Trevor Raade's return to mound helps Zeeland East baseball OK Green champs again

ZEELAND - Everything seemed to be falling into place for Trevor Raade.

The Zeeland East pitcher had a stellar year on the mound as a sophomore and had two more years to build on in his high school career.

But all it took was one pitch to change everything.

Raade tore his ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow of his pitching arm and he was done on the mound for an entire year.

Now a senior, Raade is back on the mound and has led the Chix to the OK Green Conference title.

"I worked really hard this offseason because I really wanted to pitch this season," Raade said. "Recovery was really tough, more so the mental side of it. It was hard to throw for a little bit because I was holding myself back. It was not fun."

Last season, Raade played mostly first base after the injury, which took a long time to recover.

"I got surgery and PT for four months straight. I started to grind in the weight room to build up that strength," he said. "It has been working."

Raade, who signed with Western Michigan, throws his fastball at 88 mph, though his off-speed pitchers are more effective. He teams with Max Salas and Gavin Drooger to form a superb trio of pitchers.

"My slider is probably my best pitch. I throw it a lot. It is a good swing-and-miss pitch, but I can also throw it for a strike when I need to," he said.

Zeeland East coach Matt Sattler has seen improvements in Raade's pitching, but also his hitting this season.

"For him and his health this has been great. I think it affected him mentally to not pitch last year," Sattler said. "Now he is playing loose and when he can play loose, he is really dynamic."

Dynamic enough to be a key ingredient to a team aiming for big goals.

"I think all of us are looking at the state championship as the goal," Raade said. "There are a lot of great teams in Division 1 and it won't be easy, but that is our goal."

Chix clinch OK Green

Zeeland East traveled to Muskegon Reeths-Puffer on Thursday to finish game 2 and play game 3 of the OK Green series. Zeeland East won the continued game by a score of 5-2 and the final game 3 by a score of 8-2. The win clinched the second straight league championship for the Chix.

The suspended game was tied 2-2 after five innings. The Chix were able to shut the Rockets down in the top of the 6th and then score 3 on a bases clearing double by Koby Windeler in the bottom half. After three more outs the Chix were victorious winning 5-2. Max Salas pitched the final two innings of the suspended game, earning the win in relief, allowing only one hit and striking out three.

Zeeland East came out firing in the final game of the series, tallying 12 hits, four for extra bases. Aidan Coutts led the charge at the plate going 4-for-4 with two doubles and a triple, 2 RBIs and two runs scored. Quincy Thome added two hits, including a double and three runs scored. JJ Salas also had two singles and two runs scored.

Max Salas started the game after finishing the previous and fired five innings allowing no earned runs on three hits while striking out seven. Evan Owens hurled the final two innings, allowing one hit and striking out two.

Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.