EAST LANSING — Ty Kraut was the right man for the moment.
Pitching in a state semifinal baseball game requires someone who isn’t easily rattled, even when the opponent is pounding the ball early. It requires someone who, basically, appears to have no pulse, not getting overly excited when things are going well or dejected when they aren’t.
With Kraut, it’s hard to get a surface read on what’s going on in his head. He could be up by five runs or down by five runs and his outward appearance doesn’t change.
Inside, the stoic lefthanded Hartland pitcher is human.
“I’m more just pumped on the inside,” Kraut said. “I don’t really show it. I’m just trying to stay calm and focus on the next out, trying to get to the end of the game.”
Despite some early struggles, Kraut made it the full seven innings, standing on the mound for the postgame celebration following a 4-2 victory over Grosse Pointe South in a state Division 1 semifinal Friday at McLane Stadium.
Kraut allowed six hits and two walks, but South had only one hit in the final four innings. It was an economical performance in which he threw only 81 pitches to beat a team that was hitting .345 coming into the game.
It may have been the final time Kraut takes the mound in his life. He plans to play hockey after high school, having made first-team all-state twice as a defenseman.
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His former hockey coach at Hartland, Rick Gadwa, marveled at his performance, though he wasn’t the least bit surprised.
“He just knows how to play in big moments,” Gadwa said.
Kraut has a 9-2 record with a 1.98 earned run average in 11 starts, allowing opponents a batting average of .213. Hartland coach Brad Guenther had to choose between two talented lefties who were hockey teammates in Kraut and Michael Zielinski.
“It’s a tough decision,” Guenther said. “We think we’re lucky to have two real aces. They do things a little bit differently. Z’s a little more swing and miss. Ty’s more pitch to contact, probably a little less walks, a few more strikes. We kind of liked the matchup. They were a really good hitting team. We knew Ty would keep them off balance and get the ball in play.”
South was hitting Kraut early, tying the game 1-1 on a one-out double by Evan Bernard that left runners on second and third. Guenther came out to visit Kraut, who didn’t say much.
“He just kind of looks at me real calm, gets a sac fly and pitches out of it,” Guenther said. “He’s been doing that all year.”
With Kraut and the Eagles’ defense locking down South, sophomore Dylan Crowe drove in all four Hartland runs.
Crowe hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead, hit a two-run double to left to give Hartland a 3-2 lead and provided an insurance run with a double to right in the fifth.
“Just trying to produce for my team and any way to get the dub,” Crowe said. “That’s it. I’ve been seeing the ball recently. It just clicked today against a good team when we needed it.”
It was the second clutch performance in a row for Crowe, whose two-run double in the first gave the Eagles all their runs in a 2-1 victory over Northville in the state quarterfinals. Crowe is hitting .281 with a team-high 36 RBIs.
“He’s a special player, a sophomore,” Guenther said. “It’s been a little bit of an up-and-down year for what he thinks he should be doing for sure. He’s been in the middle of the lineup for us, four or five hitter, all year. Great defender. Awesome player. He plays on a great summer team. He’s played in a lot of competitive baseball. I had a feeling some of these guys might rise to the occasion a little bit.”
Hartland advanced to the state championship game for the second time in school history. The 2015 team won the Division 1 championship.
That team’s photo is in the school gym and on the back of the team’s dugout.
“We had it one of our meetings, talking about the poster on the back of the dugout,” Kraut said. “We want it to be us. We want to make one of those.”
Unranked Hartland (27-15-1) will play top-ranked Macomb Dakota or second-ranked Bay City Western in the state championship game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, June 14 at McLane Stadium.
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Hartland reaches first state championship baseball game in 10 years
Reporting by Bill Khan, Livingston Daily / Livingston Daily
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
