Lemerand's perfect game, triple play turned highlight Charlevoix tourney win
EVART — Anyone who has done any kind of scouting on the Charlevoix baseball team probably feels a little relief when the Rayders aren’t sending Bryce Johnson or Owen Waha to the hill.
The pair of aces each earned all-state honors a year ago, so they’re no secret around the program.
But on Friday in Evart, Hunter Lemerand let opponents know to not expect an easy day still. And he had a perfect way of doing so.
In his second start of the season, the Rayder junior tossed a perfect game across a six-inning 7-0 win over Marion.
“It was a great feeling,” Lemerand said. “As a pitcher, it’s a great accomplishment for sure.”
Lemerand went the full six innings, needing just 71 pitches to work his way through it, with no Eagle baserunners allowed and 13 sent back to the dugout on strikes.
As much as Lemerand himself put into the work on the mound – along with catcher Ryan Pearl – he knows it took everyone else out on the field as well.
“There were a couple where it was a fly-out and my team behind me had me,” he said. “Obviously I couldn’t have done it without them. They were there for me. It was a team effort.
“There was one pop fly, it was coming in a little short in center and Troy Nickel, our centerfielder, ran up and grabbed it. He played the wind. That was one of them.”
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Lemerand threw 48 balls for strikes (68 percent), leaning hard on one pitch in particular.
“Primarily just my fastball,” he said. “I threw in a couple curves, but my fastball was just really working and I was hitting my spots. Really not missing.”
Knowing just as well as everyone that Johnson and Waha hold down the mound in a number of key games, just like they did in the postseason a year ago, Lemerand was happy to let people know there’s more arms around the lineup to fear. From himself and Nickel, to Pearl and AJ Speigl.
“For sure,” he said. “Owen and Bryce, they’re our aces and they’re great pitchers, but there’s definitely more than them for sure.”
The win in the Marion game propelled the Rayders to a Cat Classic Tourney victory that also came with a 9-1 win over Evart.
At the plate against Marion, Nickel went 2 for 3 with a double and two runs scored, Speigl doubled in a run and stole two bags and Johnson singled in two runs.
Against Evart, Pearl and Johnson combined for seven strikeouts and just three hits allowed on the mound, with Pearl earning the win.
Waha went 3 for 4 with an RBI and three steals, Nickel and Johnson each singled in a run, Speigl tripled, drove in three and scored two runs and Emmett Bergmann singled twice.
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The highlight of the Evart game came in the Rayders turning a triple play in the fourth inning after a pair of walks opened the inning. Speigl caught a line out at shortstop, then fired to first to Lemerand, who then got both runners advancing out.
“That was an awesome thing,” said Lemerand, who got to be a part of another great moment. “We were very hype for that.”
While they enter the week at just 5-4-1, a tough early season schedule deserves much of that credit. With the start of Lake Michigan Conference play ahead, there’s a whole lot of reason to believe the Rayders will soon be perfectly fine with how things are shaping up.
“We’ve just got to keep playing through it,” Lemerand added. “We’ve been playing some tough teams. There were a few losses in there, but it’s really just about getting through that. No matter what team we’re going up against, just going at it with the same attitude and playing hard and playing as a team.”
Contact or send game stats/info to Sports Editor Drew Kochanny at dkochanny@petoskeynews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DrewKochanny, and Instagram, @drewkochanny
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Lemerand throws perfect game for Charlevoix baseball in Evart tourney win
