Walled Lake Central baseball upsets Lakeland in Prom day miracle
· Yahoo Sports
Walled Lake Central senior Dylan Chesnut made his case to be prom king.
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The 6-foot-8, 220-pound Lansing Community College signee pitched a gem in the Division 1 baseball pre-district on Tuesday, May 26, striking out five to help the Vikings (7-27) upset White Lake Lakeland (22-13) 5-3 for their first playoff win in four seasons.
They’ll face rival Walled Lake Western in the district semifinal Saturday, May 30 at Milford High School.
Chesnut needed just 92 pitches for a complete game, allowing no walks or earned runs despite a major distraction hanging over the team.
Because of a scheduling snafu with Central’s prom later that day, the game was moved to 10 a.m. since the Vikings wouldn’t have had enough players for a normal 4:30 p.m. start.
“It was a concern because of the pre-district,” said third-year Central coach Tyler Troyer, who called the victory the greatest of his young coaching career. “You’re already not happy because you pulled a pre-district, and then you have to play a great team on top of that and, oh wait, it’s also prom, too? We did our best to get ready for this game, and we give our props to Lakeland and the ADs for helping us work in this game this morning.”
An early morning start would hinder most teams, especially one expecting to dance well past midnight later that night.
So Troyer spent Memorial Day weekend trying to prepare his team, holding practice at 10 a.m. the two days before the matchup. He wanted their bodies and minds used to competing at such an odd hour.
Which says a lot considering the Vikings entered on a nine-game losing streak and had dropped 15 of their previous 16 games. They could’ve easily mailed it in, accepted a loss to Lakeland and turned their attention to tuxedos and the “Cha Cha Slide.”
“I wasn’t even focused on prom, but, honestly, winning this makes it better because now we have something more to celebrate tonight,” Chesnut said. “I woke up and was focused on districts. Prom came second. I haven’t even thought about prom until mentioning it now. But now I’m excited for it, and we’re going to have a fun night.”
Chesnut wasn’t the only Viking locked in.
Catcher Colton Sims got the momentum rolling in the bottom of the fourth inning. The freshman ripped a line drive to right field that scored Tyler Malczewski to tie the game at 2, and the Vikings never looked back.
One at-bat later, Nick Shaw grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored Justin Fenberg.
Then luck bounced Central’s way when Cameron Rehling’s fly ball was dropped by Lakeland second baseman Ryan Bryngelson, allowing Shaw and Caden Buckley to scoot home with the winning runs.
“The game plan going into this game was to stop their offense and let our offense do the work,” Chesnut said. “I think that game plan went perfectly. We’ve been hitting the cages these past few weeks, trying really hard (to be ready for the playoffs). The game plan was just to hit, and that’s what we did, and that’s how we won.”
That three-run cushion also helped Chesnut stay settled on the mound, knowing he didn’t have to win the game by himself. Even after Dylan Brown’s grounder ricocheted off third base and allowed Western Michigan University signee Bo Bishop to score in the sixth, Lakeland still trailed by two runs.
“We put all of our eggs in the Dylan Chesnut basket,” Troyer said. “It starts and ends with him, and this was by far his best game of the year. But he wanted to be in this moment. He has wanted it since the beginning of the year, and everything he has been working on up until this point was for today. He wasn’t scared of the moment.”
It’s also easier to pitch with confidence when the defense behind you is making plays. Central committed two errors, but its defense still stranded runners and came through in key moments.
That included Sims diving for a foul ball near the backstop and throwing out a runner trying to steal second base.
“I’m just trying to help my team win, doing the best that I can, trying to create a spark,” the freshman catcher said. “This is what I’ve been working for all offseason up until now, all years I’ve been playing baseball since 7-U, hoping to help create a spark for our team so we can just keep scoring runs and keep it going.”
Other highlights for Central included Rehling scoring on a passed ball for a 1-0 lead in the third inning, while Malczewski went 2-for-3 with a double.
Lakeland answered in the top of the fourth when Carter Travis tripled to right field to score Bishop and tie the game at 1. Ethan Rowley led the Eagles at the plate, going 3-for-3.
“This just shows that even when you lose consistently that we can play with these guys,” Troyer said. “All year, we just told them to trust the process and all that matters was what happens when we got to the playoffs because that’s when teams actually have to show up, and we definitely showed up. Even though it’s been tough, I give credit to our guys because they’re resilient. It’s not easy going through a six-win season, but we showed we can hang with anybody.”
The district tournament is far from over. That was only Game 1.
After eliminating arguably the best team in the field, the Vikings still need two more wins to claim their first district title since 2011. The semifinal against Western is another 10 a.m. start, with the winner facing either Milford or Walled Lake Northern in the 2 p.m. championship game.
Fortunately for the Vikings, their preparation for the pre-district already has them in an early-morning mindset. They just need to keep competing like they did against Lakeland, and a wooden mitten could be theirs.
“Even by moving the game to this morning, prom created a lot of distractions,” Troyer said. “But they’re going to have a very fun prom tonight now, so I’m glad we got the game out of the way, were able to move it up and everyone was very supportive of it being played earlier.”
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on his new X.com account at @folsomwrites.
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: MHSAA baseball: Walled Lake Central upets Lakeland 5-3 in pre-district