He also is an assistant coach on the Maroons varsity basketball team.
“I love it,” he said. “It’s great being around the guys. I’ve known a lot of these guys at lower levels and in basketball. I love coaching high school baseball.”
Holland Christian took its baseball team to Siesta Key, Florida, over spring break.
“It’s awesome,” VanWieren said. “We ad almost our entire varsity team down there. To get those extra reps in that you just can’t do before spring break because of the weather is huge.”
The Maroons (2-1) had seven hits in Game 1, led by Daniel Dykstra, who was 3-for-5 including a double.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Thano Klett pitches Hamilton past Holland Christian; rivals split doubleheader
