Fowler at Pewamo-Westphalia – – Baseball – – First Game of Doubleheader – – The Bleacher Denizen – – May 15, 2025 – – by Chuck Krafft

Today, your Bleacher Denizen is off to the Pewamo-Westphalia baseball field for his first visit. Pewamo-Westphalia’s Pirates will be hosting the Fowler Eagles in a baseball doubleheader.

Your Bleacher Denizen had to go to DeWitt before he came to the game. The GPS took him down several dirt roads, but it got me here (although the car’s paint may never completely forgive me.)

This is my first visit to Pewamo-Westphalia’s baseball field. It’s a nice field although a farther from the parking lot that most fields, so your Bleacher Denizen got a bit of exercise before he contacted Coach Trey Bauer of Pewamo-Westphalia and Coach Glen Pung from Fowler to get the starting lineups.

Your Bleacher Denizen has run into Trey Bauer before as he was a great athlete for Pewamo-Westphalia when he was in high school. Here is a play by play of a well-played pitcher’s duel in the Baseball Regional where the Pirates faced Lansing Catholic!! https://thebleacherdenizen.blogspot.com/2015/06/lansing-catholic-vs-pewamo-westphalia.html

Even if it makes me realize I’ve gotten older, it’s a pleasure to see players I have covered with blogs now giving back to their communities by helping to coach teams.

Here they are. Fowler is the visiting team and will bat first.

FOWLER

Conner Katich c

Sam Vanneste p

Noah Schafer ss

Trevor Spicer 1b

Jack O’Hare 3b

Ben Kohagen cf

Jacob Halfmann lf

Drew Weber rf

Beckett Hansen 2b

PEWAMO-WESTPHALIA

Alex Drysdale lf

Nolan George ss

Logan Drysdale c

Hayden Smith 3b

Trey Nurenberg p

Carter Wirth 1b

Brayton Thelen cf

Brandt Kramer 2b

Bradley Huhn rf

It is now time to review the events of this game through the somewhat open eyes of an aging Bleacher Denizen who was never able to establish himself as a baseball player. He was never able to completely understand the difference between a ball and a strike; this caused many unusual situations like when he got ball four and insisted on continuing to bat. After a few years, your Bleacher Denizen’s coach got frustrated and his playing time greatly decreased.

Conner Katich opened the game with a solid single to left field. Conner Katich was out at second base and Sam Vanneste safe at first base on a fielder’s choice grounder to third base. P-W (abbreviated like this for most of the rest of the article to save wear and tear on your Aging Bleacher Denizen’s typing fingers) Pitcher Trey Nurenberg retired the next batter on a fly to right field. Sam Vanneste stole second base. Fowler made its third out on a grounder to second base to end the inning.

Alex Drysdale singled to left field to lead off the bottom of the first inning for P-W. Alex Drysdale advanced to third base on a pickoff error. Fowler Pitcher Sam Vanneste struck out the next Pirate hitter. Alex Drysdale scored when Logan Drysdale was safe at first on an error. Hayden Smith doubled to deep center field to drive Logan Drysdale home.

The next P-W hitter was out when Ben Kohagen made a great running catch in center field. Carter Wirth was hit by a pitch. Sam Vanneste struck out the next hitter for the third out.

Pewamo-Westphalia scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a 2-0 lead.

Jack O’Hare singled to left field to lead off the top of the second inning for Fowler and took second base on a sacrifice bunt by Ben Kohagen. Jack O’Hare advanced to third base on a groundout to the shortstop by Jacob Halfmann. Fowler made its final out of the inning on a grounder to first base.

Fowler Pitcher Sam Vanneste made a great running catch of a foul popup to retire the Pirate leadoff batter in the bottom of the second inning. Bradley Huhn drew a walk. Sam Vanneste struck out the next Pirate hitter and Fowler Catcher Conner Katich ended the inning by throwing out the runner trying to steal second base.

Fowler’s leadoff batter in the top of the third inning was out on a grounder to second base. Trey Nurenberg struck out the next Fowler hitter. Sam Vanneste pounded a double to deep center field and took third base on a fielding error. Trey Nurenberg retired the next Eagle hitter on a fly to center field for the third out.

Nolan George walked to lead off the bottom of the third inning for P-W and went to second base when Logan Drysdale was safe at first base on an error. Andrew Kriss entered the game as a courtesy runner for Logan Drysdale. Nolan George went to third base and Andrew Kriss to second base on a wild pitch.

Hayden Smith made a bid for a hit, but Fowler Left Fielder Jacob Halfmann caught the ball about a foot off the ground to turn the drive into a sacrifice fly. Nolan George scored on the play. Andrew Kriss advanced to third base on a fly to center field by Trey Nurenberg and scored on a single by Carter Wirth. Sam Vanneste struck out the next Pirate hitter to end the inning.

Pewamo-Westphalia scored two runs in the bottom of the third inning to push its lead to 4-0.

Trey Nurenberg retired the three Fowler hitters in the fourth inning on a grounder to first base, a strikeout and another grounder to first base.

Brandt Kramer singled to left center field to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning for P-W and advanced to second base when Bradley Huhn walked. Alex Drysdale singled to right field. Fowler Right Fielder Drew Weber made a great throw back to the infield to keep Brandt Kramer from scoring, but P-W had the bases loaded with no outs.

The next Pirate hitter bounced the ball to Pitcher Sam Vanneste, who threw to Conner Katich at home to get the force on Brandt Kramer. Conner Katich then made a fantastic throw to get the batter out at first base! Bradley Huhn advanced to third base and Alex Drysdale to second base. Bradley Huhn and Alex Drysdale both scored when Logan Drysdale was safe at first base on an error. Andrew Kriss entered the game as a courtesy runner for Logan Drysdale. The next Pirate batter made the third out of the inning on a grounder to the shortstop.

Pewamo-Westphalia scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take a 6-0 lead.

Jacob Halfmann doubled to open the top of the fifth inning for Fowler. Fowler’s next batter was out on a fly to Center Fielder Brayton Thelen, who made a great throw back to the infield to hold the runner at second base. Trey Nurenberg retired the next two Eagle batters on a bouncer to the pitcher and a popup to the shortstop to end the inning.

Trevor Spicer came in to pitch for Fowler and Sam Vanneste moved to first base.

Fowler Shortstop Noah Schafer made a nice running catch of a fly that kept blowing away from him for the first Pirate out of the bottom of the fifth inning. Carter Wirth walked. Fowler Pitcher Trevor Spicer retired the next two batters on a popup to the catcher and a fielder’s choice grounder to third base to finish the inning.

Sam Vanneste singled to lead off the top of the sixth inning. He went to second base on a wild pitch and stole third base. Noah Schafer pounded a double to the center field fence to drive Sam Vanneste home. Trey Nurenberg retired the next Eagle batter when Pirate Catcher Logan Drysdale made a great catch of a foul fly right next to Fowler’s dugout.

Noah Schafer went to third base on a groundout to second base by Jack O’Hare. Ben Kohagen lined a single to center field to drive Noah Schafer home. Jacob Halfmann beat out an infield single; when Ben Kohagen realized that the third baseman had to leave the base to field the ball, he dashed all the way to third base. Drew Weber blooped a single to left field to drive Ben Kohagen home. Jacob Halfmann advanced to second base. Fowler made its third out on a sharp line drive by Beckett Hansen to second base.

Fowler scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning to cut the P-W lead to 6-3.

Fowler Pitcher Trevor Spicer retired the three Pirate hitters in the bottom of the sixth inning on a line drive to second base, a soft fly to the mound and a strikeout.

Conner Katich singled to lead off the top of the seventh inning for Fowler and got to second base when the ball was mishandled. Trey Nurenberg retired the next batter on a line drive to the shortstop. Noah Schafer singled to right field to drive Conner Katich home.

Trevor Spicer lined the next ball to right field. Because he did not know if the ball would be caught, Noah Schafer had to stay close to first base. P-W Right Fielder Bradley Huhn alertly threw to second base to force Noah Schafer as Trevor Spicer reached first base safely. Trevor Spicer advanced to second base and then to third base on wild pitches. Jack O’Hare singled to the third baseman as Trevor Spicer held at third base. Ben Kohagen walked to load the bases.

Jacob Halfmann walked to force Trevor Spicer home as Jack O’Hare went to third base and Ben Kohagen to second. Drew Weber walked to force Jack O’Hare home with the tying run as Ben Kohagen went to third base and Jacob Halfmann to second. Ben Kohagen scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch as Jacob Halfmann went to third base and Drew Weber to second.

Nolan George came in to pitch for P-W and Trey Nurenberg went to shortstop. Nolan George retired the next Eagle batter on a grounder to shortstop.

Fowler scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning to take a 7-6 lead.

Logan Drysdale was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning for P-W. Trevor Spicer retired the next Pirate batter on a fly to center field. Trey Nurenberg was hit by a pitch and Logan Drysdale took second base. Carter Wirth hit a sharp line drive back to Trevor Spicer on the mound; Trevor Spicer quickly fired to Sam Vanneste to double the runner off first base to end the inning and the game.

Fowler made a big comeback to win this game 7-6.

Alex Drysdale had two singles for Pewamo-Westphalia. Trey Nurenberg had a double and one RBI. Carter Wirth had a single and one RBi. Brandt Kramer had a single. Hayden Smith had two RBI.

Trey Nurenberg pitched six and two thirds innings for the Pirates while striking out two batters. Nolan George pitched one third of an inning.

Noah Schafer had a double, a single and two RBI for Fowler. Jacob Halfmann had a double, a single and one RBI. Sam Vanneste had a double and a single. Jack O’Hare had two singles. Drew Weber had a single and two RBI. Ben Kohagen had a single and one RBI.

Sam Vanneste pitched four innings for Fowler. He gave up only one earned run and struck out four batters. Trevor Spicer pitched three shutout innings and struck out one batter.

I also covered the first game of this doubleheader. Here is the play by play of that game. https://thebleacherdenizen.com/2025/05/16/fowler-at-pewamo-westphalia-baseball-second-game-of-doubleheader-the-bleacher-denizen-may-15-2025-by-chuck-krafft/