Grand Rapids Baseball Learns from Early Mistakes, Goes on 6-Game Win Streak

Learning from your losses is key for any successful team, and few teams have been as successful as Grand Rapids baseball. Last year, they made their fourth consecutive state tournament and in doing so became the all-time leader in state tourney appearances with 22.

But the 2025 opening day turned out to be a reality check for this year’s Thunderhawks, where the team blew a 5-0 lead in the late innings of their game with Superior of Wisconsin, eventually falling 6-5. The T-Hawks did learn from the loss, however, with the squad rattling off six straight wins since and playing some of their best ball heading into the heart of their schedule.

“Coaches, they told us that, ‘that’s not our game,'” said senior captain Klous Jones. “We didn’t play our game that game and they came back, and ever since then we just kind of had a little problem and we didn’t want to lose.”

“It was eye-opening and we didn’t like it,” he added. “So ever since then, we’ve just been beating [other teams].”

“We just worked a lot on our bats, like we’d swing a lot every day and we’d work on just fundamentals like that,” said senior captain Caleb Gunderson. “Once we started scoring and getting the bats going, everything else was clicking from there. Defense has been solid and our pitching’s been really good.”

The reigning Section 7AAA champs will need all of that and maybe more to hoist the trophy once again. There is the added pressure of living up to past success, as well as the target they now have on their back because of it, but the Thunderhawks are viewing it all as a positive.

“I think it’s good pressure because it makes us play good, makes us play our game,” said Gunderson. “I feel like just the legacy that past players and teams have left behind, it just shows, like, how strong of a program we have up here, and I think it’s our job just to keep continuing that.”

“We’re the top dogs in the section and we’re going to try to keep it that way,” senior captain Sam Dick said with a grin. “But we all know that when we play our game, nobody’s going to beat us. So no, we don’t really talk about it much. We just go day by day, game by game. Just try to get a win every day.”

Grand Rapids will put their win streak on the line over the next week playing six games in seven days. That includes two against some of the best teams in the state: a ranked Class AAAA Minnetonka and the reigning Class AAA state champion Totino-Grace Eagles. They’ll end the stretch with a doubleheader in with Bemidji on Thursday, May 8th.