The Fruitport Trojans baseball squad took its first city title since 1991 with a 9-1 win over the Norse at Marsh Field.
(Photo courtesy of Craig Smith)
By Jason Goorman
LocalSportsJournal.com
Thirty-four years is a long time to wait to capture a city baseball title.
All the stars aligned for the Fruitport Trojan baseball squad to break its dry spell for May 3rd’s Greater Muskegon Athletic Association city baseball tournament.
The Trojans cruised past North Muskegon for their first city title since 1991 and did it with a 9-1 win over the Norse at Marsh Field.
“1991, it’s fun, it’s a lot of pride, and we’ve got a lot of veteran kids on this team,” said Fruitport Coach Nick Reed. “We just ground (today) and it shows when we got the big guy on the mound (in the finals).”
The big guy being Fruitport’s ace left hander, Ryan Bosch.
Bosch gave Fruitport all the energy it needed from the pitcher’s mound to overpower the Norse for the big win.
“Very tough lefty, it was fun to compete against him, I thought he threw extremely well,” said North Muskegon Coach Garret Moyer about Bosch’s performance in the finals. “We battled him hard and it was a close game till the fifth inning when they opened up on us, but it was a good ball game.”
Bosch, who stands at an intimidating 6-5 and is headed to Wake Forest in the fall, mowed down the Norse with 15 strikeouts while giving up just three hits and two walks.
“The difference this year is he (Bosch) just is not throwing all out, he’s just hitting his spots and being in the zone,” said Reed about Bosch who has been clocked at 94 MPH this season. “That’s the difference, he’s throwing strikes and getting ahead of hitters and being more dominant.”
Fruitport batters gave Bosch all the support he needed to be confident on the mound as they got to work at the plate for a three-run third inning.
Clean-up hitter, Thomas Anderson, put the Trojans up 3-0 with a two-run home run that sailed over the left-center field fence. The deep poke by Anderson was set up by a leadoff double from Braxton Ward and Jax Flynn who reached base on an error.
Ward scored for Fruitport as the Trojans had runners on the corners with Flynn on first base and Ward at third. Flynn stole second, and got the Norse to take the bait for an attempt to throw him out. Flynn’s steal was successful and Ward was able to sprint across home plate for a 1-0 lead.
“It takes a lot of pressure off when you’re up 3-0, you can be more comfortable, and one mistake won’t change the game,” said Bosch about how his teammates at the plate have been backing him on the mound this season. “The bats we’ve had all year, and the guys showing up to the ball field with great at bats, It’s been awesome because we don’t have to be stressed when you’re on the mound.”
Bosch definitely looked relaxed up on the hill for Fruitport but he also noted he can be that way because of the person who is behind the plate catching his 90 MPH fastballs.
Avery Lambers is the Trojans’ catcher and Bosch knows he can trust his life-long buddy.
“Avery has always been there for me, we’ve been friends forever,” said Bosch about Lambers. “We train together, and do everything together, we hang out together almost every weekend. It’s just a relationship we have that I can trust and when I go out on the mound, I know somebody is behind the plate that’s going to give me their best.”
The fifth inning was Fruitport’s biggest inning of the day and that gave even more support for Bosch. They rallied five runs and batted through the order to take an 8-1 lead.
Ward led the inning off with a double and reached third on a sacrifice bunt by Flynn. Bosch sent Ward home on an RBI sacrifice fly. Trevor Rusnak and Lambers followed with back-to-back RBI doubles. Satchel Norwood drove in Fruitport’s final run of the fifth with an RBI-bunt single.
“It’s just not a one-man show,” said Coach Reed. “Trevor hit the cover off the ball and has six home runs this year, Ryan got his first home run of the year, he’s hitting over .600, Tommy Anderson’s got one (home run). It’s good, we took advantage of some of their (North Muskegon) mistakes and got them moving a little bit, but we took advantage of it.”
Bosch was nearly flawless on the hill for Fruitport. The 250 pounder’s lone blemish came in the fourth inning when North Muskegon’s Bronson Hurst smoked a Bosch fast ball over the centerfield fence. The homer paced at a line drive that looked like it didn’t have an end.
While the home run burned Bosch a little bit, North Muskegon Coach Garret Moyer was a little more philosophical about Hurst going deep on someone with the future potential like Bosch’s.
“Of anybody out of this area, I hope he (Hurst) can say one day that he got to hit a bomb off of Bosch and he’s got a high hope to get to say that some day,” said Moyer.
Bosch came up with a response of his own in the sixth inning when he blasted an opposite-field solo home run that went over the right-field fence for a 9-1 lead and his first home run of the season.
“First homer of the year, had a couple frustrating at bats before that, and was a great way to end the day on top of pitching,” said Bosch. “It’s been since 1991 since our team did this, and every day I feel like I can trust my coaches and teammates for helping me in situations where what’s best for the team and best for the program. It’s not every day you get an opportunity to play for a city tournament.”
Fruitport reached the finals by taking down Western Michigan Christian 8-5 in Saturday’s quarter finals. The Trojans topped Mona Shores 7-4 to gain their berth into the finals.
North Muskegon topped Ravenna 11-1 and took out Reeths-Puffer 5-3 to set up its third-straight year to reach to the GMAA finals.
“We love it (GMAA), Marsh does a great job hosting this event making it great for all of the schools here in the area,” said Moyer whose team is now 14-3 overall.
“You’re competing against good lineups, if it’s bigger schools than us or whatever, if you can make it deep into the bracket, you’re going to be playing good baseball, and essentially to make a run, that’s what you gotta do, you gotta play good baseball.”
The 2025 city champs Fruitport is now 15-1 overall and is gearing up for an OK conference matchup with Comstock Park on Monday.
“It’s just a great feeling,” said Bosch about winning the city championship. “But what’s next is hopefully a district title and regional title and a state championship. This (GMAA championship) can’t be a highlight of our season. This is great and this is great in the moment, but we’re going to enjoy it, but Monday is a new day on the ball field and we gotta lock back in for conference play.”
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