Thunderhawks rolling heading into playoffs

Grand Rapids 6, Hibbing 0

Grand Rapids 8, Esko 0

GRAND RAPIDS— It was a beautiful day for baseball at Bob Streetar Field in Grand Rapids, as the Thunderhawks played two games on senior night, rewarding their supporters by shutting out their opponents in both.

Holding your opponents scoreless is clearly the most effective way to win the game, just not the easiest, but Grand Rapids went into the season intending to play their best baseball by the start of the playoffs, and have won four in a row and seven of their last nine games prior to Friday’s double-header in Hermantown.

Coach Kinnunen credits a lot of their recent success to their pitching and defense. The Thunderhawks improved their record to 6-1 at home and 11-7 overall after blanking the other team in four of their last six games, including the 14 zero-run innings they allowed at home on Thursday.

Klous Jones took the ball first for Grand Rapids and set the tone for the evening, throwing a complete game with six strikeouts and only allowing four batters in the game, never allowing Hibbing to build any momentum, possibly because Grand Rapids had it all at the top half of the order. Nolan Svatos scored two runs as the leadoff batter and Caleb Gunderson went 3-3 with two RBI behind him. Everyday catcher Jake Garski went 1-3 with an RBI and Kyler Miller went 2-4 with two RBI from the cleanup spot.

Esko wouldn’t have it any easier with Easton Sjostrand on the mound, the Rapids pitcher who coach Kinnunen trusts in their toughest games.

Sjostrand shut down Esko, pitching 6 ⅓ innings, allowing three hits and striking out five before Dom Broberg entered for the save after a big day at the plate. Broberg went 3-4 on the day with two RBI and two runs scored to lead the team offensively. Caleb Gunderson scored two runs, while Klous Jones, Kyler Miller, Jake Garski, and Jameson Duell crossed the plate once.

Kinnunen liked what he saw from Jones and Sjostrand on the mound, who controlled each game from the mound.

“Two strong pitching performances Thursday,” Kinnunen said. “Klous and Easton got ahead of hitters and consistently got the leadoff hitter out.”

A productive offense to back quality pitching has the Thunderhawks rolling at the right time, but Kinnunen still thinks there’s still room to improve, while crediting a lot of their most recent success to sound defense and pitchers hitting the strike zone.

Last season Grand Rapids finished in fourth place when they won their quarterfinal game over St. Thomas Academy before falling to Mahtomedi in the semifinals and Monticello in the third place game.

Coach Kinnunen has his team working to get back into position for another chance at the state tournament.

“We have been gearing up for the playoffs since March 11. Coach Tulia and I preach that we need to be playing our best baseball come the last week of May, every year, and this year is no different,” he said. “Along with that, the team that continues to get better once the playoffs start is the team that is going to the state tournament. We feel we aren’t running on all cylinders yet but we are getting there.”