Grand Ledge survives late Portland rally to advance in Diamond Classic

Grand Ledge saw its Diamond Classic title streak come to a close last season after falling to Portland in the quarterfinals in a down-to-the-wire loss.

The Comets got a little revenge in the 2023 quarterfinals Thursday night, holding off the Raiderss, 9-8, at Kircher/Municipal Park to advance to the Classic semifinals.

"It's a heck of a win, and the kids are buying in at the right time," Grand Ledge coach Grant Householder said. "They have a good mentality and I'm excited to see on the big stage what else these kids can do."

After giving up two runs in the first two innings, the Grand Ledge bats came alive in the bottom half of the second as the Comets scored seven, capped by a monster two-run home run from senior Caleb Estrada over the left field wall.

Estrada's homer was the first in the Diamond Classic this year. Juniors Carter Melnik and Andrew Deibal joined Estrada in leading the offense with a pair of RBIs each.

"(Portland) is a really good team and they've given us problems the past couple years," Estrada said. "It was nice to get them this year. We just had a better approach as a team that inning and when I came up I just got the pitch I was looking for and made good contact."

Grand Ledge added two insurance runs in the sixth inning that turned out to be crucial. In the top of the seventh, Estrada started to struggle, walking five batters and tossing three wild pitches that led to three Portland runs.

With runners on first and second and Portland's highest average hitter in junior Caden Thelen at the plate, Estrada rebounded to strike him out on three pitches to end the game.

"He's our three hitter and has three years of varsity experience, so I trusted him that he was going to come through for us," Householder said. "He's got six saves for us on the season, and we knew he was going to find a way and that's what he did."

Grand Ledge (16-12) will face St. Johns (14-5) in a Diamond Classic semifinal May 31 at Michigan State's McLane Stadium.

Contact Nathaniel Bott at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Nathaniel_Bott