The Wolfpack are back - Grand Rapids Legion Post 60 plays ball

Princeton 5, Grand Rapids 2

Excelsior 10, Grand Rapids 0

Esko 8, Grand Rapids 7

Grand Rapids 4, Lakeview 0

Princeton 5, Grand Rapids 4

Moose Lake 7, Grand Rapids 6

Grand Rapids 7, Cloquet 0

Summer baseball started with a flurry as the Grand Rapids Post 60 American Legion baseball team played seven games in quick fashion to begin the season following a just a short break from their high school campaign that extended into June during their state tournament run. They began the summer with five games at the 49th annual American Legion Invitational Streetar, and overall went 2-5 after seven games in the first week. The team had a quick turnaround from Wednesday’s loss to Moose Lake, as they headed out Thursday to take on Cloquet, securing a 7-0 win in their first road game of the year, led by Caleb Gunderson going 3-3 with two walks and two runs scored. Gunderson also paired with Sam Dick on the mound to pitch a shutout. The two dominated from the mound over Cloquet, allowing only four hits while striking out 14 batters in seven innings.

Longtime Thunderhawks coach Bill Kinnunen returns to the dugout for the Wolfpack as he begins the balancing act of youth versus experience during the summer league.

Right now the team is figuring itself out, and what it will take to win these games.

“We are in the learning stage right now,” said Kinnunen. “Finding out you pay for every little mistake you make. We just need to cut down on the mistakes and we’ll be fine.”

Although the Wolfpack will have senior players and staples from their high school team suit up for summer, many of the younger, up-and-coming players will get an opportunity for playing time and experience this summer with the Legion and VFW teams.

“We have a young team and that’s really going to help us next season,” said Kinnunen, explaining some of the young players could see around 200 at-bats throughout the summer.

That’s what Kinnunen’s goal is right now- Not just to win, but to get many of the young players up-and-coming prepared for varsity baseball, where the expectation for Kinnunen’s teams is to play for a state championship.

“Spring is when we get our work done,” he said, explaining how summer ball translates to the high school league.

This summer some familiar names like Caleb Gunderson, Nolan Svatos, Sam Dick, and others will still be in the summer box scores - some maybe taking over new positions - like Oliver Spahn sitting behind the plate rather than senior catcher Jacob Garski - but there are other names that will begin to pop-up this summer and possibly find their way to the Thunderhawks dugout next spring. Joe Dick and Kaden Sweeney being two of them that have impressed so far this summer according to Kinnunen. They both played big roles in the game against Princeton, despite the end result: Dick went 1-2 with a walk and two runs scored, and Sweeney was 2-3 with an RBI, and both found their way to the basepaths against Moose Lake as well.

It will be a dense schedule through July, but there is a lot of value to these games, and Kinnunen wants his team to keep their eye on the ball for the next month because it doesn’t just pay off now, but also down the road.

“The team’s that do well in the state tournament take their summers seriously,” is how he explained it - and no question with the standard these Grand Rapids baseball programs have, they intend on doing just that.