Spring Sports Roll On

Whitehall's baseball team, shown here mobbing pitcher
Zach Zweigle after winning the district title last Saturday,
will look for a regional championship this weekend.
(Photo by Andy Roberts)

This year, spring sports in West Michigan are going on beyond their usual end. We have three area teams — Whitehall, Montague and Pentwater — competing in this weekend's regional tournaments. Pentwater hasn't been this far since 1998 and Montague hasn't since 2001, while Whitehall is making their third straight trip to the regionals. Will any of them make it to the quarterfinals?

Montague is probably the team with the best shot — they went 14-0 in West Michigan Conference play this year, although they had to battle to extra innings to beat Mason County Central in the district title game last Saturday. But you can't overlook Whitehall's battle-tested group or Pentwater's veteran team.

Each team would play a quarterfinal game on a college campus if it reached that point. Pentwater's would be at Hope College, Whitehall's would be at Central Michigan and Montague's would be at Michigan State. Selfishly, it'd be pretty cool for me to get to cover a game at MSU, obviously a major school and a school from which I had a cousin graduate. But I'd be thrilled to cover any of the three quarterfinals, each of which are on Tuesday, June 11.

Pentwater golf won their first-ever regional title
Thursday afternoon in St. John's. They'll play in the
state finals next weekend at Michigan State.
(Photo courtesy of Michael DeRuiter)

We also had a golf team — Pentwater — reach the state finals and actually win a regional title Thursday. That was the Falcons' first such title ever, fueled by a 78 from Sam Wagner and an 80 from Chance Helms. Helms' score was especially impressive, as he shot in the mid to high 80s most of the year, and since Pentwater won the regional by two shots, it's safe to say Helms pretty much won it himself with his performance.

We're approaching that depressing two-month stretch where there will be no sports, so I am soaking it all in and enjoying every step of these runs. Hopefully, there will be more to come as we approach the summer.