By Ron Rop
Local Sports Journal

The crowning of the Tier 2 champion of the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association county baseball tournament is going to have to wait a few days.

A ferocious comeback by the Holton Red Devils knotted the game at 5-all when darkness forced the suspension of the game at Mona Shores High School. The game will be completed and a trophy awarded on Thursday at North Muskegon. The Norsemen will be coming to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning at 4 p.m.

North Muskegon had led 5-0 after three innings, but the Red Devils began chipping away until the top of the seventh when they scored one run to tie the game.

The game was originally scheduled to begin at 5 p.m., but did not start until about 7 p.m.

Holton had defeated Ravenna 13-2 and Muskegon Catholic 4-3 in 10 innings to reach the final game.

In the bottom of the first inning, North Muskegon pushed three runs across the plate thanks to RBI singles by Reese McCamant, Rogan McEvoy and a sacrifice fly by Ryan Compeau.

Jesse Dunn’s sacrifice fly in the second inning made it 4-0 and McCamant’s RBI single in the third made it 5-0.

Holton scored once in the fifth on an RBI groundout by Adam Wiegand.

Three more runs in the sixth cut the deficit to 5-4. Hayden Cregg doubled, Isaac Mock had an infield hit, Jeremiah Sergent doubled to left center to score a run and an error in the infield scored two.

In the top of the seventh, Holton’s first two batters made outs. Up stepped Aaron Poling, who slapped a 1-2 pitch down the first base line for a double. Jacob Moreen reached on an error to put runners on first and third. Cregg then delivered an RBI single to right that scored pinch runner Logan Luttrull.

When the inning ended, the coaches and umpires conferred and decided it was too dark to continue.

“It came back to­­ bite somebody,” NM coach Warren Kent said of the scheduling of the tournament. “The worst thing they can do is try to play all these games at one site for the finals.”

Kent agreed with the decision to suspend play due to darkness, but the fact his team and the Red Devils could not have played their game at a different site had him upset. Both NM and Holton were at Mona Shores by 6 p.m., but the Tier 1 game between Mona Shores and Fruitport was still going on.