BATTLE CREEK — Not only was Monday Memorial, but it was also Opening Day across the Northwoods League as the Traverse City Pit Spitters opened the season on the road against the Battle Creek Battle Jacks at MCCU Field.
Unfortunately for the Pit Spitters, the holiday Monday marked the first time in the young franchise’s history that they lost on Opening Day. The previous five season openers all went in the Spitters’ favor, but Battle Creek held Traverse City in check by a 7-2 final Monday.
“It’s definitely a different feeling,” Pit Spitters field manager Josh Rebandt said.
Rebandt’s wife sent him a text after the game saying that the season is starting the “Rebs way” so she is expecting a “Rebs finish,” referring to the tendency of Rebandt-coached teams to get off to slow starts before finding their groove and getting hot later in the year.
“If you go back, we started off 12-13 in 2019, and then that’s when we went on our 18-game winning streak and won the league,” Rebandt said. “I don’t know what it is. Obviously, we’re just 0-1, so it’s not like we’re 2-8 or 1-9.”
Ethan Guerra picked up the first Pit Spitters hit of the 2024 campaign, a one-out single to left field in the top of the first inning. Guerra also swiped the Spitters’ first bag of the season, stealing second base on a 1-2 pitch to Brody Capps.
Capps worked the count full and then singled to right, but the inning ended when Guerra was thrown at at home.
The Battle Jacks got to the Pit Spitters’ Opening Day starter Aaron Forrest for three runs on four hits and three walks in two innings.
Alex Fernandes and Mason Hamlin led off the bottom of the first with back-to-back singles with Fernandes advancing to third on Hamlin’s base knock to right. Elijah Henning hit into a fielder’s choice to bring home Fernandes for the 1-0 lead.
The Pit Spitters tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the second when Trent Reed reached on an error and then moved into scoring position on a Matt Earley walk. Another error allowed Reed to score when first baseman G Smith couldn’t make the play on a Corey Berry grounder.
Aidan Arbogast led off the bottom of the second with a single to center, and Forrest walked Jacob Brown on five pitches to put the first two Battle Jacks aboard.
Forrest looked like he might escape the mini jam with strikeouts of Jaden Fulsher and Fernandes, but Hamlin walked on four straight out of the zone to load the bases. Henning then singled on a 1-2 pitch to score Arbogast and Brown to make it 3-1 in favor of Battle Creek.
Forrest got Schleichardt to strike out swinging to end the threat, but that would also be the end of Forrest’s day on the bump.
Seth Gurr came on in relief of Forrest and had a 1-2-3 third inning. Grant Lamarche then got some work on the mound, striking out the first two he saw in the bottom of the fourth before a Fernandes walk and a Hamlin single scored another run to push the Battle Creek lead to three at 4-1.
The score remained 4-1 until the top of the sixth when the Pit Spitters cut into the deficit against Battle Creek reliever Ethan Getting.
Brett Rozman led off the inning with a walk and then advanced to second on a single from Reed. After a Mike Long strikeout, Reed and Rozman flashed some speed and stole second and third on the first pitch to Earley. Earley then made it 4-2 with a sacrifice flyout to score Rozman.
The Battle Jacks extended their lead to 6-2 in the bottom of the seventh when Daniel Pruitt roped a 3-0 pitch into left field for a two-RBI double that chased Spitters reliever Sam Sethna from the game and brought in Jake Brown. Brown struck out two of the three batters he faced to end the inning.
Battle Creek tacked on an insurance run in the eighth when Fulsher led off with a walk and then scored three batters later on a wild pitch.
Justin Morgan came on to close out the game for Battle Jacks in the top of the ninth. He struck out Michael Tchavdarov on three pitches and then got Guerra and Mark Kattula to fly out to secure the 7-2 victory.
“What we stress is that tonight isn’t life or death. It is one game out of the quarter,” Rebandt said. “Whether we win or lose, there’s going to be some things we can take away from it to help us along. … We’re not pressing the panic button by any stretch.”
Kameron Haviland got the win for Battle Creek, going five innings and giving up just the one unearned run on three hits with three walks and four strikeouts. Forrest took the loss in his two innings of work, allowing three of the Pit Spitters’ 10 walks.
“Most of our arms commanded the fastball good enough, but the difference for us was that pretty much none of them — other than Gurr — could locate their offspeed stuff in the strike zone consistently,” Rebandt said. “If we’re not doing that, we’re not going to get the swings and misses on breaking-ball pitches out of the zone.”
The Pit Spitters look to bounce back from the Opening Day loss as Dylan Krause toes the rubber for Traverse City with an 11:05 a.m. first pitch back at MCCU Field on Tuesday.
Traverse City opens its home slate Wednesday when the Spitters welcome in the Kokomo Jackrabbits. First pitch is 7:05 p.m. at Turtle Creek Stadium.